Preserving the Bounty

Feeling Like Fall

As farmers, we are fully-immersed in the seasonal rhythms. Usually the seasonal shifts are subtle and gradual, but this week we felt a significant shift into fall. No doubt about it, Fall is here!

This was especially clear to us on Monday when we were starting to go about our day in a typical way until we heard the weather forecast for possible frost. We immediately switched gears and started preparing by preemptively harvesting or covering our more sensitive crops. Thankfully we were able to protect the beans, bok choy and tokyo bekana that were slated for our CSA shares this week with row cover on Monday night and harvested them on Tuesday before the heavier frost. We harvested all of the winter squash and popcorn and brought it in to one of our greenhouses for curing. We were very grateful that the tomatoes and cucumbers were safely protected in the high tunnel. Many other crops in the field may not recover, although with warmer temps next week we may see some of the hardier things like broccoli and chard bounce back.

This shift into fall also signals that it's time to preserve our bounty and stock up for winter. We have a goal to preserve more food this winter and will be focusing on saving as much as we can in the next few weeks. This included harvesting wild rice last weekend! An annual tradition we started last year. We harvested 28 lbs of rice which will likely yield about 15 lbs. once processed. We're looking forward to enjoying the bounty this winter!