We'd like to mention, our dear friend and intern Jennae Mollenkamp is planning to start her own flower farm in Topeka, KS! She is headed out after Thanksgiving - but I'm sure we will still see her around some! Jennae has the best laugh! We are sad to see her go, but excited for her future plans! If you are a Tuesday farm CSA pickup share- be sure to wish her well!
We've been treated to a delightful fall, with warm sunny days, and cool nights, but it looks like it's time to get serious about freeze protection. We've spent the week harvesting tons of cabbage, broccoli, daikon, kohlrabi, and carrots, to be ready for next week's deep freeze temperatures, and get some of these crops out of harm's way, in our cooler.
There's a finality to harvest this time of year; these crops will not be replace soon with new plantings, as has been the case all spring, summer, and fall up to this point; at this point, most of the crops we are harvesting are the final crop of the year, and the soil will recieve a protective blanket of leaves, compost, or a tarp, to keep it in good shape until spring. The dead stalks of sunflowers, celosia, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are gradually degrading, while the undersown cover crops below them are creeping across the ground, in a race to cover the soil before big winter rains. We love the slower pace and reset that this time of year allows, and there is excitement about winter travel opportunities, but of course there is also a little sorrow for the loss of these beautiful plants we've nurtured through the months of warm weather. That's farming in a nutshell; the cycle of the seasons, from lush growth to winter stasis, and then back again, with the farmers helping move the players on and off stage, each in their moment and in the right context. What an amazing world! What a joy to be your farmers in the midst of all this!
We're still accepting leaves and grass yardwaste in our compost piles, and are open for drop off daylight to dusk 7 days a week; simply follow the signs to locate the piles, and please take your plastic bags with you. The pigs and the earthworms thank you ;-)
Thank you again for trusting us to feed your family.
Curtis and the crew.
