Autumn is fast approaching!

Three cheers to the best time of year in the 505! Nothing beats driving down 4th and seeing at least ten people roasting chili. The leaves will be changing soon and before I know it, I'm going to be rolling out the row cover and protecting delicious veggies from the first freezes.

But for now, however, the field is still packed with food. Which makes me a very happy camper because it's a general consensus that this year was a very difficult growing season. The rains were so delayed that most of the summer crops had a super hard time getting established. 100 degrees and no rain makes hard times for little plants trying to set roots and make fruit. But despite it all, the CSA has fed so many families for 16 weeks now... a fact I'm pretty proud of.

Take a gander at some of the food coming out of the field right now:

Almost ready kale. Get ready for it! 

Ruby Red chard... always a winner. 

Hurray for outsmarting the squash bugs! How'd
 I do it? For sure without chemicals but any
more info is my trade secret! 

Look at that wall of basil. It's pesto thirty!

Long overdue for a fresh salad. 

I don't know if this corn will make it on time, but
I cheer it on every day!

Jack-b-Little teeny pumpkin.

Fajita ingredient #1.

Red radishes that were so tasty.

That's what I call a cucumber field.

...or a bean field?

Pinto beans before...

... pinto beans after! 

Things have been great now that everything is generally calmed down. The chickens are still happy in their new farm home, our new rental house is still wonderful, and the temperature has finally gone down. Hard times weeding when it was triple digit temperatures. But as you should know by now, there's always gotta be a farm project going on. So here it is:

Music notes in, Beethoven out? 

No seriously, what is that thing? It's a 6.5HP chipper-shredder-compost-maker-o-matic! It's about time to give back to the soil what I've taken from it all season. This pretty hilarious looking machine will really speed up the composting process by chopping and mixing up everything into a nice pile. Manure + leaves + field scraps + shredder + time = amazing soil amendment. Plus, my soil is mainly clay so adding tons of manure and compost will help to break up the clay particles and increase water retention. And yet another awesome craigslist find! I'll keep ya posted on how it works out. For now, it's still in the driveway.

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Well folks, I'm pretty excited to have fed so many of you this year. Your support has been momentous! A few more weeks of delicious harvest boxes and more updates to come. Be sure to take a minute and appreciate everything green this time of year... before we know it, it's going to snow :)

Happy chili roasting,      

Christina