Author: Angela Smith

Here we are, just three days away from the fall equinox. The leaves on the trees are starting to turn color. The yummy giant puffball mushrooms, which you can eat, are popping up in the woods, and the deer are out in full force. Every critter imaginable seems to be rushing to put on some fat as quickly as possible. Besides the gophers eating what they can, I think there may be a rogue bunny in the field eating all of the carrot tops. And for some reason, the squirrels appear to find the siding on our garage particularly delectable.

We have arrived at our last month of CSA and things are slowly starting to wind down on the farm. I have to wait longer and longer to get out into the field each day as the plants stay wet well into the morning and there just isn’t as much to do. No weeds are growing anymore. The grass hardly needs mowing. Now it is more of a waiting game to see when the fall crops will be ready for harvest. This year is the first year I’ve had to figure out fall succession plantings and how to seed crops well into the summer to ensure the availability of a wide variety of veggies in October. It has been a steep learning curve determining when to seed based on cooler temperatures and decreasing daylight hours. The jury is still out on how well I did, but I am taking copious notes to help guide me next year, and I will ask for your input again at the end of the season.\

Have you ever heard of the “Ugly Food Movement?” If you haven’t, it’s basically an attempt by people concerned about environmental sustainability and agricultural economics to recover and use some portion of the approximately 40% of food that is wasted in the United States each year. According to the article I linked to above, about 10 million pounds of that 40% consists of food that has some sort of cosmetic problem, meaning it has minor damage that might impact its appearance, but rarely its taste.

The first day of school is always a little bittersweet for me. This morning we took our usual “First Day of School” photo of Simon under the Japanese lilac tree in the front yard and then I shed a few tears as Erik drove him off to the bus stop and to the 8^th grade. Soon, things will be quieter around here than they have been in months, and while things won’t be nearly as entertaining as they have been, I will also relish some alone time. It will allow me a chance to catch up on some long-neglected farm paperwork and to start turning my attention more fully to fall tasks. I also have a stash of books and research articles about organic farming that I am looking forward to delving into. That’s one thing I enjoy about regenerative farming: there’s always something to learn and always someone to learn from.

Weeks 11 and 12 of the CSA season coincide with the kids’ last weeks of summer vacation and also with my annual (re-)realization that time flies by much too quickly. It is usually at this point in the year that I put the farm on the back burner for a couple of weeks, doing just enough to keep it running smoothly and spending most of my time with the boys. If I have done my job well up to this point, this usually works. All of the planning and planting and tending before now allows the family a little bit of a break. The kids – especially Simon – have been absolutely instrumental in helping me get the CSA up and running this year, and so we are going to take some time off to enjoy just being on the farm and being with each other.