The arrival of each season is generally greeted warmly by these farmers. Each one offers its own excitement and treasures and downfalls. With Autumn’s official arrival, I celebrate the cooler, clear days being able to work outside and fully enjoy the temperature! The fall sun feels so good!
One of the special attributes that makes the Fall transition exciting is the promise of shorter days, longer periods of rest and some calm on the farm as the fields empty out of our treasured summer and storage veggies and the livestock we have been rotating on pasture all summer. A bit of a sigh of relief comes over you, almost indicating, “We made it!”
Now the field season is not yet over, far from it, but with each day it seems some chapter is closing and only a few new ones are opening. It becomes clear that the relentless push of the field season is almost over, making it somehow easier to stop a bit more often, look around and soak up the beauty and goodness of this warm, abundant, lush season, for soon it will be gone. Soon the crop fields will be put to bed and the pigs, turkeys, chickens and goats only have a limited number of weeks before their pasture season ends.
On this Autumnal equinox, we dug gorgeous sweet potatoes from the hoophouse and began transitioning the tomato house towards winter greens. Some goodbyes to summer favorites of tomatoes, cukes, zucchini & peppers but having tucked hundreds of pounds of sweet potatoes into their curing spot for enjoyment as the weather gets colder.