Fall Breeze

More good rain this weekend and after it a cool dry breeze that said very clearly fall is coming. That air felt great but are not quite ready to transition yet. We still have weeks of tomatoes, peppers and watermelon (solidly summer crops) coming to you.

IMG_6043IMG_6027Our other big transition is the loss of our summer crew. This solid group of high school and college kids have all gone to register for classes, begin pre-season practices or take a last week at the family camp. These kids are always focused and have an inspired work ethic as they keep up with the seasoned twenty somethings (or forty somethings) day to day and week to week during June, July and August. Beyond the obvious first job or summer job experience for these folks they are also doing something that is not so common by working with us -they are learning how to produce food. 100 years ago more than 40% of america was involved in agriculture, currently that number hovers around 2%. Most of these summer hands are women and in addition to learning the concepts behind growing food they are also learning the mechanics, quite literally. Many of them run our trucks, some of them run our tractors and all of them learn manual skills that in todays world they may never get anywhere else. We’ve had folks who are amazingly fast harvesters but had never held a screwdriver or turned a wrench before they arrived here. For most of them that is why they end up here, consciously or otherwise. There is a real hunger to see how the gears turn in a world where more and more is hidden from us by gigantic industry and small screens. In my 20 plus years on farms, few of these summer hand end up as farmers (they are sensible as well a smart) but all of them take away manual skills, an ability to work fast and a deep appreciation of what it takes to feed a little part of the world.

Late Fall Share

We still have shares in our late fall CSA. This is our “I don’t want to stop coming to the farm just yet” share. Here’s how it works… Every other Tuesday in November and December (including the Tuesdays before Thanksgiving and and Christmas) we will harvest fresh greens from our greenhouse along with carrots, cabbage, bok choi, chard and pair them up with storage crops like sweet potatoes, winter squash and beets to make a hearty share that will hold winter off. Like our yogurt, bread and cheese shares? You’ll be able to continue these during these months as well (sign-up for these will be in September). For more info and to sign-up click here.

Pork

We still have some whole and half hogs available but they are going fast…if you are thinking about filling your freezer with high quality local meat that was raised with care grab a form at pick-up or fill one out here and get it back to us.

What’s in the Share

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Asian Greens

Kale

Melon

Peppers

Broccoli

Scallions

Basil

What’s in Upic

Cherry Toms

Herbs

Flowers