A Musical Month

Pretty unbelievable to have such talent grace the walls of the high tunnel!

The chill in the air is undeniable now.  The V's of the flocks overhead are clearly headed in one direction, south and the eclipsed harvest moon has passed (wasn't that an amazing sight?)  We are well into the fall season and October is waiting to greet us tomorrow morning.   Please mark your calendars for Saturday October 24th 4pm potluck harvest meal/celebration here on the farm!  Please BYOB and a dish.   This is a family fun event here on the farm.  Traditionally we have celebrated the end of the season by sharing meals made from the bounty, fresh pressed apple cider, campfire sing-along (bring an instrument if you have one or a brave singing voice).  Kids are welcome to dress in their Halloween best :)

Art Stevenson and Highwater graced the farm for Craig's surprise 40th birthday party!

This month has been jam packed with awesomesauce (and some applesauce to boot).  We successfully pulled off a surprise 40th birthday for the master farmer which rocked on into the week hours of the morning, concluded with camping and fireworks of grand proportions!  In the morning Craig asked me in a tired voice "it was part of the surprise to pretend there was a crew coming this morning to help set up the 2nd high tunnel right?"  Wrong baby, and I guess I didn't think that through but you rocked it out anyway despite working through the festivities from the night before.  

Family fun bluegrass festival on the beautiful banks of the Mississippi? Yes please!

 The celebration continued last weekend when we attended the Boats and Bluegrass Festival in Winona.  If you haven't gone, you should but I suggest buying your tickets early because they always sell out!  This year I rocked the festival in a wheeled scooter given the non-walking cast on my hoof.  It wasn't a graceful weekend but I had a LOT of help from some marvelous people and entirely plan on dancing around that late night campfire sing-a-long next year and the next....  Anyone out there remember the Wayfarin Strangers from back in the 90's? (I age myself...) I do!  I remember their shows at Wally's House of Embers in the Dells during my late teen years and listened to that CD until the label wore off.  Well, I was graced by the presence of Jeff who was their stand up bass guy back then and he played the album around a late night festival fire and even tolerated my singing along.  You can't even plan moments like this in life.  I didn't even try to take a picture or video because I wouldn't do the memory justice I am sure. 

Kale, oh beautiful, ever faithful Kale how do I love thee?

 So I suppose you'd like to hear a little bit about what is happening here on the farm too!  We are approaching the end of the growing season and appropriately woke this morning to a bit of frost in the field.  This is actually a little later than normal for us out here but it is a big sign of the end of this season.  Some crops do tolerate a bit of frost quite well but some don't and so that requires some planning ahead.  This is what it looks like here at Vespertine Gardens:  come home from running kids to various activities, get them cleaned up, read to them, tuck them in for the night and then run outside and harvest what you can and cover up what you can't in the dark.  This will happen  few more times in the next month along with the plans for planting both floors of the high tunnels.  We still have a few chickens in the freezers here on the farm so if you haven't made arrangements to pick up yours yet please call Craig and make a plan.  This morning I woke with a slight tickle in my throat, a popping in my ears and an annoying headache.  I downed a cup of bone broth with cayenne and white pepper and feel quite a bit better already.  It cures what ails you seriously!   

squash in multitude

Tail End of Summer

Box 8 "El Jefe"
 

  Have you noticed that the hint of rust color in the forest has turned into splashes of reds, purples and magentas?  We are getting a taste of fall color and what goes better with that than a bountiful fall harvest?  This box is mostly from our farm with some accents from the Stevens Point Farmers Market (some tomatoes and all potatoes).  The first of the melons give this box some serious weight.  You may see a yellow or red watermelon or even a cantaloupe.  IF you are the one member with the only pie pumpkin please contact us, you have won a free chicken! 

Apples are coming!

  There is a component of our land that you don't usually see when you are blinded by the beauty of the bounty.  The health of the soil is not always considered when you are buying produce.  The corn in our box does not compare in nutrient density to the corn you buy at the grocery store shipped from another state or Mexico and this is especially true when you compare our corn which was grown organically to the corn grown conventionally of a GMO variety.  There really isn't any room for debate here they are NOT the same.  Our soil is very healthy and nutrient rich which means that the produce grown here is also.  Our practices contribute to the health of the soil year after year.  Doesn't it feel good to know that when you eat local, organically grown produce you are getting the absolute best quality and health out there?

our solar system, helping us and helping you

  Did you know that Vespertine Gardens is 100% run by the sun?  Our photovoltaic system that was installed last year by North Wind Renewable Energy gathers enough sunlight to cover our farm in total.  The extra energy is put into the grid which means that if you use electricity (just guessing everyone is raising their hands here) then you should know that our system is helping you too!  Want to learn more about solar in general?  We encourage you to learn more about the grid and what it means to use energy, where your energy comes from and how you can become an active participant in insisting that we use more renewable sources!  Here is a great article from Consumer Reports you should definitely read.

Even the flowers work for us here, they attract pollinators!

Let's Make Up

red and yellow onions waiting to go to their new homes

   I can sense it in the air, a slight sweetness with a hint of chill that makes the tips of my toes cool enough at night so they are pulled into the covers during most of my dreaming.  There is a golden hue settling into the forest and the soybean fields are brown patches waiting for the harvester to come through and give the last haircut of the season.  These things and more are signals to me that we are approaching fall, one my 4 favorite seasons.  Another signal is my father pulling out his bow and camouflage, maybe this year he will listen to my mother and bring home more does instead of the monster he has been tracking for a few years with his stealthy cameras which has been massively glorified by many a campfire story embellished by my brother.  This time of year a wave of reflection seems come to me again looking back on my life and ahead to my future.  Sometimes the entrepreneurial spirit in me is a curse more than a blessing and this year I am working to tame that voice that says "I can do that, I'll do that too" so that it instead whispers "This is enough and it is right where it all should be".
  OK OK, so maybe we are having a couple birthdays coming and that is the true reason for the poetic tone pouring out today.  I am going to be 38 next week and the farmer will be 40!  The American part of me is programmed to roll its eyes and act as though aging is actually suffering and a dreaded part of life but I should know better.  My years with hospice constantly remind me of this though the HUMAN part of me asks that I be more kind to myself and rejoice a bit in the gift of another year.  This fall I am working on healing from a 2nd surgery on the same foot which means I have a LOT of time on my hands and space in my mind to ponder all sorts of things while trying to ignore the itch to crawl across the floor and scrub that corner of all the grime (I'll clean better when I can walk).  I'm also hilariously spending time on Pinterest researching workouts that you can do with one leg-there are actually a lot out there!
So you are probably here to read more about what is going to be in today's make up box!  It was a very exciting day to decide that we actually had enough and then some of our OWN produce to make up the box that was postponed earlier in this wet season.

corn of the variation "FINALLY" :)

  Let's talk about corn.  "Knee high by the fourth of July" is a standard idea of where corn should be however we were planting our THIRD planting of corn when it was already supposed to be knee high.  Our first planting was growing amazingly ahead of schedule only to be drowned out.  The second planting followed the first planting so you can only imagine my excitement when I could see the browned corn silk from the kitchen window!  When it browns and dries it is a signal to the farmer that the corn is ready!  Sure you can buy corn at the grocery store year round, shipped from far away places and frozen in bags BUT you can never replace the taste of a fresh cob so I encourage you to think of the difference between the December corn and the corn you'll enjoy today.  You can eat it fresh without even cooking it, try it!
  Let's talk tomatoes, tomatoes and free range chickens...it happens every year and we haven't learned probably because we truly love that our hens are really freely ranging all over the farm.  SO, they know when the tomatoes are ripe before we do because they seek them out and eat them.  They rarely eat the entire glorious, heirloom, organic tomato but mostly a peck here and a peck there...which means that usually when they come ripe we don't have an abundance to share with members until the hens are put into their fall/winter home.  This is the time of year that we completely close off the flock from the farm and they move into their restored Girl Scouts cabin from camp Sacajawea; yet another signal of the changing seasons.

I love the art prints from Shavingkitvintage on ETSY

 Fennel!  This is an herb bulb that some of you will pull out of your box and say "what the heck is this?" but isn't it a beautiful work of art?  This plant has a flavor all its own, with tinges of anise.  The seeds are very flavorful and you've probably seen them inside of your Italian sausage.  Fennel also has some therapeutic properties and you can purchase the highest quality Fennel Essential Oil through me.  Fennel essential oil is steam distilled from the seeds and helps with nausea, colic, cramps, promotes milk supply for nursing mamas, relieves cough and calms flatulence :)

We are right back on track for the rest of the season.  Next week September 16th we will roll out box 8 as scheduled.  Please give us a call to make arrangements for the final chicken pick up and stay posted for harvest party plans for October!  Enjoy your fresh produce and thank you for supporting your local farm.

Middle Season

Peppers have made a massive comeback!

  We have reached the middle of the CSA season and are now coasting downward for boxes 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.  We are starting to see a different variety of crops make appearances now as well.  We like to think all vegetables are celebrity material but let's face it, we all have our favorites.  As the seasons ebb and flow, we see subtle clues that connect us deeper with our local environment.  Maybe the first heirloom tomatoes of the year make you go gaga as you whip up fresh salsa.  It could also be the smell of the oven roasted stuffed peppers on a cool night that signals you to this time of year.  Or maybe you put your baby on the bus for the first time and all three of your children are "big kids" now (I digress).  Whatever signals this part of the year for you I am sure there is something you can connect with.  We want to connect you closer with your food.  We live in an environment where we fully experience all 4 seasons and each season and each part of it has a specialness that you can feel and sometimes even taste.  Can you tell the difference between an early tomato shipped from Mexico when compared to a fresh, local heirloom?  That is a small example of what I am referring to.  Do you find yourself becoming more reflective, maybe turning in a little sooner and noticing the sun coming up later?  There is another example. 

Box day stations:  you can see the hens working hard at their clean-up duties

The second batch of meat birds have gone to butcher.  We lost 1/3 of them to predation.  That is a HUGE LOSS.  What in the world was feasting on our birds this summer?  2 main predators were caught in action:  Feral cats and Bald Eagles...yes, that's exactly what I said.  Please spay and neuter your cats folks, you may be making a huge impact on your small time local farmer.  You can't really do anything about the Eagles though, just watch their splendid flying tactics in amazement as they carry your dinner away.  Next batch will be raised a bit closer to the house which has a much better track record with loss to predation.

Creative ways to encourage your child's writing: get a cast

The foot saga continues for me, surgery #2 on the same dang foot.  This has 99% eliminated my work position on the farm except for my time blogging.  Less than a week out, I am sure this blog is partially seasoned with the after effects of anesthesia.   I am so grateful for our friends who devote time here to help us and for Craig's "sun up sun down" mentality and then some work ethic.  I hope to be back in the fields next season, hopefully barefoot. 
Yes, the kiddos are back to school this week.  It is a pretty pivotal moment when you watch your baby leave for school all day.  What people call "bittersweet" and we are again so happy to have a nearby local school run by amazing teachers who are there for all the right reasons and there is no definitive sign of them closing so if you have littles and are looking for a different public school experience you should really pop by and visit Vesper Community Academy. 
Thank you for your support, we couldn't farm without you!  We encourage you to spend a few moments and think about what cues you into a deeper connection with your food and your home environment.

Boys on the Tandem