Around the Corner

Here on the farm, this is the week we refer to as “the corner.” The first week when small flocks of geese appear constantly over the farm, honking to each other and moving purposefully through the sky. The week with the first snap of cold, when frost settles onto the roof of the barn and steams off in the morning. The week when we close up all the windows in the house, and throw an extra quilt onto the beds.

It’s also the week that kicks our fall preparations into high gear, since we know that frost lies just around the corner – and soon after that, the hard freeze that really shuts things down. This weekend, we’ll start harvesting the winter squash, which can’t really take a frost but needs the cool nights to sweeten up and taste its best. Next week, we’ll pull the celeriac out of the field, and begin harvesting cabbages from up on the ridge.

Everything takes on the sense of a headlong rush to the end of the season. Tasks undone over the summer – like fixing the rollup sides on the greenhouses, or laying out field plots for next spring’s plantings – become suddenly urgent. We work hard to make timely transitions from harvested crops to cover crops. In the fall, the growth of plants actually slows down dramatically almost every day, so getting the winter crops and the cover crops planted as early as possible allows more time for green growth in the fall, which translates into more soil-building organic matter.

At the same time, the days grow shorter, so we can’t work as long. Cool weather drives us to linger over a cup of tea in the morning or after lunch. The work is urgent, but without the summer’s heat, it lacks the same drama.

Some years, the corner inspires wistfulness for the beautiful and bountiful summer that we know will soon be behind us. This year, with spring rains, summer droughts and floods, and everything else, we are somewhat anxious to get it all behind us. Hearing the geese, we look forward to the settling in of winter, and the blessed blank slate of another year to come.