Harvesting squash in the autumn sunlight!
Here’s to pumpkins, here’s to fall, and here’s to curling up in front of a fire with your sweetie, drinking hot drinks and watching the rain squall. That’s my plan, as soon as it starts to rain that is. We just planted cover crop this morning, and our irrigation water from the NID ditch turned off last week for the winter. So now we are waiting patiently for the rain, waiting for it to wake up all those little bean, vetch, and rye seeds. For now they are cloaked under a layer of rich soil, and hopefully the birds won’t find them as it’s likely to be another week of dry, 80 degree weather.
Thus is the farmers lament, it’s dry when you want it to rain, and wet when you want it to be dry. And you just really have no control over it. Over the last five years of farming in earnest, one lesson that’s hit me over the head over and over again is non-attachment. Farming is the ultimate test in faith. You do everything you can do, and then hope for the best. Sometimes, a huge hail storm comes in June and takes down all your tomato plants. Sometimes a foreign pest sneaks into your field and eats all your seed potatoes just a week after you’ve planted them.
I’ve seen an evolution time and time again, of a first-year farmer falling to pieces over things like this to three years into it realizing that you just can’t let it faze you. This has been my journey, and I’m finally coming to realize that no matter what the circumstances, something is going to go wrong, and something is going to surprise you with its success. Of course, life is like this, and of course there are a million analogies one could make to practice this age-old wisdom of the buddhists. But it really is the key to success and happiness. I know it. Because when I think back on all those times of hardship or pain, it was because my expectations were firmly cemented into my head. When expectation is fluid, joy can find you in the most unusual of places.
much love and autumn sunshine,
Willow
anticipated harvest:
- carrots
- lettuce
- boc choi
- tatsoi/turnips
- sunshine kabocha winter squash
- basil
- summer squash
- kale/chard/collards
- shallots
- garlic
the last of the tomatoes/peppers/eggplant/cucumbers
The shallots are still green (they still have the green tops on them) and make for a delicious salad dressing. Just throw the shallot greens in a blender or food processor with some olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a little salt and puree. You get a delicious, creamy, green-goddess-like dressing.
The Kabocha squash is one of my all-time favorites. Just cut up, scoop out the seeds and bake in the oven for about an hour. You get a delicious, sweet, dry-textured squash, much like a chestnut. I like to just eat them plain, but with a little butter they are divine!
