Rock & Roll Farm

Sunday! Nov 21 2004 // 9:29 pm //

Season’s end

The signs of the change are everywhere now. The persimmons are ripe, the chickens are molting, the great oak in the north field is bare, and yesterday the Thanksgiving shares were distributed. A special share was offered at $60 for nearly 90 lbs. of produce, and 24 people stepped up. We’ve been talking about this distribution as a target for a few months now, and it’s hard to believe it’s happened.

During the week of the 15th, there was a great push to get all the potatoes out of the ground before they froze. It seemed like there was a perpetual “ten more rows” to be dug. Thank goodness for the digger we used on the large varietes (but nearly all the fingerlings were still dug by hand).

Last weekend I attended a CSA conference up in Tustin. I’ll write more about that (and the Bioneers!) tomorrow.

This week between discussing what would be in the share and how much, we worked on some winterizing projects. Tuesday morning we mulched the carrots. We unrolled giant straw bales like carpet over a few rows. These carrots will “overwinter” and be harvested in spring.

Soon we will mulch the parsnips and possibly the garlic. We still haven’t planted anything in the hoop houses. They’ve been tilled, but we have to water them and wait for the weeds to sprout before moving on.

The rye we sowed on the old squash fields looks like a lush carpet now. Sowing seeds has been one of my favorite activities so far on the farm. We used bag sowers, one of which still had an old price tag of $5.35. The whole time I walked slowly up and down the rows turning the crank I was grasping to remember the Parable of the Sower. I remembered it being one of my favorite bedtime stories as a child but I could not remember the whole thing. Looking at the biblical text, I think we must have had a storybook with an extended version or something because it was way more exciting.

There are only two interns left on the farm and I’m taking this week off to visit my family. When I return there are any number of projects to be started. We might begin repairs on the barn at the new property (more on this story soon), or if the lumber comes we will start construction of a few small timber frame cottages to be used as intern housing. I’m looking forward to having my own little cottage with woodstove and loft. The space heater in the pumphouse is effective, but a woodstove would be much better.

I got to try a Pawpaw this week. It was the best piece of fruit I’ve ever tasted in my life. I think we’re going to plant some. Fruit won’t come for 6 years, but I can wait.