Week 9, Fall 2024
A very autumnal week on the farm — we are really feeling the seasons shift in all the ways! Sukkot has been so sweet and we are loving the 2-sukkah setup. Two sukkahs are always better than one :)
Weekend Times (October 25-27)
A short list of what everyone’s been up to this weekend:
Packing and selling bales of hay for Hannah
Tornado machine @ Museum of Science + Industry
Erin’s 47th cousin wedding of the year
Delivering 100 baggies of soil to C-U
Hanging out in the greenhouse
Stand-up comedy
Writing of lists
Thursday, October 24
As the crops slow down, so do we. Now we only harvest twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. I started out in the high tunnel, which feels like a conservatory with its steamy temperatures and incongruously thriving plants, then moved to the outdoor pepper crops across the road. We ate lunch in the sukkah for the last time this year. In the afternoon, Acacia and I headed for Chicago to spend a weekend with friends and family and the lake. Folks celebrated Simchat Torah on and off the farm. It’s a holiday about beginnings and ends, and joy throughout the changes!
HUGE SHROOM!
BUFF PEPPER!
Wednesday, October 23
I headed to the Sheldon Food Pantry to distribute the usual contingent of peppers and tomatoes, though fewer than I had during my initial visits in August and September. I always enjoy chatting with customers and watching the action on railroad tracks in front of the pantry. Back on the farm, we prepped three rows in Goat Garden for garlic and shallots to be planted later in the week. We brought a huge baggie of garlic bulbs inside to break apart the cloves that will grow more plants — an infinite garlic glitch! Imagine four people, sitting cross-legged in the belly of a cozy farmhouse, hands working over a mountain of garlic skins. It smelled awesome :)
Tuesday, October 22
Cozy mode in the sukkah.
Today, our friend Lexi led a mushroom workshop in preparation for the mushroom field day next week. The goal was to disassemble, scrub, and revamp the whole system before we inoculate more buckets during the field day. About halfway through the process, I learned that mixing vinegar with bleach can be quite caustic ! After so much cleaning (and a brief basement evacuation), we held our weekly housemate meeting to check the pulse of the community while processing herbs.
Erin and I took a sunset run past miles of harvested fields that glowed orange in the light of a midwestern dusk. Such a stunning and stark landscape! I slept in the sukkah again, awakened by the moon at her peak throwing shadows across my sleeping-spot on the wooden stage.
Monday, October 21
We started with a slow morning in the sukkah, enjoying the sunlight percolating through the corn schach and warming our sleeping bags and blankets. It’s such a cozy space!! Later, we debriefed the sukkot fest and launched into an afternoon of harvesting beneath a perfectly blue sky. The crops are slowing down with time, but we’re still collecting peppers and tomatoes and eggplants from the high tunnel and waiting on the radishes and leafy greens to mature. I reflected on the fact that I’ve now spent two months of my life at ZA. The land and its people continue to change!
