I did get out for an evening photography walk Saturday night. Most of the crowd had no idea that Mary was soundlessly asleep as I walked in a tired, post-market stupor around the fair grounds. But the Lyon’s club, or the rodeo sidelines weren’t slowing down.
The Ravali County Fair, for us, always marks the change of seasons. As our farm members’ kids go back to school, the melons are peaking, and we have our eyes on the getting the bulk crops that have been curing in our shop and greenhouse packed away so we can have space to braid garlic, think about bringing in winter squash to cure, and we are starting to sequence out all the harvests to come. Fall carrots, winter carrots, several rounds of broccoli and cauliflower, storage radishes, the last of the early potatoes and the first and last of the storage potatoes. The last field greens will be seeded in just over week and then we’ll start moving caterpillar tunnels and seeding and transplanting high tunnels. And that means more ground prep, the last heirloom tomatoes, and the tackling the pulse canning tomatoes, which are always due about now (or perhaps 10 days from now).
Every week is a bit of a race and we get ready for both fall and winter, while wrapping up summer all at the same time. We couldn’t do this without farm members and our community of supporters. And we couldn't feed such a large community without the crew that have been working alongside us all season. We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go in the sustainability front — getting enough sleep, being organized enough for a larger team, and being more involved in projects that call to us, and maintaining that farm magic that’s hard to lose this time of year. I forgot to mention that these days we spend a lot of our evenings freezing and preserving the last of summer. The dehydrator is only off long enough to unload one batch of melon slices and load in the next.
One way you can help us, today (or tomorrow) is to take advantage of our melon sale. For the next two days, as we work to clear out our melon garden and the 50-degree “fruit room” that stores our tomatoes (as you see, we’ve got to get ready for some large tomato harvests), we have a special deal. Buy two melons, and take a third of equal or lesser value. We love drying melons, and encourage you to try if if you have a dehydrator. But they also work really well frozen in chunks—great for all kinds of winter drinks. So, if you’ve had too many elephant ears at the fair, or you just want to join in the next best thing to the fair, this new season, come on out. Almost like the fair, even if you aren’t into melons, there’s something for everyone.
A quick respite, as the light fades. Just a mile away from the fairgrounds, melons ripen.
The SRF melon trailer, deployed at the farm this week. The sale goes to the end of Wednesday, or until the melons are out! Don’t worry, there’s more melons than pictured in both the fruit room and field.