The leaves are off the trees and the first snow has been spotted in the higher elevations. The farm stand closed Columbus Day, and despite people thinking that we soon will be retiring to our yachts, there is a lot to do before the real frozen ground and snows come to the River Valley. Jack Mannix of Walker Farm hit the nail on the head when he said, “Every day now counts, so there can be no missteps. The clock is running…” Yes, we are down to six-day work weeks. But there is a shit ton of things that need to be in place before the ground freezes and the snows arrive in earnest.
We, the remaining crew and family, continue to work in the winter. I devised an axiom decades ago: that a human in Carhartt overalls, winter boots, and thick gloves in the dead of winter can do 40% of the work a human can do in shorts and a sweatshirt during the growing seasonThe light levels are weaker couples with the days that are shorter. Fossil fuel engines are always fussing in the winter. Batteries are unhappy. It takes longer to do anything.
So we cram as much into the fall as we can. When the snow leaves in March ( whenever…May, sometimes…) we will be too busy to repair greenhouse doors, service the tractor, cut brush, or even do anything personal other than brush our teeth and grocery shop. The greenhouses will command the attention of everybody until our Jamaican crew returns in May. So now in the fall we have to re-cover the plastic greenhouse skins. We have to inventory greenhouse supplies. We have to ready the machinery for extensive snow removal ( Snow loads can easily collapse greenhouses…not so good) Furnaces cleaned and put back on line . Infrastructure has to be built and repaired in the waning days of fall. Garlic gets planted. Seeds and cuttings must be ordered. Strawberries get mulched. Blueberries get pruned and mulched (or so we hope!). . And we try to set aside Sundays for family time and get up to camp a couple of times.
Our Jamaican family is still here with us as we are trying to get as much done as possible. The Fall CSA produce has to be harvested and packed out weekly, and we still have a few potatoes, some turnips, and a quantity of carrots in the ground to dig and bring in. Wholesale orders still go out 4 times a week. There is plenty for them yet to do. With Covid and the surging numbers, we worry whether they can get back home. There is a lot of paper work involved not only in getting them here, but getting them back home as well. They work and actually adapt to the cold as well as New Englanders, but these guys haven’t seen their families in 6 months. And most of them (with the exception of Ramone, who is 23 and newly married) are in their 60’s. As much as we have a great relationship with them, they have family and friends in Jamaica. They want to be home for the holidays, just as we do. Hopefully, this year will go as smoothly as normal for them despite the pandemic, and we are keeping our fingers crossed.
In the meantime, enjoy the flavors of fall, culinary as well as visual. We live in a great part of the country and this fall has been as colorful as any and the weather equally delightful. Recent rains have taken the pressure off the drought and the creeks and river have swollen back towards normal, but we need more to get the water table back up.
So finish cleaning up the gardens, raking leaves and mulching the tender perennials and strawberries, Then go inside and fire up the woodstove, roast up a panfull of potatoes, turnips, onions and sweet potatoes Perhaps and adult beverage with dinner? Fall aint so bad after all..
Who knew that a master pumpkin carver lived in Jamaica? Garnet Gordon and Anne Sprague get down to business for the Little Folks of Edgewater Farm……