The transition to fall seems like it has come early this year, cool nights and mornings, the leaves on the black walnuts are yellowing and the dogwoods are turning red. White globe turnips are gracing your boxes this week and greens are back on the market tables and will be in your boxes next week. Late summer/early fall means a lot of “cleaning up” around here. Out in the fields, cleaning means picking drip lines and landscape fabric, mowing down old crops, and turning them into the soil to get the field ready for their cover crops and winter rest. In the greenhouse, we are composting old plants and putting away the seedling trays that we won’t use again until spring. Up in the barn, we are putting garlic and onions up for storage and sweeping out the hay loft.
Wet, dry, wet, dry. The weather is never what you want it to be. So we’re irrigating like mad out on the farm. We were actually looking forward to some rain, but it never materialized, so we’re back to the pump. We’ve finally gotten the final plans for our pond. So it looks like the digging will actually happen in this century. What a process! Next season we’ll be irrigating out of the pond instead of the creek, no more worries about what’s happening up stream and no more dam building to get the water level deep enough for the in-take pipe (I’ll actually miss doing that). The pond water will be much less silty, making it easier for the pump filters to operate. We’re looking forward to quick swims before lunch as well.