As I realized I started the previous posts with "where did (insert month) go?" I also found the last post was about August flying by and now it is November.  I'm guessing not much happened on the farm in September and October.  Truthfully, it rained. After writing about rain in most of the newsletters, I think we all just didn't feel the need to also blog about it.  However, last weekend we got snow, so we are back to blogging.  It all makes perfect sense right? 

The rain, particularly in September, wasn't exactly the weather we were looking for. Although we were very fortunate not to loose any crops flooded out by the rising creek as many other farmers had to deal with, the inundated fields made many plants quite unhappy.  The last plantings of beans, tomatoes, cantaloupes seemed to give up after that and while the turnips, carrots, broccoli, kale and other fall crops hung on, it definitely seemed to set them back. Due to the wet ground, we also missed a window to plant some additional fall season crops such as more lettuce and mesclun mix. Perhaps the biggest impact might be how the wet grounds delayed or eliminated the chance to seed fall cover crops in many of the fields.  Not only do they provide erosion control over the winter, but some such as hairy vetch also serve as a nitrogen source for next years crops.  These last few sunny, gorgeous fall days are  helping the sprouting rye and wheat, which grows at a suprisingly rapid rate for so late in the season.

Also growing at full speed are the winter greens in the greenhouses: spinach, lettuce mix, baby kale, tatsoi, baby chard, beets, mesclun mix and more are filling up the beds, building up reserves for the winter.  We are also busy harvesting the remaining fall crops: carrots, turnips, rutabagas, cabbages, etc before the snow flies again and this time doesn't melt the next day.  Although without snow, we resort to throwing the crops at each other so perhaps it is better to have a snowball fight than battle with precious turnips.

We will be having the FoodShed Grand Opening and Havest Fest this Sat. Nov 5th at the farm, which we hope everyone can stop by to check out the completed FoodShed building, tour the farm, have questions answered, and enjoy the music, art, as well as tasty food available for sale.  Helping with the csa share distribution and seeing all the members picking up their shares always serves to remind me of the bigger picture of where all the work at the farm is going. In the same way, We hope visiting the farm gives the members a chance to see not only where their food comes from, but the farm they sustain and make possible.

Happy November!