2020 Wasn’t All Bad (on the Farm)!

I have to confess, most years I don’t blog as much as I want to in the summer because I’m too tired to write. But this year, it was more like I was too down to write, and I didn’t want to take that down-ness out into the world (because in 2020, who needs more of that?).

But I wrote, just keeping the less happy pieces off line, and I’ve been working on pulling them into something more like a look back onto the season. It feels easier to do, after this first round of frosts, when the fields are a little bit quieter, but I’m also a little bit more relaxed and able to breath—the brilliant sun that seems to never quit shining this year (a rarity here!) lightening up the softly turning leaves.

But now that it’s fall, it’s time for a big ole blog dump, starting with the sunshine times, because as in all moments, there were bright spots and joy on the farm…

We kicked off this year with a mid-May snowfall (remember that? Because I sure didn’t until I was looking through my pictures last week!)… Fortunately all those crop covers worked to keep the veggies alive and happy for early CSA shares and markets. And the early season wouldn’t be complete without a mask (or fifty)… the silver lining to making all the masks for our team was to remind me how much I enjoy sewing, and to inspire me to start sewing more farm schwag for next year!

Every year on the farm, more nature seems to pour in, for better or worse sometimes (I’d like to take a hard past on some of the pesky critters!). From rampaging foxes to hard working assassin beetles (good bugs that hunt and kill some of the veggie pests), there was plenty of wildlife to go around (and feed the next generations of bug hunters)!

Per usual up here along the escarpment, Mother Nature put on quite a show in the sky as well! Hands down, this was the sunniest, most pleasant to farm in summer we’ve ever had up here, and despite a shortage of rain, the pond held up well!

No year is complete without a great team, and Brooke, Rachel, and Angela helped us hold down the fort. Beulah was mostly along for comic relief and occasional majestic photo shoots.

But even in this crazy year, the vegetables are at the front of our minds… getting all the deliciousness we can from the fields out to folks’ bellies…

And we planted extra onions, potatoes, beets, carrots, and cabbage for the fall to keep the local food going longer!

And every season farming occurs as one piece in a longer term vision/picture of the farm… even as we harvest this year’s crops, we are working to make the farm more vibrant and healthy and functioning next year, no matter what the end of 2020 or 2021 brings us all! From soil testing and cover cropping, to building new sheds and trialing weed smothering tarps and tons of new varieties, there’s always something exciting going on at the farm!