Another nice sunny fall day today to enjoy before those cooler late fall temperatures show up in the next few days! We've spent much of the past week tackling some general clean-up work around here (like moving 3,000+ lbs. of onions into our processing room; that's two tractor loads like in the above picture, if you're wondering) as well as wiring the barn and running power to it (first time we've ever had a light switch in a barn - breakthrough!). We've spent the weekend installing insulation in there so we can have a heated space to work on equipment in the winter.
This upcoming week will be focused on cleaning up most of the rest of the fields and installing our shutoff valve for the irrigation (if it ever shows up!) so we can blow out the irrigation before the upcoming freezing nights. We usually aim to get everything out of the fields over the next week or so, as the constant freeze/thaw cycle doesn't do much to help most crops. We'll still have much of what has been available recently, between storage crops and what we have growing in the hoophouses, but we won't have to worry about crops thawing before we can harvest them - a pretty big battle we've been having the past couple weeks, especially when you factor in all the rain!
This upcoming week also marks the end of our employees time with us for the year; our last two will be leaving for the season. It's always bittersweet - it's nice to be able to focus on just our own work, but we'll miss the company while we wrap up the season.
We're excited to have three returning employees next year - that'll sure make life a little easier on us; our fourth is in the process of starting his own farm, so he won't be returning. Finding help is one of those things that stresses us out each winter - farm work isn't the most glamorous (or easy) work, so its always nice to have all the positions filled for the year. We've got one full time position to fill next year for a farm manager trainee, but other than that, we'll be ready to roll!
Wednesday marks the final outdoor farmers' market for the season; starting Saturday, we'll be indoors across from the Post Office (215 N. Main) for the next couple months. We sure won't complain about the 10am start time - sure beats loading the trailer at 5:30/6am then setting up for an 8am market.
Sure seems like the season's wrapping up around here - but we're definitely not done yet!
Enjoy your week!
-Brendan & Greta
