I’m writing this under the crabapple tree looking out at Penelope’s Garden on a glorious high seventy degree autumn day (Friday), having just finished a bowl of my first soup of the season (roasted butternut squash- this recipe, all farm veggies, of course). The farm crew and fields are thrilled to have gotten a good soaking rain, and today’s warm temps are great for the fields of cover crop and tender greens to get some good growth in. I hope you’ve been enjoying the abundance as much as I have— these past few weeks setting up the share Tuesdays and Fridays has brought me much joy seeing the bounty on full display, and seeing your overflowing bags and baskets makes a farmer happy.
Even though the harvests are still so abundant, the transition into fall is bringing more space to breathe and reflect—as it always has each season I’ve farmed. The crew is starting our workdays at eight now (an extra hour to sleep in!), and we’ve got a growing list of projects that sat on the backburner during the frenzy of the summer— fixing the handwashing sink (it drains properly now! thanks Rick.), harvesting herbs and flowers to dry for the winter share, giving the blueberries some love by pulling weeds, mowing, and replacing wooden posts for netting (thanks to Yevgenia, Sal, and Peter), at long last beginning to bulk pick and take down the tomatoes, and working on some exciting farm signage projects. Next week we’ll prep one of the high tunnels for planting greens for the winter share, and by the end of the week all of the tomato plants will be cut down and their trellis infrastructure removed— bittersweet, though they really had a good run! The warmer days and cooler evening temps have made for very happy greens— I’m delighted to be eating farm spinach again and I hope you are, too.
It’s a sweet time to soak up the remainder of the harvest season while looking ahead to the coming season of rest. I’ve been lucky to get the opportunity to seed all of the fall cover crops on the farm (some sections in oats and peas, most sections in rye, vetch, and crimson clover), and it’s nice to prep the fields for a time of rest, too.
I hope the start of fall is offering you some space to savor and reflect. I hope you get a chance to walk through the fields and see the lush greens and watch the cover crops grow. Mostly I hope you’ll get to enjoy lots of soup the remaining weeks of the share!
Hope to see many of you at our garlic planting on the 19th,
Hannah
