Another week at the farm, and although things are beginning to slow down I am realizing that I am slowing down at a faster rate and therefore it feels like things are speeding up. Funny how that works. This weekend has been a landmark one for the entire season. On a peaceful Sunday afternoon in October of 2015 I had met with a young adventurous couple that pioneered the idea of having their wedding on our farm. They had been longtime customers, CSA members, and even housemates and landlords to several of our best stand employees. At the time we had only a ratified contract and settlement on the farm wasn’t scheduled until December, however Adam and Emily were determined to locate a non-conventional venue for their wedding that symbolized their commitment to the planet and to each other. Our farm, albeit a bit rough around the edges and not your classic event venue, has a certain charm and authenticity and grit, and a blank canvas appeal for the creative and courageous party planner. The wedding is scheduled for this evening and I can’t wait to celebrate in the festivities and relish in the significance of the moment. I wish them the best of luck tonight and always.
In other news at the farm, this week in addition to cleaning up around the event area and picking our quota of tomatoes, sunflowers, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and okra. Also harvesting a nice crop of spinach, arugula, kale, a mesclun and stir fry mix. We have been cleaning up the spent beds, direct seeding, mowing, cover cropping, laying fresh plastic and setting up irrigation. We are needing to look ahead to next season in which we are reorganizing and streamlining our beds and rotation into nice long, fluent six hundred foot rows. It should be a huge improvement to this seasons short and choppy two hundred foot ones.
On a gorgeous Monday evening, Anne and I surveyed the progress from atop my jeep with a couple of cold ones as the tractor and crew painted stripes of reflecting sky across the landscape underlining the horizon. These stripes are rows of plastic with drip tape laid underneath for irrigation. We have been prepping an acre for the strawberry plants which we are planting on Sunday. From the highest point on the farm, we toast the bride and groom, and pat ourselves on the back for making it this far, and soak in the serenity which surrounds us. Have a great week everybody.