Harvest’s End
November 2009

At last all the fields have been cleared of the trailing vines and rootstock of this year’s vegetables and tilled and seeded to Rye and Winter Wheat to feed the soil in anticipation of next year’s crops.   Garlic cloves, onion bulbs, strawberry plants, perennial flowers and herbs are tucked in for the winter beneath coverlets of straw.  The woodpile is tall to feed the cook stove, the winter squash and pumpkins are roasted for purees that will become pies and soups, and apples are cooked into butter or jelly.  As farmers, it is our time for reflection, celebration and thanks for this year’s bounty.

We’ve learned so much about our farm and ourselves from the land, books, and from our customers. We’re grateful for all who sustained our farm by buying shares of our food and sustained us as friends by their enthusiasm, encouragement and patience.   To be a farmer is to be optimistic: there is always next year to try new seed and to hope that time, weather and labor will yield better crops, better food.   We look forward to sharing New Era Farm with you next year and wish you healthy and happy holidays and a prosperous 2010.

Lisa, Jeff and Anna

Quiet at New Era Farm
February, 2009

It has been very quiet on the farm here in Cashton these last few wintry
weeks. The air is crystalline and with the ambient temperature well
below zero, not much stirs to disrupt the even silence. Rarely one of
our Amish neighbors ventures out, the horse’s footfalls, creaking
harness and squeaking steel wheels, though muffled by snow, carry
across the valley. At night the inky sky and icy stars are only
punctuated by the barred owls calling to one another; the coyotes are
silent in the deep ravine.

But for all the external white stillness, there is a frenzy of activity inside the house. There is a riot of color from glossy seed catalogs and last
year’s seed packets that cover the worktable. Along with rulers,
calculators, plot maps and crop notes, these make up the flotsam and
jetsam of the organic farmer’s dreamtime. We revisit and savor the
memories of last year’s garden abundance, excited by new varieties of
vegetables to introduce to our customers. We plot the rotation of the
various beds to ensure ongoing soil strength and eliminate from the
roster the varieties that were too pest infested or prone to blight. Pages
in manuals are dog‐eared, marking what herbs can be inter‐planted
with the crops to repel the pests while attracting the beneficial insects:
tansy, nasturtium, marigold, to name a few. Where to put the sacrificial
Cucurbit trap crop for the greater good of the many varieties of squash,
melon, cucumber and pumpkins has made for lively debate.

Armed with optimism, a good dose of self-deprecating humor and just a touch of madness, we imagine past the backbreaking planting season and late spring weather anxiety to the first weeks of over-night growth in the gardens.  Still just tiny, hard brown seeds in envelopes, the new cut flower garden is a blaze of color and saucer sized blooms in our mind’s eye.  Regardless of the temperature outside it is easy to anticipate dewy morning walks in the vegetable beds.  Despite the required flow charts for each of the 50 odd varieties of plants we are giddy at the anticipated reaction of customers as they discover the candy cane swirl of Chioggia beets, the creamsicle interior of the Blenheim melon, and the wink of a Tiger Eye soup bean.  

We are fortunate to have found this land and like to think the farm is fortunate to have us as custodians.   We are thankful for the richness of the flora and fauna that will return at winter’s end and for the bounty we will share with others. We are blessed by this lifetime project; the unending work/creative cycle of farming.