Changing Seasons: The Season of Change Approaching

I can feel fall approaching. It's the time of year we all change gears.

The days are getting shorter, crop growth is beginning to slow and school has started (Owen, our oldest, started kindergarten last week and is taking the bus to school -- a big deal for all of us!). It is always around this time of year that I look ahead to next year. To some extent, there isn't much I can change for this season. While we are still doing some planting, we are mostly harvesting and maintaining what we have already planted. As a result, I look at things to survey what has worked well (potatoes, squash) and what we might want to change for the future (hilling corn, more fertility for tomatoes).

The weekly schedule also starts to change this time of year. We were planting in the early week and harvesting in the later. Nowadays we will start clearing finished crops out, applying compost for next year's fertility and planting cover crops to protect and build our soils over the winter. We're planning the work we'll continue into winter and the educational conferences we'll attend in the early spring.

This is part of what I love about farming. The work is always changing. There is endless room for learning and improvement. Change no longer scares me or makes me nervous like it did when I first went to school -- it makes me breathe and encourages me to take a moment to appreciate our season.