Clare Gardens Corner

With the changing of the seasons, things keep changing too on the farm. The leaves are beginning to change colors around here and the neighboring fields of corn and soybeans are being harvested. Although we were loving the sun and the temperatures it was starting to feel a little eerie – but with the mornings so chilly, there is still no frost in sight.  It will be nice to begin October with some seasonally appropriate weather, partly because this month’s harvest truly feels like fall. We’ve got celeriac, rutabaga, potatoes and leeks (among other goodies) – fall favorites around this farm.  

Another advantage of this nice long fall is that we can take our time a little bit more than usual to clean up the field – harvesting the remaining winter squash, roll up irrigation lines, cover sensitive crops, or putting away trellises. It’s this time of year where you can either be a little burned out or take the time to enjoy the October weather, sweater mornings with short sleeved afternoons and squash and root veggie soup to come in to at the end of the day. This week we continued to bulk harvest the winter squash, radicchio, and our celebrated sweet orange carrots. There is something funny to be harvesting the summer favorites like peppers and eggplant alongside the winter classics like rutabaga, celeriac, and butternut squash. It’s wonderful to have a time like this early October to relish in the meeting of the seasons.

Now as we wind down the season among migrating geese and sandhills, we are mindful to give thanks for the abundance of our harvest and look forward to the quiet ending of one season and beginning of another.