Welcome to Autumn

by Russ Cerocke, Farm Manager

 

Tis the season! To be sleepy? Well yeah, kind of. Welcome to Autumn, the season of slowing, the yellow-light of the year if you would. Farming outdoors demands that one is aware of the flow of seasonality through the years, to do otherwise would bring complete failure. At the core of agriculture, the only reason these practices are possible is that we have recognized natural seasonal weather patterns across the globe, and people all over have developed ways to work within those seasons to produce food. For us, the time to grow food is in the spring, summer, and early fall due to temperature and daylight restrictions. In sunnier parts of the world, seasonality is dictated more by rainfall than by temperature and day length, but not here, usually…

 

Since we live closer to the North Pole than the equator, we follow the winter-summer agriculture found throughout most of the world. Why? Because most of the land mass on Earth resides in the northern hemisphere; that was the planet’s choice. As simple, and regular as the seasonal change is, we still manage to talk about it enough, especially in the Midwest. Farmers however, take seasonal discussions to another level because farmers aren’t only concerned about what jacket to wear, or if they’ll need to run the A/C. Farmers are more concerned about daylight hours, growing-degree-days, precipitation amounts, and frost free days. If it’s dry, we want to talk about how dry. Hot? How hot? Wet? How wet? How long since? and what are the chances, really? These details can make or break it for a crop, a season, or a business when it comes to farming.

 

The more beautiful part of seasonal change this day-in-age is our ability to use it to reconnect to the more minute changes that happen throughout the year all around us. Understanding our surroundings is the first step to reconnecting with our natural roots. On the farm, the first sign of the autumnal shift happens in mid-summer, on the summer solstice, the longest daylight of the year. This is the day that the sun is still up after 9pm, when we realize we are right in the thick of the summer season. On summer solstice, crops are growing like crazy, and the weeds are too! After the solstice, weeds, and some crops, will start their attempts at reproduction, and the shortening days trigger flowering and seed production of many plants adapted to this climate.

 

After the solstice, and the beautiful array of weedy flowers, the reduction in pressure becomes more evident. So much so, that in late August and early September, it is easy to be fooled into a false sense of security, as this is still too early to ignore your weeds. The weeds won’t get as tall but they’re that much faster to bolt and flower, potentially depositing millions of weed seeds with their last seasonal breaths. Around this time in late summer, it is easy to notice the slowdown in summer crop production like tomatoes and peppers. With noticeably shorter, and generally cooler days, fruit on these crops takes longer to ripen and doesn’t get as big. In a dry year, this is also the time you notice animals getting into the crops in their search for food with adequate moisture content for digestion. Animals will drink, but much of their water comes from the food they eat. This year was no exception.

 

Moving on, the bright side of the fading summer crops is the explosion of life from the cool season vegetables. This year, our fall brassicas were the real stars of autumn! Soon after planting, the freshly mulched broccoli, cabbage, kale, and kohlrabi exploded to create over an acre of dark green and purple foliage that brought along the fastest succession of fall crops that I have seen! After the fall equinox in late September, official autumn, when the days and nights are both equal once again, that’s when we get to taste the difference we have been seeing since the days of back-to-school sales. The fall brassicas and other cool season crops like chard, beets, and carrots, while still growing steadily, will begin to concentrate sugars into their cells in preparation for winter. This neat trick works in two great ways: First, the higher concentration of sugar causes water to freeze at a lower temperature within the plant cells. With a lower freezing point, cool season crops are able to survive temperatures well below freezing. Secondly, and most deliciously, this concentration of sugars is VERY noticeable when we eat these foods. Ever wonder why fall carrots are so full of flavor? It’s the sugars!

 

Pretty soon though, the party will subside, the freeze will come, and the field crops will settle in for their long winter. Anything not tolerant of freezing will need to have been harvested and tucked away safely, so that we can continue feeding this community into the colder months of fall and even winter. Greenhouses get buttoned up, irrigation drained, equipment winterized and covered, and then eventually, we get to cozy up to some hot tea or chocolate, and enjoy the holiday season with our families. During these cold, dark months, we take the time to reflect on the previous season, look ahead to what we can do better, work on our next season’s crop plan, and catch up on all the books we didn’t have time to read during the growing season.

 

Farming is a magical calling to follow. Being aware of our connections to the natural cycles of the Earth is an experience I hope we all can come to feel. Without a strong connection to the natural world that we are a part of, it is impossible to understand the changes that need to be made in order to keep our system of life humming along here on Earth. I hope that by being a part of our community you, too, are better able to see, feel, and even taste the changing of the seasons, and remember, that these seasons might be inconvenient at times, but our livelihoods and our lives depend on the stability we have enjoyed within the seasons for millennia.

~Farmer Russ

 

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