Growingwildfarm

We here at the farm are enjoying the lovely warm weather this September has brought with it. There is no denying that some mornings and evenings have been cooler, but that feels refreshing even when we know it sends a different signal to the vegetables than the warmer nights of July and August do. As much as we really want our pastures to green up, especially before the goat buck comes to visit our ladies next month, we would be thrilled with a warm, warm, warm September and October.

We love seeing such lush growth going on in the fields for our winter crops, so different than when we plant them out in the spring and they go at it much slower while they wait for temperatures to warm. We can’t help but remember the stark contrast between main season harvesting and winter harvesting, how things we normally harvest from again and again and they just keep growing and growing are doing nothing of the sort come mid- December. Everything just sits until the next big change in the fields is flowering brassicas and the start of rapini harvesting begins in early spring. We are feeling some trepidation, but an equal amount of confidence.

One thing we know for sure is that just like the summer crops in the ground in spring, these plantings are just as mouth watering for the flavors they provide, for the shift in cooking methods and meals on the table. Cold weather broccoli and cauliflower, hearty cabbages, sweet frost kissed roots and cooking greens, special winter salads of crops that just are not feasible to grow in the summer but everyone loves—spinach and arugula—as well as more unusual greens such as chicory and endive! And this year, potatoes for the winter instead of the summer, hooray! Winter squash and leeks and garlic and onions….mmmm! I am really enjoying the last month of summer meals and these lusciuos summer vegetables, but we have a lot of tasty food to look forward to and the wonderful compression of the colder months, where our wide open soul expansion can be wrapped up for the year by the warm hug of hearth and home. The recipes this week are pure summer, and seeing as how that is almost gone (well, true summer is really gone), I thought I should include them as they make perfect use of the last of summer’s fruits. Gazpacho on one of these last warm days, ratatouille a sure sign of September for us, and before the last of the cucumbers are gone, Tzatziki. Well, these are just suggestions, anyways. Whatever you make with this weeks vegetables, savor it and let the flavors of summer shine on your table as brightly as they can before the shift becomes complete, and we are fully into the fall.

Beholden as we are to the weather here, rainy days can either be a blessing or a curse, or if it all comes around, a blessing in disguise. The farmer is in busy squirrel mode, really putting in 110% in the fields these days, feeling the end of summer rolling in like a dark cloud. Usually, there is a sense of anticipation for the coming change, the quieting down.  This year things have been far more balanced for us, no one has felt too busy to stand it anymore; and so this year, the farmer has the wish to just keep things going as they are. The worry about what winter will bring to the farm is far more concerning to him than the long work days, already growing shorter. Will the plantings in the ground now sustain us…all of us, through the “off” season?

As much as these thing weigh on my shoulders too, the brisk morning air is a welcome feeling. The image of rainy days, warm fires, and the more concentrated schedule of the fall and winter pull me in like a sweet dream. There is this year, a sense that we have made enough headway to keep the ball rolling, that there won’t be the inevitable set back of dividing our attentions in the fall and winter between side work and farm work, that we can keep all of our energy focused here, both the farmer on the farm and the mama on the home. It is a good feeling, and although it is rightly counterbalanced by the worry and planning and busyness, we are right where we want to be this year. After last winter’s wild weather, after late tomatoes and small carrots and onions pulled too soon, we know that only time will tell how things will unfold. Telling the future on the farm is a risky proposition, the vision we hold for the coming seasons only able to include the input from our end of the business arrangement we hold with the elements, unpredictable as they are.

This weekend, the rain brought everyone inside for more time than we are used to, but  with questions being put to us about what we will be doing this fall and winter, it was a good time to come together to finally decide these things. Ever since our children were born, we have chosen to live very simply, to try to just be with them while they are little and recognize that with patience, the things that we want to do for the world can be given more of our attention when they have grown. We are the epitome of the old adage, “slow and steady”. It has been hard, many times both for our pocketbooks and our pride to take things slow, but our reflections this weekend convinced us that all of this is right for us. For our family, this is working, and so, we will continue to go the course, knowing that our plans for this place are being realized one small step at a time.