When I am leading a farm tour and start talking about the seasons on the farm, I always tell the kids, “spring is for planting, summer is for growing, fall is for harvesting, and winter is for sleeping”. Obviously this is a very simplified version of the seasons on the farm, and all of those activities are happening year-round, but I think it helps to have a basic idea to go on when introducing the CSA model to young’uns.
Right now we are heading into the “sleeping” season on the farm. It is very clear when you look at our garden and fields that we will be hibernating very soon. With the last few farm tours of the season we have been planting fava beans–which are a cover crop–to hold the soil in place and return nitrogen to the beds which is used by other crops during the growing seasons.
We are also prepping our strawberry field which is a quintessential late fall activity. This means a lot of grumbling and wrestling with T tape and plastic on our end to insure that the berries are nestled safely in the ground before winter comes. We are very grateful to the farm for their help with this difficult task.
As we move into the winter, our search for a new Program Assistant will begin as Peter moves into the Coordinator role, and Grace moves on to travel and explore the world!
If you are interested in applying for this position, please see the “Farm Feats” post by Jessica!