With the planting of garlic today, the last farm task that must be accomplished in 2023 is done. We planted two rows this year, with German White, Redneck Wild, and Romanian Red. Over the years, these are the three that have made the biggest bulbs for us.
Good-bye & thank you!
Our son and the CSA are the same age. For the first season - back when the farm was a solo project of Jason’s - Silas was a newborn.
Fast forward and both the farm and boy are eight. The farm is now every bit a team effort, and the CSA is also at an end. Thank you so much for being a CSA member. Some of you have been with us for years. How appreciated you made us feel by signing up each season.
We hope you enjoyed your time with us. If you’d like to track down Plot Twist Farm produce next season, you’ll be able to find us at several locations.
The other night, the three of us talked about how we felt about the CSA ending. We agreed it was bittersweet. We all have new things happening in our lives, and it feels like an exciting time. But something that was a force of good in our lives is ending, and it’s impossible to not feel a bit of sadness.
The farm has always been a blend of grit, goodwill, and great luck. We brought the grit, and it was you who always brought the goodwill by supporting a small farm. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you.
~ Stella & Jason
Hello from autumn!
The world takes on a metallic shine in November. There’s a fair amount of brown, yes, but as I write this, the sun is behind big clouds, and they’re ablaze silver-white by its power. The leaves that remain are gold and bronze, and the wind makes them wink like coins in the sunlight. In fields and along roads, many of the deceased wildflowers and grasses are flaxen. Have you ever noticed how dry cornstalks shimmer in autumn rays? No matter the daylight hour, the slant of the sun makes it feel like either mid morning or early evening. These are gilded days.
With a steep reduction in farm work, gorgeous weather, AND the addition of a four-legged family member (see photos below!), I’ve been lucky enough to take a few pleasant strolls this month. What a joy to walk under falling leaves! And have you ever attempted to catch a leaf as it falls? It’s physically impossible to try without smiling.
I have a memory from last October that still makes me smile. I was standing on a little hill beside the road, waiting for a truck full of compost to rumble up so I could point the driver toward the farm. It was one of those golden autumn afternoons, with blue skies and bright sun. Warm gusts swept leaves off the ground and scattered them all around. All the sudden, a surge of wind came up the road, a few hundred feet away. It lifted thousands of leaves from the packed dirt and rushed them up the hill. It was like a marathon, with the tiny dry runners turning end over end, racing my way. Are they really going to make it all the way up the hill? I wondered. Yes! It looked like they would! I watched with delight as they clattered up the hill, and raced right in front of me, tumbling another hundred feet before coming to rest or scattering into the ditch. I’d never seen anything quite like it. I’ve seen leaves tumble about, of course, but never in such a synchronized way. The Running of the Leaves. The Leaf Marathon. Those leaves will run for a long time in my memory.
In November, when most of the trees are bare, and the gusts tear through the woods, the last brown leaves are pulled stories high into the air. Our kitchen has a good view of the sky, and we can watch the leaves swirl like confetti, far into the distance.
On my walk the other day, such a gust carried leaves in a current above my head. They sailed parallel to the road, and it was like I was on the bottom of a river, watching swift-swimming fish above me.
November is holding on to the very last leaves now. Around the same time she lets them go, we’ll have to let all of our unfinished farm tasks go, too. I don’t mind watching the final leaves rock to the ground. I am ready to let go for the season, too.
~ Stella
Now, a few photos - and meet LUNA!!!
Here she is! We adopted her from Because You Care, in McKean, and she’s been such a gentle sweetheart. We hope her charm does not extend to the farm’s voles.
She LOVES to dig, which is great because we dig and we dig and we dig in this family.
It’s been awhile since we’ve had a doggie pal around, and I forgot how nice it can be.
Planting garlic was our main concern this month. When the weather was finally dry enough, Jason planted five rows (each 125 feet long) of garlic, and we worked together to cover them with compost and straw. The kinds are: German White, Deerfield, Early Portuguese, Redneck Wild, Godfather Italian, and Romanian Red. All of the seed garlic was grown by us last season. We saved the biggest heads for replanting, and we’ve been selling the smaller ones.
Garlic, all tucked in nice and cozy for winter.
And here are a few late pics from our Halloween fun.
We love our bunny, but sometimes he can be rather scary! (Seriously - he bites when he’s not in the mood to be handled, and he lunged at Luna the first time he met her! At all other times, he’s quite adorable.)
Me and our little Harry Potter fan. Trick-or-treat night is one of my favorite nights of the year. We sat out last year because of Covid concerns. We decided to partake this year with precautions. Harry masked, we hung back on the sidewalk. The evening was wonderful - warm with a breeze rattling the leaves. Spooky perfection!
1,008 CSA shares packed - time to turn the page to Season 8!
1,008 CSA shares grown on about 3 acres by 2 1/2 farmers (counting Silas). That was Season No. 7 at Plot Twist Farm!
The end of the year was an unusual one. We had someone in our care, and this, added to the fact that Silas and I have shifted our focus to cyber school, halted my farm work almost entirely, leaving Jason to finish out the CSA season pretty much on his own.
On Saturday, Jason and Silas delivered the last shares of the year. Afterward, we hopped in the car and returned the person in our care to their home. Party animals that we are, we celebrated the end of the season by collapsing in the living room.
But, Jason did have a little surprise up his sleeve, or I should say, hidden away among the farm’s seed stash. After briefly disappearing downstairs, he came back up with a small gray box. The appearance of this little parcel, even for a minimalist such as myself, was quite thrilling. What could it be?! When I lifted the lid, my usual disdain of earthly trinkets was replaced by delight at the sight of a delicate, gold-dipped birch leaf pendant.
He settled on birch after reading it was a symbol of new beginnings. It’s one of the first trees to come to leaf in the spring, and there’s all manner of interesting Celtic mythology surrounding birch. During the Celtic celebration of Samhain (what’s considered Halloween in the U.K. nowadays), bundles of birch twigs were used to usher out the spirits of the past year. As you know from what I shared last week, our minds are all about a new beginning now.
When a season draws to a close, I usually have a sense of relief. Then, a few weeks later, as we pull out the brown tomato vines and put away water sprinklers, I get the itch to start all over again.
But this year, the feeling of relief that ushered out the season has swirled with excitement for next spring like an internal cyclone. I’m not wishing away autumn and winter, because I love all the seasons and don’t generally hurry away any time in my life, but when I picture next year, with all three of us going about our farm work, happily tucked inside the fence, my heart beats fast.
The conclusion of this season was supposed to bring a close to this blog, as well. After writing sporadically about the farm for the past few years, last winter I committed to weekly posts to document the season. Now here we are. We’ve gone through a whole season together. But next year is a new beginning. It will be uncharted territory for us. There’s so much potential. So much to be gained and learned. And as long as I find writing about it enjoyable, I’d like to keep going.
As I finish this, I hear Jason’s chainsaw in the woods. It’s time to think about firewood and kindling and other cold weather preparations. The propagation tunnel is full of seedlings in bad need of transplanting in our winter gardens. When life is all about growing and creating, there’s always a new beginning just around the corner.
~ Stella