It’s really feeling like fall now, each day of the last few progressively more crisp. The leaves are really lighting up, especially the red maples that line the little creek and fill the swamp at the bottom of the hill. The last of the winter squashes are out of the field and stored in the greenhouse, a slight protection against the looming weekend chill. We picked all of the rest of the peppers before the coming hard frost, and tomatoes will come too after a few more precious hours on the vine. After this Monday and possibly the next, what’s left of this last summer harvest is slated for the smokehouse, the pickle barrel, and the freezer so you can look forward to seeing them return as ingredients in our handmade sausages.
The manure is out of the barn and piled up to make compost for next year’s vegetables. Not the most fun job, but I am reminded why I ever decided to keep cattle in the first place when I see that glorious mountain of manure, the promise of fertility and good harvests to come. We continue to plunge ahead into the long list of autumn tasks – there’s still corn to pick, cover crop to sow, pole beans to harvest, and many many roots to dig.
If anybody is interested in getting a taste of the joy that is fall on a New England farm, please let me know – we’d be grateful for volunteers! There’s really nothing like picking corn down in the back field on a cool autumn afternoon.
As you look over the vegetable list to order this week, note that we are still stubbornly hanging on to summer. This will change very quickly, and at this time of year, it can be hard to say exactly what will happen between Friday and Monday. Please bear with us and enjoy the whirlwind change of seasons in the garden. We’ll do our best to get you everything you order each week.
Finally, a quick survey. Now that the farmers markets are over, we are entertaining the idea of adding another day of shop hours at the barn, if enough people are interested. If we opened up the store on Saturday, would you definitely come and buy some groceries? Perhaps a different day? Just shoot me a quick email to let me know. Thanks!
Saturdays would be great!