Through the Fields We Go

This could be my favorite time of year. The workload changes into more harvesting, clean up, and sowing of cover crops, which are all steps taken towards getting the farm ready for the 'off' season. Parts of the farm get put to sleep for six months or more. The end is in sight. The reward for many months of very hard work and long days under the sun and in the rain is the harvest and distribution of great produce. We slowly regain control (to our eyes and minds) by mowing 4-foot tall amaranth and lambs quarter that laugh at us because they dropped 10,000 seeds, offspring we'll battle with next year. Now, though, it's mowed, chiseled, and replaced by our intentional communities of buckwheat, daikon radish, oats, and clover. Instead of having to actively manage, say, 10 acres of actively growing produce, it's reduced to 5 acres. Our perspective, our focus, narrows. We can sit back, walk around the farm, admire more of its beauty that we participate in sculpting. We feel thankful for the enhanced biodiversity that our diversified farm allows for. This and that said, throw in a tropical storm and a hurricane, dump 24 inches of rain on us in my favorite two months like way back in 2011, and I might feel differently. For now, though, I feel lucky, thankful, fortunate. I hope you are able to enjoy the farm when you pick up and pick your produce.