It’s Always All Okay: Veggie Share Week #19 – 10/11/23 – FINAL EO-A Box

 In CSA Newsletter

It’s Always All Okay

Seemingly faster than ever before, the end of the season is upon us.

Yesterday, as we ate lunch outside – positioning ourselves purposefully in the sun to enjoy its warmth admisdt the fall air – I looked out from the porch and could see the entirety of the crops that remain for us to get out of the ground this season.

Waiting for harvest, and many months of winter storage, are:

  • beets
  • carrots
  • daikon radish – white and purple
  • beauty heart radish
  • celeriac
  • sweet potatoes

We will begin our 2024 garlic planting today.

Kale and brussels sprouts remain in the field, and we will harvest these as long as the ground is passable and our hands can do it – until it’s too cold.

And that will be it. Unbelievable.

Our crew of 15 will have work through the end of next week, and then many will move on to winter gigs.

The season seemed to fly by. Not just for me, but for many of the crew too.  Every day there is mention from crew about how surprised they are that it’s almost over.

Looking back on the season, in some ways it is surprising that it seemed to go fast. The drought and the intense heat were huge challenges.  But already my brain is starting to fold this season in with all the others before it. There are always challenges. The challenges are different each season, but they are always there.

As part of my folding up a season and putting it away in my mind, I often name the season. Sometimes its name comes from the folks who made of the crew (like the Quiet season, or the Party season). Other times I remember them by what the weather brought. Sometimes I don’t remember one distinctly from another at all – there have been so many now.

This season I will remember as the one called, “It’s Always All Okay.”

When the spring drought went on and on, and we were running irrigation round the clock at 3 different pieces of property trying to keep all our spring starts alive and yielding, I had to remind myself, it’s always all okay.

When I realized the hot weather wasn’t going to abate, and we were going to have to figure out how to get all the work done and simultaneously protect the health of our workers against intense heat, I had to tell myself, it’s always all okay.

Wildfires have the air full of particulates making it hard to breathe at work? A mask and it’s always all okay.

When for the first time in 11 years, a pig died prematurely – it’s always all okay.

When we couldn’t access extra labor to help get out our potato crop, and we worried and worried we’d lose part of the crop since we couldn’t get it out in a timely fashion – it’s always all okay.

Telling myself this, over and over this season it seemed, really helped make it easier.

I won’t remember this season as “It’s Always All Okay” because it was more difficult than other seasons. I will remember it this way, because it was the first year I really practiced and learned how to manage my stress and anxiety around the multitude of unknown challenges farming always has in store.

I have always experienced farming as challenging and stressful. This year it felt challenging, but by adopting this mantra, It’s Always All Okay, I managed to ride through the challenges with way less stress than I ever have before.

And well, that’s a win.

Farmer Cassie