November- The Season In Retrospect
As October ends, and the leaves surrender, Rich and I typically begin to reflect on the season. However, this November, the penultimate month of our Gregorian year, it's not time to look back yet. Despite the shortening days, the mild temperatures still have us picking peppers and dodging grasshoppers. Mosquitos too. None of us who feed off of the farm have finished our business.
But since the hunter's moon has passed and All Hallow's Eve just kicked off the season of festivities, let's have ourselves a retrospective. In retrospect, an el Niño growing season is not for the faint of heart. The monkey wrenches abound: unbridled rain storms which overstay their welcome, spontaneous and damaging winds which sound the alarm well beyond high tornado season, enough heat to make conditions unfit for humans, and smoke blown down from the Canada fires, delivered on the intensified jet stream. In a way it felt like we were playing in a game with no rules...a true free for all in the field, sportscasted by meteorologists who were drinking on the job. (In reality, given the erratic weather system and the federal budget cuts, staffing shortages and data collection gaps, what else could we expect from forecasting? Certainly that attempting to do a job without the proper tools could drive a person to drink). Three weeks into tomato season this year, the plants dropped their flowers, which made for a gap in tomato harvest. Due to monsoon conditions in the field, we had to wait to see which crops survived two different rain events, one in the spring, and one in the fall.
Not only did we have to wait to see what crops would need to be reseeded, but we had to wait for the soil to recover and dry out enough to replant. The effects of these situations are felt weeks later and are relived again when we have to explain ourselves to our market customers and wholesale accounts. This was the year we learned that there is just nowhere for so much water to go when it comes for days on end by the buckets. Out of twenty-something Saturday farmers markets in our season, there were about a third which saw pleasant weather conditions. The rest tested the vendors' nerves and their tents' resilience as we all waited to see who would brave the storms to come shop. Insects and disease both flourish in wet conditions, and so as the county was performing targeted mosquito spraying in particularly green areas and metroparks this fall resulting from the discovery of West Nile in the area, we were watching so many of our brassicas succumb to anaerobia. So much for the best laid plan of the biggest broccoli crop we've ever grown. Stocking it in our online shop was merely a tease for our regulars who saw it sell out in no time. The yields were simply poor.
But that's not the complete picture. And all of the tried and true marketgoers who showed up in rain gear for most of the season could tell you that. Our table still overflowed with vegetables. Our variety was vast. Despite the fact that we had loss in the field, our yields surprised us. I had settled for a second-rate season after major flooding in the spring. But the fire was lit underneath me when we packed for the first few markets with a bounty and I shifted back into full gear. Rich had kept the faith. Though beleagured by the extra fieldwork it took to get back in the game, steady Rich saw what I didn't...the land is clay. It is forgiving and flexible, it can dry out and as it cracks in agony you can add more water and bring it back to life. It works with you and you have myriad chances to begin again. Just ask my potter friends, The Daults, how hopeful a ball of clay is.
The media projected the threat of cyclospora and from one week to the next we were utterly inundated with folks seeking safe greens. Salmonella got a shout out next and people were clamoring for jalapeños. We sold our mega potato harvest faster than I could have believed and we now disappoint our late fall customers who wish we had capped our weekly potato sales to prolong to the availability. Our fellow vendors laughed incredulously at the line we saw every week until fresh produce was deemed safe by the almighty media once again and the panic dissolved. Those cyclospora markets served as the epic crescendoes of our weeks of field cultivation and harvest. Serving that many people at hyper speed for three hours at market left us gobsmacked...knackered...rendered comatose. But what an honor to be entrusted to feed people.
That's what makes a year in which we fought tooth and nail for a harvest rewarding. We're proud to grow food. In an everchanging world of manmade volatility and climactic variability, it's important for me to remember that farming has always been a pursuit of adaptation. That's what makes it a bottomless, intellectual way of life. Any of we wild ones who set out to make a living from the land are contractually obliged to face what comes. What will be will be. And God willing, the land will do what it has always done. If fed and watered and rested it will grow. And after we collect the harvest, it will repair. In years such as this, it will teach us just how much is out of our control. And if we listen well, a most eternal lesson is reinforced: life is happening now. We rise to the occasion day by day, each of which is replete with joyful and challenging moments alike. Such is the nature of life, and we lifeforms are here to make the most of it.
Updates from the Farm:
-Online Ordering Lives On: We are going to continue harvesting and baking through Thanksgiving and into December. We have veggies to come: peppers, the last tomatoes, salad mix, microgreens and shoots, radishes, turnips, kale, etc.
-Hens Are Laying :): We will begin to stock eggs in the shop. The hens are laying their first eggs and so the first few weeks' worth of eggs will be pullet eggs, a smaller egg hens lay for their first few cycles which are rich and absolutely delicious.
-Solarized: The solar installation project which Rich chipped away at throughout the season is complete. Phase one that is. We have installed enough panels to power the barn, coolers, and high tunnels. We are so grateful to have access to solar power! Phase two is investing in enough panels to power the farmhouse and our well. Rich is a phenom. We are lucky to have him.
-A Special Visit: The farm was selected as a demonstration site for a visit from the "Assistant Chief for the North" for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. We enjoyed a lovely visit on the farm and discussed the value of the High Tunnel Initiative which helped us to fund all three of our high tunnels which extend our growing season to provide food for our local community. We were encouraged by the emphasis the NRCS puts on supporting small farms and local growers. Within the USDA, they advocate for funding for small growers who are implementing conservation practices on their land. We discussed applying for another high tunnel initiative cost-share contract to install a fourth high tunnel in order to grow more as well as more leeway to rotate covercrops and field crops in the high tunnels. We'll throw our hat in the ring this cycle. Fingers crossed!
-What Worked and What Didn't: There were crops we grew this season which never came to fruition. We trialed celery and in our warm climate, it came out bitter and tough. We grew beautiful fingerling potatoes which were in the lowest lying bed in the potato field. They drowned :(. But rest assured, they will be in the rotation next year. The spring and fall spinach just didn't handle the warm and wet conditions this year. We missed it too! Back at it in the spring. We grew thai bird chili peppers and we must have gotten a bum packet of seed. The plants grew beautifully, but the peppers only grew to the size of popcorn kernels. We'll look elsewhere and try again on those ones. We hardly had any broccoli or cauliflower to show for our huge planting. It too suffered from the wet conditions and most was lost to disease. Our core crops handled the challenges well this year: salad, squash, peppers, tomatoes, carrots, beets, kale, and onions. If you noticed, we sold out of so much of our veg faster than usual...
-Planning to Meet Market Demand: We were truly overwhelmed by the market demand as it jumped up this year. There are just two of us farming at Foxhole, but within reason, we will plan to grow more to meet the demand at market. Midway through the season, we made the decision to hold produce back from wholesale accounts in order to provide it for our csa and market customers. We are going to head into the 2027 season with a similar plan of prioritizing our direct sales to customers at market. Any bumper or bulk will be sold to our wholesalers.
-Thanksgiving Preordering is Live: You can preorder pies, whipped cream, rolls, and bread for our Thanksgiving pick up the evening before the holiday from 4-6:30pm in the Oakwood Lot (22 Orchard Drive). If you want produce, I will list produce available for Thanksgiving pickup the week before. You can order then and I will combine your baked good and produce orders :).
Thank you for reading
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