This Saturday afternoon found Julie and WWOOFers Davida and Gavin out in the fields sowing fall cover crops – oats and barley, phacelia, millet, buckwheat and sunflower. The inspiration for this mixed bag of cover crops is forward-thinking agronomists like Australian soil ecologist Dr. Christine Jones. Dr. Jones advocates for farming practices that “maximize diversity in both cover crops and cash crops” and recommends that farmers “aim for a good mix of broadleaf plants and grass-type plants and include as many different functional groups as possible. Diversity above ground will correlate with diversity below ground” and lead to more carbon sequestration and better soil health (1). The only missing ingredients from this cover crop cocktail are winter rye and hairy vetch, which Julie is hoping to acquire on Monday. She notes that rye, being perennial, requires a bit of forethought in a low-till system and will be making targeted plantings of it that will be tarped in spring to kill off the returning growth. “Rye enhances fertility enormously” she notes, “it has such a massive root system. And we want to get vetch to add a perennial nitrogen source”.

Looking around at the vegetable fields, Julie noted that “there are all sorts of beautiful things out here!”. A young planting of beans have climbed the trellises and look happy and healthy. The peppers are splendid, the nicest Julie has ever had. The newest planning of summer squash is looking lush of foliage and delectable of fruit. Julie is really hoping that we can keep enjoying the squash for awhile – often, later plantings come up well but “implode on themselves” before producing much. The sweet potatoes continue to amaze – at least, the parts that can be seen above ground. The cilantro looks well, the radishes too. This coming week the crew will plant lots of greens in the hoophouses with the fall share in mind: spinach, asian mixes, mesclun.

On the topic of the crops, Julie adds:

“Clare and I are ecstatic about the bounty that is in the fields right now but are also filled with a premonition that we might have an early killing frost and end up losing a lot of this good food. Fingers crossed that we will have a strong finish to the summer CSA (six more weeks after this one) and then the fall share (4 weeks after that). We are amassing onions, garlic, and winter squash as storage crops for later distribution and are poised to use a lot of polyester row cover as necessary to protect the tender green things. Meanwhile, Eric continues his diligence daily to foliar spray all of our plants in rotation throughout the week. These mineral and biological sprays not only promote more and healthier growth, but help the plants toughen up for the inevitable frost. Monday will be our last outdoor planting of radishes and hakurei turnips.

With the addition of 6000 square feet of new land in one of our fields we were able to plant a lot of crops that will be starting to get ready in the next couple to 4 weeks – carrots, beets, turnips, rutabaga. The upshot is that we are hoping to be able to add a lot of new crops over the next 6 weeks to keep your palate receiving a broad culinary diversity. Stay tuned as we continue to hustle”.

In staff news, Davida and Gavin are diving in to farm work and learning with great energy and interest. Both are 18, have deferred college for the year, and really care about learning to farm. Lindsy continues on with her loving attention to the animals and food preservation.

We had another productive week on the farm this week. Eric has taken over mowing everything and now has the orchards in a place of easy access.He also gets up really early every morning and accomplishes our daily foliar feeding. We are now back on schedule after it being hit or miss for several weeks.

The amazing Thursday crew helped us weed and mulch two new plantings of pole beans. Fingers crossed that we can get them to maturity without being taken out by disease and insects. Then we weeded and mulched our three beds of peppers, a bed of cucumbers (that doesn’t look totally promising) and then went on to accomplish half of three beds of kale. Friday we were able to plant new beds of spinach, radishes, and cilantro, which was promptly rained in on Saturday! Early in the week we mulched a perennial herb bed with wood chips and hay mulched another bed of peppers and some parsnips. Our ensemble of 4 beds of carrots and 4 beds of beets are now all weeded and growing beautifully for harvest in the next several weeks. Asian greens and lettuce were started in the greenhouse for planting out in the next 3 weeks or so. We are about done starting things in the greenhouse for this year, but will start to plant in the hoop houses in the next 2-3 weeks for late fall crops for the fall CSA.

Meanwhile we are processing tomatoes, applesauce, beet greens, beef stock from farmer friends, and always have at least one 5 gallon pot on the stove. Jack holds down the damaged peach management which includes turning them into dried peaches for enjoyment over the winter.

Ari and Maya are back at college, virtually, and wondering if that is what they really want to do with their time. They each are working here one day per week and are much appreciated. Sam and Eric will soon complete two weeks here and have both been irreplaceable WWOOFers. Julia is now gone, and Chloe, also doing the virtual college thing at Mt. Holyoke is here once per week. New WWOOFer Lindsy arrived Sunday night at 8pm and was out early on the farm this morning.  I am happy to have another midwesterner here on the farm (Lindsy is from Wisconsin). Cathleen and Clare are the rocks of the farm operation and we are eternally grateful each week to working shareholders Jim, Norma, Christine, Anna, Morgan, Cindy, Stu, Ann and Karen. We almost got the Friday shares ready by noon this past week!

Chickens went to slaughter on August 30. It turned out to be a glorious day with lots of fun. We will miss the chorus of young males who regaled us with their fine crows all morning long.

I will be officially retired from NOFA/Mass as of the end of the day today (Monday, August 31st) and got a taste of the fun moving forward when I worked outside all afternoon on Friday. Good times coming.

I hope you enjoy the move into the nostalgic month of September – a different one for most of us because of Covid, but we live in times of great change and disruption, and yet still have many blessed advantages in our wonderful Central Mass world.

– Julie