Note: The customization period for this Wednesday's harvest ends at 10:30 p.m. Monday night.
Fall is when we start to reclaim our perspective and appreciation for life's possibilities and richness. Before that, in mid summer, a farmer comes to believe that the world is but one giant green flood and they a tiny thing attempting to channel or persuade the flood into something useful they can offer the world. And offer it they do, and to some occasional applause even, though their hat is tossed akimbo and their general presentation that of a shirt left too long in the spin cycle.
So, good bye summer and welcome fall and then winter. We appreciate the shorter days, the shorter to do lists, and the sense that in our long marathon the finish line is near, just beyond that first hard freeze up ahead.
In this spirit we offer today's rather dull photo. The bright green forms are cabbage on the right and and broccoli raab to the left. In the middle, the withered looking growth is our most difficult and omnipresent weed, Galinsoga. This little beast first appeared in our beds nearly a decade ago and has since spread to every part of the farm, even infesting our plant propagation house to our thorough consternation. Among weeds, Galinsoga is an Olympic gold medalist, MVP, and best actor in the agricultural melodrama. Seemingly, Galinsoga does it all: germinates thickly and rapidly; growing both out and up with astonishing speed, smothering everything in its path, while being particularly resistant to traditional organic weed control strategies. It's really whipped our butts in these last few years, forcing us to devote many more hours to hand weeding, while its asphyxiating growth has decreased yields of many of our crops.
So this drab photo documents a glorious moment for the Cedarville Crew and crops, the complete death and annihilation of our nemesis, Galinsoga the Great Green Garden Bomb. As gnarly as this weed is, it is vulnerable to a hard frost (it is apparently native to SE Asia), so the past few clear nights have been its grim reaper. We wonder if our crops don't share our relief at the departure of this bad actor for they often perk up noticeably after a good frost sends Galinsoga packing.
Thanks for your membership and support ~ weeds and all!
~ Mike, Kim, and Crew
Cedarville Farm
