Hopefully you all had a wonderful long weekend! Ours was a full one, with feasting, friends, family, a volleyball tournament, our final downtown market, and a big weekend at the Strathcona market.
This week is bittersweet as we really feel the end of the growing season and also as we wrap up the farm boxes for the year. The paper in the photo below is the roll of stickers that was placed on the farm boxes last week, so somewhere in there is your name! That roll represents a lot to us - the community that is bound together by sharing in the the food we grow, your incredible and valued support of our farm for the past 15 weeks, the hard work that our team does to fill the orders on each label...the farm box is a really cool thing full of life, reciprocity, and meaningful economy.
The aurora borealis was spectacular this past week; we laid on the grass and enjoyed a spectacular show!
The moose have been giving us grief the past week and have taken it upon themselves to mow through cabbages, cauliflower, kale and strawberries. Below is their favourite kale with the center of each plant chomped off. We've put some fencing up, but don't have enough to surround all their favourite foods.
The photo below hardly looks like fall, but it is! The beds that you see in it are covered with nitrogen-fixing peas that will die in the winter, but in the meantime continue to do the good work of green, living plants in the soil. And of course, the clover in the pathways stays a vibrant green until the snow falls.
We've been enjoying watching this flock of rusty blackbirds that have been feeding on the remains of the corn in the field for a few weeks.
The garlic (above in the snow-fenced area) has been planted, irrigated fenced. The snow fencing traps snow which provides important insulation from fluctuating winter temperatures.
Some photos this week of us bringing the harvest in. Josie and I are harvesting herbs for drying. Jose Juan and Miguel are working on the parsnip harvest, Silas and James are shown working on it earlier in the week, and lastly James is wheeling the cabbages (rescued from the hungry moose) into the cooler where they will store very nicely. Behind him you can also see stacks of onions lined up along the wall.
Jose Juan, Juan Carlos and Miguel Angel are headed to Mexico on the 23rd of October. Our son Silas will be moving to Edmonton to begin framing houses. He wants to get his carpenters ticket through NAIT. I'll be cooking everyone a send off feast next week, and we'll celebrate the great season that we've had!
This week in the farm box we are offering large bags of some items so that you can stock up on produce if you'd like. For those of you that would like to purchase from us through the winter, we are at the Old Strathcona Farmers' Market all year long.
When you pick up your shares this week, say thanks to the businesses that have hosted us this year! We rely on their generosity for the pick up locations and couldn't do this without them!
Lastly, we want to remind you that Harvie is shutting down this winter, and we will be using a different software service next year. This means that we are not able to auto-renew you into our next season. We will, however, notify you first when our farm shares are open for sign up next February/March.
Please accept our heartfelt gratitude and wishes for a good winter.
Peace and blessings,
James, Jenny and crew
