Thursday, October 13, 2011

Garden to Bed and Seeking Feedback

This past weekend of glorious, sunny days helped dry out the fields enough to get the tiller in, and so: goodnight, garden! Most everything has been cleared out, composted, and seeded in winter rye to tide over for next year. Next step is planting and mulching in garlic (four new varieties plus elephant garlic and a shareable seed stock of Green Peak Farm's HOME garlic!) and dismembering the hoophouse for the year, though I am still reluctant to say goodbye to the tomatoes, peppers and basil mellowing out under plastic.


Left in the garden is still a good spread of veggies, happily thriving in the cooler season: daikon, large storage radish, turnips (one of my new favorites, bright and tiny, crisp marbles of sweetness,) mustard greens, some beets, kale, of course, romanesca cauliflower, broc, radish, parsley and cilantro. We'll see how long they last under reemay; it's hard to believe it's mid-October already.


Just in case you haven't gotten around to the end of year CSA survey, here is the link again. As always, I deeply appreciate member feedback, and hope to impress the importance of your opinion on how the shares happen. Your CSA share is and should be custom-tailored to what works for you and what works for the farm, so please do speak up! Thank you!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFFtRTc0QnJRdXJ0cGNyaGdjTjBaN3c6MQ


It has been a beautiful fall in Vermont, and no one says it quite so well as Robert Frost...


Unharvested

A scent of ripeness from over a wall.
And come to leave the routine road
And look for what had made me stall,
There sure enough was an apple tree
That had eased itself of its summer load,
And of all but its trivial foliage free,
Now breathed as light as a lady's fan.
For there had been an apple fall
As complete as the apple had given man.
The ground was one circle of solid red.

May something always go unharvested!
May much stay out of our stated plan,
Apples or something forgotten and left,
So smelling their sweetness would be no theft.