It was a good great first season. I didn’t have as much time to blog about the experience as I would have liked; although, I probably wrote a dozen or more posts in my head that didn’t materialize for the world to read. There’s always next year. Which also happened to be my working mantra for much of the season.
More cucumbers, strawberries, peas, and carrots? There’s always next year.
I really should have done more canning and freezing. I’ll be more organized next year.
Darn it, I made some mistakes in preparing the bees for the winter. Next year will be different.
We should have planted more of this, less of that, started earlier/later, done things differently, blogged more, done more research, laughed at ourselves more, soaked up the warm starry nights and reflected in amazement that our beautiful fields fed more than 70 households in any given week. That’s all going on the To Do list for next year.
I still pause when I realize that “we did it.” We, non-farmers, became farmers overnight – not fully appreciating all of the challenges that would be thrown our way. But week after week we managed to fill those CSA boxes, deliver them, and fill our wholesale orders. It certainly wasn’t perfect. Mistakes were made, as some would say, but nothing insurmountable and certainly nothing that we can’t correct next year.
On the other hand, everything was perfect.
We accomplished most of our objectives, the vast majority of our CSA members were satisfied, our children ate copious amounts of vegetables, and we got our foot in the door with some local restaurants. It affirms our crazy decision to become farmers when a celebrated local chef says that our onions are the cleanest and best he’s ever seen from a local farm. It’s exciting to get emails from chefs asking to purchase all of our broccoli, all the beets, the whole crop of brussels sprouts, all the chard, ALL OF IT. We’re still waiting for someone to request all of the cabbage, which is pretty much the last crop standing after the recent weeks of freezing temps. One can hope.
With this season still petering out, our sights are already set on next year. Since we’ve mastered the vegetables (kidding, ha!) it’s time to move on to animals. Two cows, 200 195 chicks, and three hives of bees are now permanent residents at Skylight Farms. Five barn cats will arrive later this week to form our rodent control team. What could possibly go wrong with so many animals in our care, a growing customer base, and two toddlers to take care of?
I guess we’ll find out next year.
