It’s sometimes difficult figuring out what to wear these days. Long pants or shorts, long sleeves or short, rubber boats or sandals, sweatshirt or no, at times it seems like you have to have them all ready, the temperatures change so quickly as a cloud blocks out the sun or a cold wind sweeps down from the mountains. Fall brings so many changes and we’re sometimes not completely ready for them.
The rain over the weekend helped get the cover crops really growing well. All the fields have some form of green getting a little taller in them. There are still a few more areas that we hope to mow, cover crop, and disc next week. On Monday the crew spent some time under sowing cover crop seeds in beds that still have crops in them. Once the crops are either harvested or the frost kills them the cover crop plants will have the light and space to keep growing with having to mow and disc areas that will be in production later into the Fall.
It looks like Wednesday and Thursday will be spent cleaning and harvesting the sorghum. On Monday we’ll take it over to a friend’s farm near Marshall and process it into sweat syrup! The process is a bit grueling. We start grinding the canes with the help of a huge draft horse powering the mill. The grinding will take 4-5 hours. We should have about 90 gallons of juice which gets poured into a 6′ by 2′ pan. We build a fire under it and boil it down, skimming the cellulose off as it boils. The boils takes 6-7 hours. Then the finished syrup needs to cool and get bottled. It’s a heck of a lot of work, but it’s fun to work with the horses and be on another farm for the day. There’s not much better on biscuits or cornbread or in your morning oatmeal than sorghum molassas!
Nick’s Corner
Last week we welcomed the first official day of Fall. With this welcoming also comes a goodbye to summer and much of the warm weather that was such a pressing force of this season. The rains of this past weekend have, we hope, brought in the cooler weather. The days have definitely grown shorter. So much so that harvest days may soon have to start later so that it will be light. We have said goodbye to the tomatoes in our high tunnel. Monday was passed under shelter from the rain in the high tunnel tearing out tomato vines that were once straight and uniform like soldiers. Upon their removal the scene was closer to that of a jungle. Tomatoes growing all over the tunnel, garden spiders inhabiting spaces between the vines and the tunnel structure, and the urgent thought that a machete might be of use to get from one end of the tunnel to the next. Nevertheless, the tunnel now looks nothing like a jungle but instead like an airplane hanger or something of the sort.
One of the nice things about shorter days is the fact that almost everyday we are witnesses to wonderful sunrises. The light in the fall for some reason is quite enjoyable. Long shadows cast by objects and light that accentuate the vibrancy of fall colors. The same is true with the changing of vegetables that are coming off the farm. Enjoying a hot bowl of potato leek soup, or a sweet piece of winter squash and with a side of delicious greens. Fall is a comforting time I think. A time where you can actually cozy up in a blanket instead of tossing it to the side like you would in the summer. So I say to you all, welcome fall, welcome.