FARMER’S LOG
THE SEASON OF DEATH
Rise and fall. Light and shadow. Summer and Winter. Life and death.
Halloween is an extremely important time of year on the farm. It is the season of Death.
The roots of our Halloween lay in the ancient Gaelic Samhain festival. The Samhain festival marked the end of the harvest season (it means "summer’s end”) and the transition into the darkest half of the year. It was the time when shepherds brought their livestock, fattened on summer mountain pastures, back down for the winter for shelter or for slaughter. There were feasts. People opened their burial mounds (portals to the underworld) and lit cleansing bonfires. The borders between the worlds were thought to thin around Samhain and supernatural spirits and the spirits of ancestors were thought to walk amongst us. The spirits were to be appeased to survive the winter. Tables were set for them at the Samhain dinner. People wore costumes to disguise themselves from evil spirits and placed candles in carved turnips (in lieu of pumpkins) to frighten them off.
You can feel the Samhain in every nook and cranny on the farm these days — especially after this week’s frosts. How different the farm looks now from Spring’s jubilant green promise and Summer’s colorful cacophony! The life cycles of the plants that showered us with riches all Summer are now at an end. Their bodies hang drawn, gaunt and ghostly on their trellises or shriveled, mildewed, and desiccated in the rows, awaiting the final stab of killing frost or the furious whir of the flail mower.
The portal is open.
This week, with our major harvests nearly complete, we started in on the liminal work of the Samhain and mowed and spaded under large sections of Centerfield, transitioning our summer corn, pepper, and soft squash plants the Underworld, where they are now being devoured by worms and bugs. Those fields are now bleak and barren.
Great pregnant silences. Open portals
Beginning next week, we will broadcast cover crop seeds all over these fields. We will walk back and forth, processionally, ritually, tossing bell beans, peas, vetch, and grass seeds — little prayers — into the void.
The rising sun will welcome those seeds and good earth smells will loft up from the ground as it warms. Later on in the day, we will harrow those seeds under, the little old tiller we use to “kiss” the seed into the ground will whir like a little demon.
One can only marvel at the wisdom of ancient agrarian festivals, born from bone-deep relationship to the cycles of nature: How directly Death was confronted.
Those people knew.
They knew that from death comes life. They knew that death and life were only thinly separated. They knew that the rotting, decaying, destructive forces were the building blocks and the gateways from which life would spring forth anew in the Spring. They knew that the portals, the crossroads, needed to be tended.
This Halloween, while you’re out there gleaning the last of summer’s fruit, we invite you to cherish the ghoulish sight of the dying cherry tomatoes, sagging limply, skeletal, and vacant; and the blocks of bare ground — portals, awaiting cover crop seed.
Because death is just a doorway. And on the other side are verdant Spring fields, strawberry scented breezes, plump sugar snap peas, and bouquet after bouquet of Spring flowers.
See you in the fields,
David & Kayta
THIS WEEK’S HARVEST
Fancy Fall Salad Mix (with Arugula, Mustard Greens, Frisee and Radicchio), Little Gem Lettuces, Collard Greens, Purple Bok Choi, Scallions, Celery, Fennel, Cauliflower, Watermelon Radishes, Multicolored Beets, Sunrise Carrots, Fingerling Potatoes, Bridger Yellow Onions, Bonbon Buttercup Winter Squash, Lorz Italian Softneck Garlic
U-pICK
Romano Beans: The frost nipped these plants but there are still gleanings
Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkins: 🌟 Just take them! Saturday folks, please take another pumpkin or two for your Halloween festivities!
Albion Strawberries: Gleanings
Cherry Tomatoes, Frying & Hot Peppers: Gleanings (last week)
Herbs: Thyme, Oregano, Marjoram, Tarragon, Onion Chives, Garlic Chives, Culinary Lavender, Culinary Sage, French Sorrel, Various Mints
HARVEST NOTES
Bonbon Buttercup Winter Squash: A cute little buttercup variety with a light green belly button. Thick orange, bread-like, sweet, floral tasting flesh. We cooked up our first of the year a few nights ago and it was excellent. To roast, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, and roast cut side down at 400 degrees until you can poke a fork through the skin and the flesh is soft and creamy. Add dashes of water to the baking sheet while roasting to keep squash moist. Eat straight out of the shell with a spoon or use like you would any sweet winter squash (soups, stews, curries, pies, etc.).
Watermelon Radishes: This is a hardy, dense, and gorgeous winter radish with a vivid magenta inner core. We love it on top of a green salads, rice bowls or highlighted as a small salad of its own — try ginger, garlic and lime or lemon juice on julienned or sliced watermelon radishes as a bright side dish.
FINAL TOMATO AND PEPPER GLEANINGS
We’d like to invite any and all to perform final gleanings on our Cherry Tomatoes, Shishito and Padrón frying peppers, Jalapeños and Hot Peppers. Time permitting, we will begin ripping all of these plants out as soon as this coming Wednesday.
LOGISTICS
Our 2022 harvest season runs until the first week of December. The last Saturday pickup will be December 3rd, and the last Tuesday pick-up of the year will be December, 6th.
Saturday pick-up runs from 9:00am - 2:00pm
Tuesday pick-up runs from 1:00 pm - 6:00 pm
As always the farm and u-picking are open 7-days a week, sunrise to sunset.
FALL CARROT HARVEST CONTINUES this WEDNESDAY | 9 am - 1pm
Thanks to everyone who helped us out this last Wednesday. Join us again this coming Wednesday morning for part two of our great 2022 Fall Carrot Harvest, wherein we kneel on the soft dirt and top carrots into bags and chat!
These Bolero Carrots, sweetened by these recent frosts, will get sweeter and sweeter in storage and nourish us all through the Fall and winter. Join us for this fun, kid friendly harvest!
