It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to update you on what’s happening around here at the farm and I apologize about that. We have felt a slow-down here in the recent week or two when it comes to harvest time. The damaging frost we had on Oct. 12th & 13th played a large roll in lessening the amount of product we have available to harvest and now of course the shorter days and cooler temperatures make for slower growth in our year-round crops and slows the ripening process of our remaining summer crops such as the peppers & tomatoes.

However, just because there are less crops in the field to harvest certainly does not mean the to-do list is any shorter. The tasks just shift with the season… The flower ladies are digging up and transplanting the perennial plants that get moved every two years and Emily has begun making her beautiful dried wreaths. The crew are still doing their weekly plantings and greenhouse sowings, the irrigation team (Esteban, Noe, & John) are still consistently needing to water (this rain helps them out a lot!), and Mike along with his tractor crew have been busy prepping ground and seeding the winter cover crop in time to be watered in with this first significant rainfall. They have also been prepping the strawberry beds for the fall planting of our strawberry crowns that will produce all those berries you will enjoy come next spring & summer!

Sarah & I had a great time harvesting the apples together this season and spent many lunch breaks picnicking in the orchard under the shade of the trees. We sadly had our final harvest this week (us pictured right returning with the last harvest and our reliable ladder) but as we were closing the fence to the orchard behind us for the last time in 2017 we began talking about how next July is just around the corner and we will soon be picking ‘Pristine’ & ‘Williams Pride’ apples once again. We will be doing our winter orchard pruning this January/February so it won’t be long before we find ourselves back up in the magical space of our orchard with the foxes, frogs, and birds!

The baby chicks are growing up so fast! They had their first play day outside the brooder this week and are quickly learning how to peck for insects and find themselves the receivers of a wide variety of delicious crops that come back from markets!

That’s all for now folks… until next week ~Casey