When the Gradual Feels Sudden: Veggie Share #15 – 9/14/22

I know it’s gradual. Just like I know my kids growing up is gradual. Yet sometimes I feel struck by a change that feels sudden.

This time of year is the going back to school time, the yellow time of goldenrod and school buses and conventional soy starting to turn. It is also the time of lasts and the transition into harvesting for storage.

Today, I harvested one last ear of corn into my crate. It cracked off the plant in a satisfying way. I broke off its base and placed it into my black harvest crate, and then I thought, won’t do that again until next July! Such satisfaction.

Later in the morning harvest, when I radioed and asked whether there was enough cauliflower left to go through the planting again, the response was a resounding “nope.” And just like that, it seems, cauliflower is finished.

Next up in line to take its last bat of the season, red cabbage.

Three crops down in one morning! It feels sudden. It feels like it could hardly be possible. And yet, yesterday’s low 50s, cold, wet, and INSANELY muddy conditions made it true – summer is coming to its close.

Some years I feel joyful. Other years I am sad that the hot weather is done. Not sure how I feel about it yet, except 1) so happy we had a dry year instead of a super wet one, and 2) I’m not quite ready to feel cold all day long.

The weather ahead looks pretty dreamy, and hopefully the sunshine and warmth will help lessen my and the crew’s fear of cold harvest days to come. Here’s to enjoying a few more weeks of warmth before autumn fully takes hold. Here’s to trying to feel what is ultimately gradual.

Cheers,
Farmer Cassie