Last week was truly lovely.  The temperatures were in the 80s but they were accompanied by cooling breezes, leading us to a wonderfully autumn weekend. Hopefully, the fall weather will stick around, as I know the farmers are looking forward to working in a bit more comfort.

Fall gives me the warm fuzzies, and with the Autumn Equinox happening on the Wednesday (Sept. 23) as well as the Stearns Farm Fall Festival on Saturday (Sept. 26), I’m really looking forward to the last few weeks of pick-ups.  The official fruit of the equinox is the apple, which works out perfectly with the start of the fruit share last week.  The bags from Autumn Hills Orchard were full of apples, and they are super tasty.  Sage is also associated with the equinox, so make sure to pick up some of that from the herb garden this week as well.

As some of you know, we’ve started giving out some fall crops. The delicata and the kabocha (pumpkin-looking) squash look and taste wonderful. We also pulled the acorn squash out of the field, finding them a temporary home in the greenhouse as they cure for a bit. We harvested some potatoes on Saturday so you’ll see those on the stand soon. It’s great to have fall marked by the different crops. Like seeing pumpkins at farm stands, eating seasonally has a definite impact on me.

We’re moving slowly toward putting the farm to bed and giving the soil a rest. As soon as we harvested the acorn squash, we prepared the melon and winter squash beds for spreading more cover crop. And one of our super volunteers, Rick, has started preparing a site for the second of our new sheds. You may notice that the back shed near the office has been taken down (I got to knock it down with the tractor, which was way more fun that it probably should have been).  Rick marked off the new shed’s footprint and moved the electrical lines.  The second shed will need to come down and the ground leveled before we get the new shed in October.

We’re looking forward to the garlic planting coming up in a few weeks, so look out for the call for helping hands.  As always, there’s plenty to do on the farm, so if you’d like to tick off some of your hours, we’d love to see you.

Keep smiling and see you in the fields!

—Seth (the guy who’s beard bristles in the autumn weather)