We think of the cooler months being a quieter, slower time. That was not the case last week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were spent trying to get as much done as possible before it rained. Thursday and Friday (especially Thursday when it was raining hard) were all about getting the harvest done as quickly as possible so folks could get home and get out of the rain and mud.
Amid all the rush and bustle, I did get a few pictures to capture some of that activity:
Paul planting winter cover crop seed after the sun dipped below the hills in the field that was the Hoes Down sudan grass maze. That’s why tractors have headlights! The grain drill was in almost constant use last week getting this very important crop planted. Learn more about cover crops and why we plant them here.
We also transplanted onions and a few more strawberries, some trial varieties from our local UC Cooperative Extension Advisor. Plus lots of flowers – lots of bulbs and corms. Most of the ranunculus and anemones were planted but we’ve got thousands more tulip bulbs to plant once it dries up.
Tuesday was particularly busy. It’s always our largest CSA and wholesale harvest and pack day, but while all that was happening, the tulip and onion transplant teams were hard at work, Hannah and Dru were teaching a wreath class, and we were harvesting olives again. With the new machine plus whacking method, the small but mighty team breezed through what used to take a huge crew (most of the farm) all day to do. I highly recommend watching our video of the process (which you can do here) if you haven’t already.
That was just the first three days of the week! Thursday and Friday were a muddy, wet blur. Sorry, no photos except of the low-hanging fog on Friday morning.
This week won’t be slow either. It’ll be a very busy week as wholesale customers order produce to have on their shelves for Thanksgiving shoppers. Next week, we do our normal 5.5 days of work in three before finally taking a second to breathe over the Thanksgiving weekend. We will eventually get to that quieter, slower time. Almost there!
Elaine Swiedler, CSA Manager
