–
“Now constantly there is the sound,
quieter than rain,
of the leaves falling.
Under their loosening bright
gold, the sycamore limbs
bleach whiter.
Now the only flowers
are beeweed and aster, spray
of their white and lavender
over the brown leaves.
The calling of a crow sounds
loud—a landmark—now
that the life of summer falls
silent, and the nights grow.”
– Wendell Berry, October 10
–
Hi Friends & Farm-ily,
–
We hope you are all happy and well and enjoying the last week of October! The rain gods have spoken and we finally got some rain worth talking about! 1 whole inch of the good stuff. It’s the first week all season that we haven’t turned on the irrigation for the crops. We still have a long way to go to get that water table up but it’s starting to really feel like Fall in Oregon. The colors, the crispy nights, the dewey mornings, the shorter days… it’s such an incredibly beautiful time to be outside and enjoying the true feeling of fall before ol’ winter comes knocking on our door.
–
Over the weekend, we were able to get another 1/2 acre in cover crop before the rains came. It feels good to put the ol’ summer crops to bed and focus our attentions on harvesting the Fall and Winter roots. At the end of this week we’ll begin taking in our storage crops for the winter CSA. Since there are so many we’re starting as early as we can. It’ll be a lot of harvesting, washing, and packing bags between the two of us. We’re excited to “stock the larder” and ensure we have crops through the dead of winter. Time will tell if the predictions of a milder winter in the Pacific NW (thanks to el nino) will come true.. until then we’ll continue to do what we always do and go with the flow. We’re planting the last few crops outside to see how they do. These crops weren’t planned but we’re going along with the crazy mild weather. If that predicted winter rings true we should have plenty of fresh greens for our Winter CSA.
–
—
We actually got pretty close to our first frost at the end of last week. Looks like we have another week before we’re in the 30’s again at night. A frost makes the Fall veggies sweeter because in order protect their cells from bursting they convert their complex carbohydrates (bonded sugars) into simple sugars! Although, after trying those Nelson carrots in the share last week we can’t imagine them getting much sweeter (and there will be more in the share this week! YUM!)
–
On Friday we finished planting the last 600 ft of garlic (of 3,000 ft total) and tucked them in with straw. Feels good to cross something off the ol’ Fall list. This is our 5th season planting garlic together. And as Farmer Brian says.. garlic should be the foundation of any good relationship. And weeding it in the spring should be the test of that relationship. Here’s to many more years planting garlic together and to the first crop of the 2016 CSA season!
—
0-
New Online Farm Store! Yay! We’re excited to share that Brian & I put together a new convenient online farm store (click the link to visit)! It can also be accessed from workinghandsfarm.com (click on “Farm Store”) or you can copy and paste this into your browser: http://workinghandsfarmstore.com
–
The Grass Fed Beef Shares & Pastured Pork Shares we have for purchase are available to both members and non-members so feel free to share the link above with family and friends…
A big thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm about Grass Fed Beef & Pastured Pork Shares! We only have a few beef shares available for purchase (if you’re interested, be sure to order soon!) but we expect to have our freezers stocked with pork through the winter so please check back on the site periodically as we will be keeping our inventory updated! Tis’ the season for soups, stews, braising, roasting and more so keep us in mind for the holiday season! Thank you in advance for your support!
–
–
We hope you are all enjoying the change of season in your kitchens and are feeling more inspired than ever to get that stove going and those yummy homemade dishes created in the warmth of your home. These shorter days welcome time in the kitchen spent with loved ones around the table. Keep up the great job, enjoy this week’s bounty and we’ll see you all soon!
—
Your Farmers
–
Jess & Brian
–
dirty hands, clean hearts
–
working hands farm 
