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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

End of the Season.....

Well, we woke up to 32 degrees (Cece, I know your California-ass is shivering right now!) this morning and frost covered everything. A quick walk to the North field and it was obvious that this CSA season was over. There were a mix of feelings when I saw the dead plants. First, was the "Oh God" factor. Second, was a huge wash of relief. This has been a tough year with one struggle after another and to some extent, relief that it is over was the overwhelming feeling. Of course, the next step was to email and notify all the members that their season was over too and 'relief' was probably not going to be their overwhelming feeling.

When you have paid someone to grow your food until mid-October, generally that is what you like them to do. They sign a contract when they sign up in March that says they understand that farming is a gamble and anything can happen that is out of our control, but they don't usually really understand what that means until it means that I won't be showing up today with your basket of vegetables. Sometimes, they aren't happy.

I'm looking forward to getting the fields cleaned up and cover crops planted, manure spread and things prepared for next season. What next season will bring I'm not quite sure yet. We are rethinking our options and wondering if maybe a CSA will not be in the plans......but we have a loooooong cold winter to mull that over, don't we?

I'm heading to Illinois today, my grandmother, who is 90+ years old, fell and broke her hip. She most likely won't make it through the surgery and I would like to be able to tell her good-bye and how much I love her.......so I'm heading out on the road, a 6+ hour trip, by myself. Other than the obvious sadness, I'm actually looking forward to the trip. I don't feel sad about my grandmother as she has lived an absolutely full, eventful life and I'm sure she is ready to move on. Let's hope she is allowed to do that without a lot of unnecessary meddling by the medical community.

I'll try to post while gone, but I am heading into a very rural area of Illinois and I'm not sure they have WiFi on every corner if you know what I mean.

Bring on the cold weather, Wisconsin......I'm ready for a nice long break to re-evaluate and regroup.

Until next time.

1 comment:

*~*Cece*~* said...

Aw Angie I'm sorry to hear about your grandma. I hope you can spend time with her. {{hugs}}

And yes, 32 is FREEZING to me. Next week I'm heading to Idaho & the low is suppose to be 41! I'm wondering if I can sneak a jacket into my suitcase w/o Mister noticing! lol