No one would confuse this with our best season ever.  We have had some fairly major losses to weeds (summer carrots, melons, parsnips, rutabaga) because of the timing of rain in June and July, despite the heroic efforts of our pared-down farm staff.  Our second planting of tomatoes put in a good effort, but succumbed earlier than usual to disease because of the wet weather.  Our third planting of tomatoes is slowly beginning to ripen, but probably won't put out the heavy yields or diverse varieties of the second; still, we may see some late-summer tomatoes in the next few weeks.  We'll be alternating picking peppers and eggplant over the next month in order to give them time to grow back in between harvests; the cool nights definitely slow them down.  Our sweet potatoes are slowly sizing up, and the warm, dry weather of the past few weeks was great for the ripening of our Waltham butternut squash, some of which is headed to elementary school lunches for Waltham public school students. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and cauliflower are coming along nicely, happy for the recent rain. 

All of this leaves our fall harvests looking a little different than they might otherwise. Fortunately, the later part of the season has been more forgiving than the first half, allowing us to direct seed lots of greens right through August and September. Because of this, there will be fewer roots and more greens than in past years as the season goes on, and winter squash and fall potatoes from Picadilly Farm will soon fill distribution bins along with fall crops grown here in Waltham.  There is more spinach in the ground, along with more lettuce, arugula, kohlrabi, braising mix, broccoli raab, sweet turnips and purple top turnips, and other tasty fall greens like radicchio, fennel and escarole. For everyone who is tired of cucumbers and summer squash, get ready for some delicious, exotic fall harvests!  It looks like we'll have green beans until the frost this year, and our second cherry tomato planting is just beginning to ripen, hopefully to take us through the next couple of weeks until fall is officially on us.

Wendell Berry says that "the finest growth that farmland can produce is a careful farmer. If the crop of any one year was all, a man would have to cut his throat any time it hailed.  But the real products of any year's work are the farmer's mind and the cropland itself."  This, I think, is true, and in that sense, we can be said to have had a reasonably successful year.  Andy and I, along with Erinn and Jonathan, have learned a tremendous amount from this season.  There is no doubt that  being challenged like this, as hard as it is on the psyche, is good for our creativity about next season, and all of us are excited to apply some of our learning as we move into the planning process for next year.  I have never worked with a more flexible, positive and dedicated crew, whose hard work over the course of the season has only been matched by their kindness towards and respect for one another. 

As for the cropland itself -- well, it has a few more weed seeds in the old bank than it did last year, but as always, I've been impressed with its resilience and strength.  We have seen good results with cover cropping and new fertilization methods which will help us focus for next year and get away from the bagged organic fertilizer a little bit (although not completely, I'm sure).  Our land is a riddle in many ways, droughty and weedy and suburban in a way that makes it very appealing to woodchucks and other wildlife with few other options.  Still, it is a bountiful producer, even in tough years, and maybe the most valuable lesson we learn each year is to trust it to tell us what it needs. We hope you enjoy this week's harvest.