November-Take it from the Woolly Bears
I moseyed out of bed all too early this morning and ground coffee beans, the ones that Rich roasted for us last week. On Saturday mornings I rely on our caffeine ritual to spirit me through the motions and get me packed up for market. As the coffee percolated, I could feel eyes on me. Or perhaps it was just last night's left over creepy crawlies working their way out of my mind? All the imagery imprinted there while we trailed our little beggars through trick or treat were still fresh: Ghostbuster's, Dorothy's, the newfangled Kpop Demon Hunters...and the more discomforting Jason's. Alas, it was just Rye and Tom the barn cats, fully aware that I was up early and ready for their breakfast feeding (or is it considered their dinner time?). Our creatures of the night...riding out the last few hours until the sun reluctantly comes up. They only cuddle up on the sill together when the cold season comes along. No wonder, it's November first: body heat season.
Someone tell the tomatoes who are still fruiting. Tell the butterflies who I saw sluggishly levitating over the surviving zinnias last week. The trees always know and are absolutely radiating triumphant vermilion, terracotta and rust, ochre and green. We get it! You're the most beautiful girls at the fall ball. Driving through the tree-lined Oakwood neighborhoods on my way home from market today, I must say, the opulence of the foliage was distracting. My palate knows what season it is too, desirous of roasted veg and more luxurious cooking projects, warm beverages around the clock and maybe a pain au chocolat from Val's Bakery on my delivery route this week. It's full-fledged fall.
We make-believed it was summer for long enough. The peppers and tomatoes bought it and I will pick them for one more week. The tropical ginger was all dug last week as it doesn't like to flirt with the thirties. And now we can flip the summer lovin' on its head, put up veggies for the winter, clean up the field and high tunnels and finally get the siding on the growhouse Rich built just in time for spring. We haven't stopped for a breath since then. But that's precisely what the shorter days of November are good for. It's too dark to get an early start outside. We can sleep a bit more or we can take that breath we have been waiting to take since April and enjoy a morning read or a wrestle with Jack.
As always, once we catch our breath, we have time to assess where we are and forecast where we are going. Farming vegetables in Ohio is like that. There is a sort of forced retirement from the field when we rely on what we accumulated in the warm months and plan our next act...that of 2026. And speaking of forecast, what will this winter's story be? How long will we continue to harvest salad? And will the late-seeded spinach come to fruition before the real cold sets in? Considering the poor forecasting this past year, we might as well take it from the woolly bears. They say that the browner a woolly bear is, the milder the oncoming winter will be. A slinky all-brown woolly bear traversed the ginger canopy as I eased my digging fork into the soil to free the rhizomes from their beds. A drama-free, moderate off-season for us? "Not so fast" declared the cool, predominantly black bugger skedaddling across the washroom floor. Might as well be the black cat of winter wiht that ominous darkness. A third, confused little woolly shilly-shallied, half brown and half black. The woolly bears must be conspiring with the meteorologists to confuse us. Or maybe they're both struggling with the budget cuts at the National Weather Service...
We actually won't take it from anyone. We'll wait-and-see and adapt as the story of winter unfolds. Ours is a game of reactivity. It's gambling too. We'll take chances as they are given and walk through the doors that Mother Nature opens, knowing not whether its a trap door. You're guaranteed to win some and to lose some. And the wins are so sweet. Here's to cheering for the late season spinach and relenting when the day comes that we are waiting for our turn in the sun once again.
Updates from the Farm:
-Where to Get our Goods This Month:
Saturday, November 8th: Preorder online or shop from our booth on Maraluna's patio (2316 Far Hills Avenue in Oakwood) from 9-11am.
Saturday, November 15th: Preorder online or shop from our booth on Maraluna's patio from 9-11am.
Wednesday, November 26th: Pick up your Thanksgiving orders from us in the Oakwood Farmers Market parking lot from 4-6:30pm. We will offer pie preorders starting this week. Produce will be listed for Thanksgiving pick up the week before the holiday and an email reminder will go out to remind you to order.
-What to Expect On Our Menu This Winter: We feel lucky to have had an extensive fall season with this warmer weather. It looks like we will have a week or two more of peppers and tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. Going into winter, we are at the mercy of Mother Nature and sort of have to wait to see as we don't choose to use supplemental heat and light in our high tunnels. We had two major growth opportunities this year between the farmers market and another Dorothy Lane Market location opening. Therefore, we have less storage crops available than we expected going into winter as they got eaten up by you all! (thank you :)). Going into winter, we expect to have: Watermelon radish,Romanesco cauliflower, beets, carrots, cabbages, Long de nice squash, frozen and vacuum-sealed ginger, shoots and microgreens, as well as salad. Depending upon the severity of winter, we will be able to continue to harvest salad and maybe spinach too. I will continue to bake granola and weekly baked goods and Rich plans to bake bread on a more regular basis now. There will inevitably be a spell when we stop offering weekly ordering when we get shut down by weather and while we are waiting for the opportunity to get our first batch of transplants going in the high tunnels for early spring veggies.
-New Oven: Surprise! One of our two ovens died on us mid-bake a week ago. We wondered if it was a sign to stop baking for the business, but after a lengthy brainstorm, we decided we enjoy offering our bakes to you all. And let's be honest, I like to cook and process food and I would miss the second oven too much. We had a new oven installed this morning and look forward to baking you Thanksgiving pies, granola year-round, etc.
-Thanksgiving info: We'll be enjoying a family wedding the week before Thanksgiving. Therefore, we will have limited time for baking and have cut out rolls and bread for our Thanksgiving menu this year. I am offering my pumpkin pies and dutch apple pies + vanilla bean whipped cream. We'll also have produce on offer. As stated above, you won't order produce for Thanksgiving until the week before, when we know what we have to offer. Pick up for Thanksgiving is Wednesday November 26th from 4-6:30pm in the Oakwood Market parking lot.
-Maintenance: Rich spent the last few weeks addressing the prarie/pasture which occupies so much of the farm. We like this space to grow lush with life and to maintain it in place of herds of animals which would have once roamed the lands in a synergistic, intact-ecosystem way, he mows it high to add green matter to the hungry soil below, to discourage woody plants from shading out native flowers and grasses, etc. Many cultivated beds are being transitioned into cover crop or are simply holding space until next spring. As tomato varieties peter out, I'm pulling plants from the high tunnels, storing the trellising system and preparing the beds for their next rotation. We are working on our annual winterization of the farmhouse and field space. It's a whole thing which is productive, just not as glamorous or lucrative as our high harvest season.
Thank you for reading.
My writing is free for all to read. If you would like to support it you can do so below: