Cooling Off and Echoing Spring

01. The farm has had many different “looks” over the season. Now that the popping corn has been mowed down, the sunflowers reaching 12 feet high have fallen, the windbreak fences, and tomato plants starting to come out of the ground, and a switch to more root crops, the farm appears to be getting ready to bunker down for the season. Not to say the work is near done. The coming months will continue to bring more hard work in the field and improvements of building and structures as the farm continues its new and evolving look. 

—Seth, Farm Crew

02. With the temperature steadily dropping and rain coming more consistently, there’s a new lushness present on the farm. Our cover crop is coming in full in all the plots that we’ve sown, and the kale and radishes are loving the cooler temps. Even the soil seems to like it, staying cooler, not being baked underneath the sun, with life teeming closer to the surface. It’s been interesting seeing the results of the soil tests that Theo has run all across the farm, with high concentrations of organic matter and fungal activity in all the areas that we would have guessed. 

—Pierceson, Farm Crew

03. Fall on the farm feels like spring, in many ways.  In addition to the colder temperatures, we grow many of the same cool-weather crops, including radishes, turnips and peas.  We harvested our first daikon radishes of the season last week--large purple bulbs with no small amount of spice. 

The same colder temperatures that are welcomed by our radishes and peas will usher in the end for our high-season crops still out in the field.  Our tomato and peppers plants, for instance, will soon take the 50 degree nights as their cue to ripen the final fruit on their vines.

—Robin Hackett, Farm Manager