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| 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 :)
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.
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.
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| 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!
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| squash in multitude |
