Yesterday I broke the kickstand on my neighbor’s trailer I borrowed. You know, that thing attached to the tongue that lifts and lowers it? I dunno, I call it a kickstand. Anyway, when I was carting out squash with the tractor, I saw that an absolutely huge pile of grass was all jammed under the trailer. Then I realized that I never put up the kickstand at all and had now bent it beyond help. So I spent a half hour pulling apart a wet haystack lodged under the trailer in the rain. The whole episode got me thinking.

I thought about the time I sideswiped the packing shed with a quackdigger, ripping off some siding. I had another tractor roll down a hill and slam into the barn wall – that one was memorable! I’ve jackknifed a plow, flail mower, and multiple trailers. Greenhouses have blown away, hydraulic hoses have shot fluid all over…well, you get the picture.

Haven’t I been doing this like 20 years? Shouldn’t these accidents and mishaps be a thing of the past? Granted, I can think of many more escapades at the begining of my farm career, but, here I am, still doing stupid things.

Reflecting on this today, I’m thinking that it doesn’t really matter. If everything were perfect, we wouldn’t have any good stories. And farm mishaps make for good stories. When we get together with other farm operators, these memories are the ones we share.

In the box:

• Satina Yellow Potatoes
• Little Red Saladnova Lettuces
• Sunshine Kabocha Squash
• Acorn Squash: I searched around this morning to find a recipe that used fresh sage to make stuffed acorn. Obviously make you own stuffing – add sausage if you’re an omnivore – but stuffed acorn really compliment the cold weather we’re heading into.
• Butternut Squash
• Fresh Sage
• Anaheim Peppers: Yes, these are hot, but not too hot.
• Shallots
• Cippolini Onions: This is my favorite onion, not just because it’s this fun flat shape, but I find that it has a really good, complex flavor.
• A Single Tomato: Yes, this is the bitter end. There was a ‘secret reserve’ row of tomatoes hidden deep in the weeds and I amazingly found 70 of them, so they made a last appearance in the boxes.
• Haralred Apples: These are a good multi-purpose apple that could be used in baking or eaten fresh.

Have you ever had a project that you never seemed to get to? Like a plumbing project that was missing just one part and just sat there for 6 months?

Well, I think I have about 72 of those kinds of projects – little tasks all over the place. I will muscle through the bulk of the work, but I like to leave that last little task which I’ll ‘take care of later.’ My challenge is that these darn little tasks just pile up, and, after a while, become this unsurmountable list. I then don’t do any of them.

Yesterday, however, I’d had just had enough of being ‘stuck in neutral’ and feeling the weight of my little task list, so I just started ticking through them. A pile of clothes that was simmering on the couch for a week, random seedling trays that I’ve thought about picking up for months, and an old freezer that sat on its side in our yard since I cleaned out a frozen block of spoiled meat. Oh, and we last mowed our lawn in July.

One by one I ticked them off the list. I also jacked up some of my family members to motivate a sense of urgency. By lunch we were moving and by 2 pm we were making serious strides. It feels good when the little burdens that have weighed your psyche disappear. What was once a wreck and felt out of control was brought into order and brought under control. Tasks that sat there on the list for months took maybe 20 minutes and I began to wonder why I hadn’t done them sooner.

The day after one of these productivity tears always has me telling myself that I’ll just keep up on tasks and save on the stress. Maybe I’ll turn over a new leaf or maybe I’ll just bask in the glow of a solid day of accomplishments.

In the box:

• Buttercup Squash
• Spaghetti Squash: This one’s kind of odd, so I found a video with some recipe ideas below.
• Red Kuri Squash
• Shallots
• Italian Parsley
• Fresh Thyme
• Kohlrabi
• Carrots
• Lettuce: A couple varieties were at play, including greenleaf and butterhead lettuce. Luck of the draw.
• Arugula: The oakleaf-shaped green in a bunch. I like arugula in pasta – try https://youtu.be/Ue2DjbJuYko
• Garlic
• One Italia Pepper and One Yellow Pepper: Both of these are sweet.

“Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields”

These Jackson Browne lyrics sting of nostagia, looking back at where we’ve been, and point to how we can only keep trucking forward. I had this song on my old MP3 player years ago and I’d crank it about this time of year in the packing shed to drive my adrenals a bit more as we’d push through from summer into fall. When I heard it the other day, the words ran true. Not just for my state of mind this time of year, but the country as a whole. A lot of people and organizations are running on empty.

Now I’m probably trying to make too much meaning out of a 70’s California Pop song, but I’ve lately noticed the affects of my years of constantly charging forward. In organic agriculture, we talk about feeding the soil and the soil will feed the plant. Looking at some of my fall crops that require good fertility, the plants are hungry. Stunted broccoli and spinach plants. For too many years, I have been racing to button up harvests and start up winter crops and the soil has not been fed with a solid fall manuring and well-timed cover crops. It shows.

Nature gives us signs and the plants outside my house are sharing their advice. Regroup. Dig in. Nurture this little slice of creation for which you were entrusted. Good things will bloom from good care and nourishment. Life is just that simple, despite how often our minds are pulled from our families and communities to affairs far away.

In the box:

• Cabbage
• Buttercup Squash
• Delicata Squash
• Cucumber
• A Couple Onions
• A Few Radishes
• A Few Peppers
• Greenleaf Lettuce
• Carrot Bunch
• Fingerling or Blue Potatoes

Heaving another 80 lb bin of melons into the back of the van, I was spent. August had turned to September and my back started to hurt thinking about winter squash harvest. Uff-da. Time for a vacation.

So last Friday after working the farm stand at the co-op, Mar and I had a ‘staycation’ in Detroit Lakes, staying overnight at the Lodge and leaving Emily in charge of the farm. It was cool. Mar and I went out for drinks and got takeout from Sapphire. In the morning I sat in a hottub and pretended that I didn’t have a to-do list waiting for me. An hour later, I was back to picking tomatoes.

I usually hammer on the labor movement for Labor Day, but, this year, I’d just like us all to consider how to find moments of rest through this long emergency we find outselves in. Combine 6 months of pandemic fatigue, up and down economy, and, oh my, the election, we all need to find a way to turn off our brains for a night.

In the box:

• Cantaloupe
• Red and Yellow Onion
• Red Potatoes
• Tomato Mix: End of the line on tomatoes, folks
• Carrots: Yes, this took forever, I know, but I’m happy we finally pulled them off!
• Italia Peppers: This long red/green pepper is sweet and good for frying and sauteeing
• Ancho Pepper: Dark green/red pepper with medium heat.
• Delicata Squash: Called a sweet potato squash, cut lengthwise, spoon out seeds, and bake upside down on cookie sheet or try some of the ideas in the video below.
• Fresh Rosemary