November News: Giving Thanks for Slowing Down
The changing of seasons is finally here.
This week we got our first real taste of Fall. Fitting since the Thanksgiving Holiday is fast approaching (don't forget to make room in your feast for some Durst Organic winter squash...). Temperatures have taken a noticeable drop, the winds seem a bit more chilling, and we got some rain!
Before the rain hit, we worked on getting our cover crops seeded, compost spread, and field work done. That included cultivating some trial cool weather vegetables, prepping fields for spring planting, and chopping the finished tomato crop. It was interesting to see the leftover tomatoes coloring the ground. Our asparagus fields also got mowed down, and the beds were hilled up while the plants go dormant until the spring, when they will sprout anew. Our alfalfa fields are also about to enter dormancy, which will last through the winter.
Our last harvest of the year, winter squash, is complete; now to find a place to store it all! We have acorn, spaghetti, kabocha, and butternut. Our packing house is "filled to the gills," as they say, the cooler is at capacity, and we even, very briefly, had some bins in our shop while we made more space elsewhere.
Speaking of space, it's now the time to be thinking about where everything will go next year. Our field planning takes some time, and oftentimes, unforeseen events lead us to change our well-mapped plans. This is a nice time of year to reflect on how the season went, things we would change come Spring, and new things we'd like to try. It's important for us to take time to contemplate the farm, remember who we are, where we want to head, and how we will get there -- hard things to think about when we're in the thick of it. Most things seem to work better when you unplug them for a while, and that rings true for humans, as well.
