Week 5, Fall 2024
Another week of abundance, animal encounters, and forest hours. Feeling all sorts of feelings about the end of September & the passage of time in general. Hugs to everyone from me and this nice marsupial.
Sunday, September 29
I tagged along with Patricia to a rapid Catholic mass, then returned to my comfy loft bed for a second round of sleep before starting the day. Daniella pruned tomatoes for the fun of it while Ella painted and I explored the woods just north of the farm. A bit of bushwhacking took me to the banks of the meandering Iroquois River, surrounded by dense stands of beech trees turning yellow in the fall air. I found shells and snakes in the river-muck and watched deer bouncing through the understory. Back on the farm, we joined a call with ZA alumni around the world and welcomed Gavi and Acacia back from their weekend adventures. The night ended with trampolining, farm-themed codenames, and several cups of tea!
The glorious Iroquois River on a Sunday.
Saturday, September 28
A very sleepy morning on the farm. The house woke up slowly and settled into board games, art projects, kitchen adventures, list-writing, and other (mostly) calm weekend activities. We’ve been recreating classic board games in the spirit of ZA, like a clue board with “Yurt Village” and “Phil’s Barn” as locations and a set of codenames cards featuring local characters and favorite foods. Patricia and I drove to Champaign-Urbana for dinner with my family, listening to Midwestern tunes the whole way. It feels sweet to live so close to home! This impromptu trip was just Phase One of my dastardly plot to convince the farm crew that Champaign-Urbana (my hometown, of course) is the promised land of the Midwest. Will update as the plot progresses.
Friday, September 27
It’s fall, y’all !! Patricia busted out her collection of autumnal household wares and we donned flannels to block the chilly wind while harvesting. The land has changed so much in just five weeks — the fields where we baled hay are covered in springy alfalfa, the cow pasture trees are turning red and orange, and the once-scraggly okra plants tower over my head. Eric, Acacia, and I planted seven fig trees in a circle in the strawberry patch, burying each one in loamy compost and sprinkling fish emulsion fertilizer over each one. Today, the fig trees are about a foot tall, with two or three glossy leaves each. I love to think of their future lives! On a more practical note, five of us trooped to the CVS in Watseka to get our flu and covid shots for the winter, and we cleaned the house and finished up last-minute chores before a very songful Shabbat. We enjoyed a fabulous eggplant bab(k)a ganoush for dessert.
Would you have guessed that this delectable dessert contains the equivalent of four eggplants?
Yes, the challah does too!
Thursday, September 26
Spent a cool morning thinning radishes and beets in Goat Garden to help the little sprouts thrive this season. Radish tops are edible, so I stewed a Strega-Nonna-sized pot of them with garlic and lemon for later use. A group of us continued attacking the pokey amaranth and sorrel in Goat Garden, revealing onions buried in the soil like gems. We met by the container after work to discuss the High Holidays — some folks plan to stay on the farm for Rosh Hashanah but travel for Yom Kippur. Daniella plans to leverage her architectural skills to build a MEGA-Sukkah for our Sukkot gathering in a few weeks! I cooked a very cheesy and radishy dinner, which may have had a soporific effect because the entire farm conked out by 9pm.
Goldenrod in the north woods.
Wednesday, September 25
HUGE HEIRLOOM!!!
We jumped back into harvesting as usual: peppers and eggplants, cherry and clementine and heirloom tomatoes, bicolored okra, cucumbers, bitter melon, and more. Ella brought crates of produce to the Sheldon Food Pantry while I learned how to collect little pink mushrooms from the growing tents downstairs and beneath the oaks. We’ve been eating lots of mushrooms recently, between the tents and various groupings of hen-of-the-woods around the farm! In the afternoon, we continued preparing Miracle Garden for the season, pulling weeds and planting the last of the fall crops. Eric revamped the greenhouse beds with winter greens that can grow inside when it’s cold. I hung out in the silo with a flute and then called a friend while wandering the main road at dusk, listening to the bugs and coyotes and cows and Ella’s sweet guitar playing. Nooch curled up in my lap in the driveway <3
Tuesday, September 24
I started the work week by driving a load of fresh produce through torrential rains to the drop-off point for Down at the Farms, just west of I-57. The produce we grow is distributed to restaurants, schools, and community centers across Illinois. Next, I joined the crew in weeding and mulching the strawberry patch in preparation for a new multisensory garden. Acacia has all sorts of ideas for making this space special, including spiral paths, edible plant guilds, and fig trees (coming soon). A group of us took a run along the state line after work, enjoying a cool and calm evening after all our travels. We joined the Four Corners Fellowship call while cracking and peeling acorns from the masting oak trees outside. Margalit plans to roast the nuts and make acorn flour for baking!
Monday, September 23
Our return from the Wilds of Wisconsin — detailed in a previous post!
Acacia in her natural habitat.
