Autumn - It's finally here!!

Doesn't this post seem late? Well, in a "normal" year perhaps it would be, but here we are, working in middle October in our shorts!
There are still beans in the ground, and yes we are still harvesting them. Tomatoes still adorn our second hoop house, and many of our annual herbs are growing like champs.

Autumn generally heralds the end of the "traditional" growing season here in Maine and causes farmers across the region to crave fatty foods and become abnormally drowsy. While we do grow in high tunnels through the winter, the lion's share of the work is shoveling snow and breaking up water for the critters. This year feels a bit different though. There is a lot of excitement around the farm which is, subsequently, interfering with my natural instinct to hibernate.

We have harvested most of our autumn crops and are hard at work putting the garden to bed (was that a pun?!?). We even harvested three bushels of apples off of the tree on the property (boy are they good). There are another three or so bushels to harvest, but we need a taller ladder. . .

Buster is out with his ladies getting us ready for the coming lambing season - we are looking at a March lambing this year.

The Bon Appetit turkeys are big enough to saddle and ride to campus.(does anyone out here remember 'Joust' - the old Atari game. . . they would look a bit like that) On the other side of the coop, the chickens are just finishing up the fall moult and are starting to produce again.


And Rockie, Brandy and Pat. . . well, they're goats.

We have welcomed back our friends from Westbrook High School, and are eager to plant garlic with the Windham Middle School's Green Team. It would seem that the rest of our time (for the next few weeks) will be spent teaching ecology students the joy of getting dirty and enjoying the bliss of being clean while working with business students in the classroom.

Stay tuned for our next adventure. . . Turkey Nightmares on Halloween. .