We had our first real frost of the season on Tuesday morning – and it sure was beautiful!

Surprisingly, none of the remaining crops were damaged. When the sun came out and the temperatures rose, the vegetables were fine.

Not that it matters anymore to us. Last Thursday was our final farmers’ market of the season – so we are all done! Harvesting, packing and selling are finished.

It was time!

This was the temperature as we were driving to market the previous Thursday …

This past Thursday was a little warmer …

But those are both cold temperatures to be setting up our tables and then standing around waiting for customers. We couldn’t even put the greens out on display until mid-morning for fear they would freeze on the table and be damaged (it’s happened before!).

 

But the final markets were good – cold but nice weather, full tables of produce, and while sales were slower, we had enough satisfied & thankful customers. And we are happy to be finished!

Now we can concentrate our energy on cleaning up the farm and getting everything ready for winter. Most of the fields are already empty. The garlic has been planted. Cover crops have been seeded.

 

We are working on removing the stakes, string & posts in the tomato patches. Then we can mow the plants down. There is ground cover to remove, compost to spread, equipment to winterize, barns to clean, bookkeeping to catch up on … and the list goes on …

While there is much to do, there is no pressure to get it accomplished immediately. We keep reasonable hours, stop for coffee and take the time to play with our favourite nephew/grandson!

We should have most chores finished by the time winter arrives. Then we’ll review & evaluate this past year and start to make plans for the next.

It is a good time of year!

Sage is a little sad though – still missing all her CSA friends, especially the little ones!