Lettuce

Kale

Collards

Cabbages: Napa and green

Cucumbers

Zucchini

Summer Squash

Radishes

Pearl Onions

Beets

Parsley, basil, dill, cilantro, fava beans & green beans.

A day doesn't go by on the farm that I don't quote Amanda or Andy in my head.  They were both amazing farm managers of this place, and many of you had the pleasure of knowing them as your farmers.  I know them as great friends and mentors, and my early days here with them and Dan are still strong in my memory.  Bonds are forged in farm fields that become unexpectedly poignant one minute and utterly silly the next.  Farming is full of good times and bad, and I learned a lot about teamwork and weathering those times as a unit early on.  But lately, the two quotes running through my head are Andy, saying "This farm is a Fall farm" and Amanda, quoting a farmer friend, saying "Farming is 10% growing things and 90% fixing that what broke". 

We have so many spring pests and voracious weeds on the farm that it makes all of these first few weeks of harvest feel hard won; but come autumn, the balance settles in and the crops really shine.  The coming calm of winter is reflected in the abundance of a fully formed lovely head of cabbage, deep blue-green rows of kale and a harvest of heavy, sweet carrots.  In the initial weeks of the CSA, the impact of early spring crop losses are easy for me to track, when there isn't something like a glut of tomatoes to steal the show and soften the blow. From losing 1200 freshly transplanted kohlrabi seedlings in April to hungry deer, or bunnies, or both?, to an utterly unsuccessful battle with chipmunks, or mice, or both? in the greenhouse (so far, they've really enjoyed leek and lettuce seedlings and so many squash seeds), to the epic battle this farm undergoes annually against flea beetles (the insect critters responsible for the little holes in your bok choy, radish tops and collard greens), it's hard as a farmer to not be aware of the gaps in our harvest successes.  This time of year, with this kind of weather, I feel like I'm coaxing crops along, hoping for that magical sudden jump that plants can make from kind-of-growing to look-at-me gloriousness.  It's as if they're on the fence, not sure which side to land on, and I try to use all the good mojo I can (mainly irrigating and fertilizing) to coax them to the realm of harvestable vegetable.  And I'm finally feeling like we're on the upswing-the collards are reaching strong stems to the sun, beets are sizing up, carrots are weeded and growing, that I can almost sense the settling in for the long haul...  

The main events of the past week that had the "fixing what broke" quote running through my head were the breakdown of one of our walk-in coolers, and even more pressing, the inexplicable malfunctioning of our all-important irrigation pump at the Gateways fields.  Those fields are in an extra sunny and hot micro-climate, and consistently irrigating the onions, peppers, sweet potatoes and watermelons over there is the only way we're going to see those plants survive, much less produce.  The Superstars of the Week award goes to Dan and honorary farmer Ben Kelchlin for spending many hours in the evenings and on days off figuring out what exactly was going on and getting the whole system running and better than ever by the week's end.  It was touch and go for a while, and I had panicked visions of buying a new $800 pump.  But the combination of Dan and Ben's ingenuity, experience and skill combined with phone calls to a very helpful tech named Travis at Weymouth Honda (thank you, Travis!) saved the day and our crops.  I truly cannot overstate how much I appreciate the work they did to get us back on track.

These fields hold so many stories, and some of them are mine, shared with great farmers and co-workers.  Even when I'm thinking about the greener grass of Autumn, or fretting the unluckiness of multiple pieces of integral infrastructure breaking down on the same week, I'm cognizant of the lineage of the smart, thoughtful, good farmers I've known, here and elsewhere, and I smile.

Enjoy the harvest!

-Erinn, for the farm crew

Farmers Janelle, Stacey & Allison planting seedlings using our new transplanter.