Happy belated Fall Equinox everyone! Up till the Equinox it was a dry late-summer period, which is perfect for ripening seed crops. Now the fall rains have begun, but the dry seeds are safely tucked inside under cover to slowly get cleaned and sorted over the coming weeks. Most crops are doing very well! The peppers and eggplants look amazing and will be harvested very soon, the carrots are huge and the beans are prolific. Cucumbers have all been harvested, lettuces have bolted and are pumping out lots of seed right now! However, we have to report that our squashes and our corn did not thrive this year -they germinated very late and are struggling to form full fruit. We are praying for them and are prepared to cover them if necessary, but we believe this is symptomatic of a bigger problem: we are growing relatively small amounts of crops that want to be in large populations to feed the whole community! They want to be grown in big groups, with lots of pollinators and people interacting all together (the cow corn, for instance, grows great, acres and acres of it). We are getting there, slowly building capacity and opening up more land for larger grow-outs. That, along with growing more biennials now that we have a greenhouse and hoophouse, will be our focus for 2025, and we are looking forward to it! Nyawen:kowa to all the folks who have supported us throughout the season, all the funders, donors (cash and in-kind), volunteers, interns, our amazing Board of Directors, and all the community members who visit us at events and speak kindly about us and keep us in their prayers. We will have one more volunteer workbee on October 13 and will post more about that soon!
