Summer is over; there are many ways to tell. For seventh-century agrarian poet Hesiod, the season ends when “the piercing power and sultry heat of the sun abate and almighty Zeus sends the Autumn rains, and men’s flesh comes to feel far easier.”
That was the feeling on Tuesday, Sept. 6 when many Island kids returned to school in a cool September drizzle, an unfailing signal of the seasons changing.
The West Tisbury Farmer’s Market is also showing signs. You would be hard pressed to find a cucumber among the well-ordered stalls and summer squash are scant. The torch, it seems, is being passed on to the first sprinklings of winter squash.
Bryanna Allen Rickstad of Santosha Farm is among the first harvesters, with a healthy showing of acorn squash. She said she anticipates an abundant winter squash season and has noticed no major pests. Grey Barn Farm also had a good harvest, with mounds of butternut and delicata.
Island Grown Initiative is gearing up for the shoulder season, entering the 15th year of its Island Grown Schools program, which facilitates school gardens, supplies farm produce to school dining and organizes farm field trips. Education director Emily Armstrong said that they recently held a staff orientation and goal-setting session at Misty Meadows Equine Learning Center. A major goal this year, she said, will be finding more ways to integrate all the grades into their school gardens.
Ms. Armstrong said that part way through the session, equine manager Susie Buck led the group in a “horse meditation.”
“It was amazing to see the horses visibly relax as we collectively focused on our breathing as a group,” Ms. Armstrong said. “It was the perfect back-drop to set the tone for the upcoming school year.”
It is also a season of renewal at Slough Farm, which has been consistently delivering a brood of new calves. They just “pulled out” their fourth calf on Tuesday, said Julie Scott, with more to come. The father of all the babies is the farm’s new British park bull, and mothers come from Highland, belted Galloway and British park lineages. They are all destined to be meat, rather than dairy cows.
This new growing season will be filled with new adventures as well as new crops. Late season greens such as kale and spinach will remain abundant, melons are finally coming into their own, and garlic will soon be planted for next year. Most excitingly, the autumn explosion of pumpkin is still to come, sure to supply many pies and Jack-o-lanterns.
For this column, though, renewal and abundance will have to wait. Farm and Field will be going into hibernation this winter, as it always does. But do not think of this as an ending. On the farm there are no ends, only the endless succession of the seasons, ceaselessly marching forward through time. Think of this period as a time of fallow, where the fields rest and recoup from a period of intensive growth and harvest.
It has been a pleasure to plant, pick and eat with you this season, and I look forward to re-emerging next year, like a seed that sprouts in spring.
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