So much for a long autumn

Just as I was pondering the cosmic significance of picking fresh green beans on the 20th of October, we had to switch gears and I found myself pondering the cosmic significance of digging out the chicken coop on the 30th of October.

Yup. . . snow, already. In many ways it is super cool. It is a sure sign that our 'outdoor' work is nearly done and we can concentrate on cleaning/reorganizing the barn and catching up on our long overdue paperwork. Time inside also gives us a chance to evaluate the last year and start planning the coming growing season. October is a little sooner than usual, but hey, early preparation is good.

Of course, snow in October lasts about as long snow in May. It's already mostly gone - there is still about an inch and one half left, but let's take the moment to recap on the last couple of weeks. . .

In true farm fashion we have been devoted to, if not only salivating over, garlic and getting it in the ground. Our friends from the Green Team at Windham Middle School came out and helped us to prep the soil and get the garlic divided out, while a number of our Ecology students got the garlic planted.This year we have Elephant, German Extra Hardy and Red Russian in the ground. We are also working on building up a seed stock of Musik (a particularly captivating variety).

When not working with the garlic, a couple of student volunteers (thanks Bob and Andrew) have been getting the hoop houses planted for the winter - specifically our tomato house. As promised, we have kept the tomatoes coming until November first (technically tomorrow), but now we have to work quick to get the rest of the greens in.

We also have been finishing off the shelling of the corn, which we hope to clean dry and grind for corn flour to be used in Mercy Cafe, and the harvesting of our corn and parsnips seeds.

On the other end of the barn our three eligible bachlorettes in the sheep barn have been bred and will spend the next 155 days incubating our spring lambs. While we can't prove it we also suspect that Brandy

(our goat) is with child(ren) which will lead to milk in February.

On a yummier note - our turkeys are no more. Actually, they are still around, but they have taken a whole new shape. . . so to speak. We spent Friday at Farmer's Gate in Leeds, Maine, processing our Thanksgiving birds. In spite of the sensitive nature of the process I will be blogging about that in the coming days. I think that while not everyone has the constitution to participate in the process, everyone is responsible to know where their food actually comes from.

Well. . . back to the fields, er, hoophouses. In the meantime,

Grow Happy.