As the end October came to a close, it marked the end of the market season for 2014. No more 4:30 am wake up alarms, no more late nights the night before market tying up loose ends - washing, bagging, or weighing produce, no more lugging canopies, tables and crates of freshly harvested produce.
And no more steady income.....
However, there is still a lot of work to be done on the farm.
The fields need cleaned up ... rows of plastic need gathered, irrigation lines need taken up, fields need mowed, the strawberries need covered before freezing weather sets in, and, the entire irrigation system needs drained and the fertilizer injector needs removed and stored in the basement for the winter. All of these jobs need to be done before the ground freezes.
And, it's time to start planning for 2015. The seed catalogs should start arriving in the mail boasting of new varieties to try, we have to figure out a crop rotation for the fields, and I am still hoping to get an annual rye cover crop established on the open ground. There are still a few things in the field yet to harvest.
We have tomatoes, romaine lettuce, kale, red beets, cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli growing in the high tunnels. We are experimenting with growing the romaine over the winter. If this winter is not as brutal as last winter, we should be able to have some most of the winter. Our experiment is to see how long it will take to mature since the amount of daylight is much lower over the next few months than during the summer.
And while we will miss seeing our regular customers, it is nice to get a break from the demanding growing season. However, we do look forward to seeing you again when we start our 2015 markets!
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