“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
Lida Farm 