Week 8, Fall 2024

Chag Sameach!! Read on to hear all about the MEGA-sukkah and preparations for the festival this weekend. Wishing everyone a lovely and corn-filled Sukkot.

Friday, October 18

Ella’s famed sourdough

Ella and Gavi headed to the Sheldon Community Kitchen for a day of cooking (minus 1 fingertip) while the rest of us attended to last-minute farm tasks. Patricia and I peeled and simmered the pears we gathered yesterday to make a sweet sauce for breakfast tomorrow. The sukkah looks amazing. I am so proud of Margalit and Daniella for leading the project, and proud of everyone for their efforts to make the festival awesome! Yippee!

Thursday, October 17

A calmer day on the farm. Now that the sukkah is finished, we focused on cooking and preparing workshops and services for the event. I baked two trays of ginger granola and incinerated a third :) then drove to Bourbonnais for some last-minute groceries. We bought so many bananas that the ALDI staff were concerned. I joined a pear-harvesting crew in the evening, thanks to our neighbor Bruce for letting us climb the wise old pear tree on his land. We said goodbye to Erin (never fear, she is returning soon) and enjoyed a restful dinner in the mini-sukkah. There’s been so much excitement around building the MEGA-sukkah but the mini one is quite lovely too! I love huddling under a cozy blanket and gazing at the stars through the schach. 

Me + Erin with the herd. 

Wednesday, October 16

I returned to the Sheldon Food Pantry with a load of eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers. Talking with the shoppers was fun but my toes got frozen in the morning wind! Back on the farm, folks continued building and harvesting and cooking and rehearsing and cleaning in preparation for the festival this weekend. Eric and I clipped zinnias and dahlias from the Kentland Garden to decorate the tables, and I learned about flower types along the way. After returning from the soil fields, Erin and I fed leftover corn to the cows. They can eat entire ears in seconds!! We welcomed sukkot with a pot of warm stew and challah in the mini-sukkah, and Patricia pointed out the comet hanging low in the southwestern sky. RIP Liam. 

Margalit stringing twine to make the roof of the Sukkah.

Sunflowers + corn = schach

A sukkah takes shape!

Tuesday, October 15

It’s like corn for girls :)

Ella and Erin started soil sampling today! While they wandered the fields trapping soil for science, the sukkah crew made huge progress. We strung a web of twine between the posts and rigged them to heavy hay bales to prevent them from twisting. Next, Acacia and I gathered two whole truckbeds of corn stalks from the fields south of the farm to cover the twine (this part is called the schach) while the rest of the crew wrapped the sides of the structure in a huge green tarp. Margalit and Daniella got stuck on top of a tractor but I think they had fun up there?

We also harvested a batch of glass gem corn from the three sisters garden. The kernels were so beautiful and varied! The double corn harvest gave me lots of thoughts about corn and its role in our lives. Soy is still my favorite crop but there’s something so enigmatic about corn … its raspy husks and magic ears and funky little prop roots … so many uses and forms … 

Monday, October 14

We started the week with a chilly harvest. The fall changes have really accelerated this week, between crunching leaves and bitter winds and nostalgic hay and corn smells. I’m so deeply appreciative of this autumn time in the midwest — my homeland! After gathering tomatoes and mushrooms and doing a little weeding, we covered the sensitive crops for the oncoming frost and lugged the potted plants into the greenhouse. Now that space smells very strongly of Cuban oregano! Erin and Daniella and I continued stringing marigolds and making paper chains to decorate the sukkah throughout the evening. The house is in full event-prep mode.

Bonus noochie pic. He is unbothered. Loafed. Perfectly content. 

p.s. The chickens have started laying!! Meant to share this last week but it’s so exciting. We’ve had about half a dozen eggs from them so far :)