2021 CSA Farm Update: Week 16

Dear Friends,

Hello everyone and welcome to week 15 of the Katchkie Farm CSA. We have been very busy at the farm harvesting fall crops and getting the farm ready for the winter months ahead. In a sense, the fields are put to bed at the end of the season to dream and get ready for the next growing season. The month that lies ahead for field harvest is like the exuberance a child shows near bedtime. “Not quite yet” says the fields, things have to be done before it is time to get tucked in! We are in the exuberance phase. Depending on how previous events unfolded, this can be a time of testing one’s will and patience.

The sweet potato harvest was very much one of those challenges. The viny nature of the sweet potato plant, coupled with the certain beds that missed their timely cultivations due to summer rains, makes this akin to a huge bowl of chocolate ice cream for the kids before bedtime. The wildness that lies before me is supposed to have sweet potatoes in there. Over the past few weeks, I have been checking their progress by digging a few up, so I know they are in there.

Step by step, I work on taming the jungle of vines and weeds so we can more easily harvest the crop. The first step is to mow the sweet potato vines, so they do not get caught up the lifting implement. This sounds easy, but the beds where the potatoes are in cannot easily be discerned. We have no external GPS system to tell me where I have driven with the tractor in the past, so I go slowly, very carefully discerning slight undulations where the vines are growing to tell me where to drive. The mowing went well.

The next task is to loosen the soil so we can more easily unearth the crops. At this point the weather forecast has changed to heavy rains in the early evening. This means that we will have only one day to harvest instead of the two that are needed. A light is shining on the situation because there is no frost in the coming week, which gives us another week to harvest. Anyhow, the soil is loosened, and we move inch by inch down the row, filling our buckets with orange and purple roots.

The smell of the earth is rich, the wind is blowing mightily, and the first leaves are falling from the trees. It is fall and the harvest is coming in. Little by little, tiny buckets turn into large crates. The rain starts and it is time to go home, clean up and put the kids to bed. We will forgo the ice cream this night!

Until next time,
Farmer Jon