Things have played out perfectly here this fall. We’ve had enough rainfall to bring up the cover crops and stabilize the hillsides with breaks in between that have allowed us to get the work done that we’ve needed to.
It’s often hard to tell when one “season” ends and the next begins, but for me it felt like we turned the corner this past week. We finished planting the last of our strawberries and, perhaps most tellingly, the greenhouse is starting to fill up again with transplants for next year. But more than any one physical task, I think it is a change in attitude that marks the beginning of a new season. It is the point at which the upcoming year appears as an exciting opportunity to make the changes you’ve been wanting to and to try new things.
Some of the changes we are hoping to make this coming season are to install a permanent, “hard-set” sprinkler system at our Lewis Road site, which will save a lot of water, reduce erosion, and eliminate the huge amount of labor that it takes to move around and set up the portable aluminum pipes that we currently use. We are also hoping to get a European “spader” implement to use for incorporating the cover crops here at our home ranch. While these implements move through the field much slower that the disc-harrow that we currently use, they require fewer passes and do a much better job of evenly incorporating the residue throughout the top 12 inches or so of soil.
With a stretch of wet weather forecast ahead, we’ll have more time to pour through seed catalogs, go to organic farming conferences and get re-inspired on how to run our farm.
Remember that after this week there will be no deliveries until January 6 and 7th. We wish you all a very happy holiday season and an inspired and hopeful new year!
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