Falling into Autumn
Posted: Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
With the gush of summer crop harvests now over, we’re able to catch our breath and catch you up on farm news!
Amid the mountains of tomatoes, pyramids of zucchini’s, bins of sweet corn and green beans, the “Buy Local” theme we’ve all been hearing about brought a film crew to the farm in August. Public schools and institutions in our local community are beginning to reach out to area farms, including ours. The film crew is producing a documentary about the Farm to School Program (which will air on World Report sometime this fall) and they came to hear about how such a relationship would affect our farm. Since the beginning, our mission has been to sell produce close to home, so we are thrilled with the opportunities to bring fresh vegetables to area children. Growing food for children, our future, is really quite an honor.
Then in September, Mat and the director of the Madison Area CSA Coalision, met with an area health insurance company regarding rebates to their members (the same rebates offered to many in the Madison area now). Again, we are excited to be involved in this arena as we believe growing food directly for farm members is the best way to receive good (directly from those who grow it) while ensuring that small sized family farms are able to survive and even thrive! As we grow our CSA membership, it puts less pressure on our need to sell items to other markets (wholesale, retails and farmers market). And this in turn allows us to farm during the season instead of being on the phone and computer trying to sell extra produce beyond the CSA needs. We’d hope to someday be fully supported through CSA memberships.
The fall crop harvests are now in full swing. The winter squash was harvested this week – a sure sign of autumn! Sweet potatoes are being dug, garlic planting area is being prepared, and the tasks of field clean up are on the priority lists.
What I love best about autumn on a vegetable farm is the startling contrast of our crops against the yellows and browns of the trees and field crops surrounding our farm. Where spring and early summer crops grew, the cover crops of winter rye and oats/peas now grow lush and green; the various blue hues of the broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages, leeks and celery root surprise those passing by. It is this time of the season that many people are taking a drive in the country, and they’re surprised by the striking beauty of what they can find growing at this time of the season. We hope you’ll be able to visit the farm during the CSA Pumpkin Pick in just a few weeks! – Cate
