It’s November. (How did that happen?) The leeks are all harvested, the garlic has been planted (all 17,400 cloves), and we’re getting ready for winter. And while it’s always a little sad to see the growing season come to a close, this November comes as a bit of a relief, as it marks the end to a pretty tough year.
With all of the hot and wet weather, we saw some significant losses this season. Our edamame planting was lost to a pest that feeds on germinating bean seeds. We lost half of our first planting of peppers to heat stress, and had a curiously light eggplant harvest. The seemingly endless rain took a toll on our chard, beets and carrots. Diseased greens meant not enough chard, and very small beet and carrot roots. (Whereas last year we harvested nearly 4 large bulk bins of beets, this year we harvested only one, from the same amount of land.) Nearly all of our celeriac and winter rutabaga was lost to rot.
While some crops succumbed to the weather, others thrived. We had a great garlic crop, and an outstanding onion crop! We brought in 2,000 lbs of garlic and over 11,000 lbs of beautiful golden and red onions. Our carrot germination and weeding was spot-on, and (before the disease) it had never looked better. The raspberries were bountiful, and provided many weeks of picking. The diseased basil, forgotten about behind the hot peppers, returned from a diseasy August for a late-summer burst! We have peppers at the end of October! Despite some failure in our winter storage crops, the purple and white daikon are looking pretty stellar, and the butternut are still bountiful.
We also took some risks trialing new varieties. We tested out a few different potatoes, a new rainbow carrot mix, a new winter squash (the hazelnut-flavored Black Futsu), and a stunning purple Chinese cabbage, to name a few. Last year’s onion trial resulted in a sturdy storage onion that’s been holding well this year, and promises many more weeks of onion distribution into the winter CSA.
Perhaps one of the brightest and best parts of this challenging year has been the endless support we receive from all of you, our members and shareholders. We receive so much support, in the form of smiles, words of appreciation or encouragement, surprise deliveries of baked goods or pain relieving ointments, extra volunteer hours (in response to one of my desperate calls for hands), and a shared curiosity and interest in the work we do and the land we care for.
On a personal note, it always makes my day when you, our shareholders, ask questions (anything from why we didn’t have edamame this year to why the kale looks different) to learn more about your food and how its grown. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve felt uplifted working across from one of you during workshare hours -- how touched I’ve been by the stories you all have shared, by your generosity and kindness and diversity of perspectives in this PFP community.
Support is, in fact, one of the central cores of a CSA -- community supported agriculture. And so, as the close of the season draws near, we’d like to take a moment to express our gratitude for the bounty, for feeding us; for the losses, for teaching us how to grow and be stronger; for the winter, for providing rest and respite and the opportunity to reset; and to all of you, for sticking with us year after year, and allowing us to grow for and with you. Thank you.
