Casey setting up for some August season magic.
As each year passes in my life, annual patterns and rhythms reveal themselves to me in greater detail here on the farm. This year, I am realizing that there is a bit of a funk to August.
People talk about “lazy Summer days,” most often referring to this time of year. As my friend Sheila noted in her blog last week, that phrase doesn’t really apply to farm life. Here on our farm, we are as busy as ever with the weekly summer routines of harvest for our customers, tending (and irrigating) the fields, and caring for animals.
And yet, I think I can still relate to parts of that phrase. While we might not have the luxury to be lazy ourselves, the world around us seems to be paused in a way. The flies and yellow jackets may be buzzing in the hot air, but the birds are quieter than earlier in the year, done now with mating and seeking shade. And, the flowers are gone from the wild world, only to be found in gardens.
Most fields around us have already been harvested and are sitting dry, brown, and spent looking. Wild trees and plants that aren’t receiving the benefit of irrigation water have begun the slow process to dormancy — some leaves already turning, from drought rather than cold. Weeds that weren’t caught earlier in the season are maturing and sending forth their seeds into the air. I drive through the county and readily spot Canadian thistle down in many perennial fields — a sight to make any farmer cringe a bit, knowing just how much work those seeds represent for years to come.
This is the season of maturation rather than growth — plants have grown up and are now going through the phases of finishing their life, maturing fruit and setting seeds. Just as with humans in adolescence, it is awkward.
And, the dust. Some days, when the air is still and warm, and tractors work up fields for fall, the sky is tinged brown on top of the blue. There are days when it is so thick that I find myself slightly holding my own breath, joining in that feeling around me. It feels as though we are all waiting just right now — waiting for the seed to set, for the fall rains to arrive, for things to begin swinging into motion again. I have to remind myself to breathe deep, that this pause is too long for me to really hold on.
We’ve heard from other farmers that this is also the month when farmers and their employees can turn cranky. I suppose it’s only natural given all that I described above. And, in the rhythm of our year of work, this is also a pause — not entirely, given how busy we are with the regular work, but it is that inhalation just before another burst of new work: fall harvests. Novelty is always inspiring, even if it is just part of a cycle, and those harvests will certainly wake us up out of our heat and dust induced doldrums. New motions and tasks will enter our days again, making our ‘to do’ list longer and more interesting than right now. And, eventually, a few of those early refreshing rains will turn the world green again and bring some peace and restfulness to the schedule too.
But, August brings its joys too. Most notably, the joy that comes will all those fruits that are maturing on those gangly over-grown plants — the tomato planting itself may not be as pristine and perfect looking as earlier in the season, but the tomatoes on those plants are as delightful as jewels and as delicious as anything. I put up our first batch of tomato sauce last week and marveled at just how excited I am about eating it this winter. “What is it about tomatoes?” I wondered. How can a can of tomato sauce so radically transform any stew from normal to extraordinary? Especially as the rain falls in the dark sky in November or December.
I hope to get many more batches done before the tomatoes slow down in September. We can never put up enough, it seems, but this year I aim to try. We’ll see. (Of course, a kitchen made hot and steamy from canning is part of the challenge of August, but it is so worth it.)
So, yes, the food. Soon to follow the tomatoes will be the eggplant and peppers. The winter squash are maturing too. Tomorrow, we will harvest the onions for winter storage. Our fruit trees are full of sized up fruit that is now gathering its sweetness from the late summer sun. We picked our first pears and apples last week for storage. That shift to the excitement of harvest is here, just not yet in full force. Again, there is a sense of that holding of breath, just waiting for those carrots to size up for fall harvest, for those apples to sweeten, for the onions to dry …
The summer moon rose at dusk over happy people.
This year, we unintentionally found a way to plow through the normal August doldrums by bringing some fun excitement (and extra work) to our farm life. Our family hosted CSA members on the farm this Saturday for a sit-down dinner of farm foods. We harvested the food and organized the dinner, and Jason and Laurie Furch from Red Fox took care of the cooking. It was a lovely evening that required us and all of our crew to snap out of any kind of lazy August haze we might have wanted to wallow in and really shake our buns, move, and have some fun. The result was pure magic and worth every moment of sweat and effort that went into. Thank you to everyone who joined us for a delicious dinner.
We know that in many people’s annual rhythms another big shift is coming up as well: the start of school is just around the corner for students and teachers. In these remaining days of summer life, we hope that you can enjoy the unique pleasures of this season — because as much as we may yearn for fall, the wet rainy season is long. This is it. Suck the marrow out of this summer so that you go into the next season warm all the way to your bones in a way that will carry you through to the next one. Perhaps some tomatoes in your pantry can help too.
Enjoy this week’s vegetables!
Your farmers, Katie & Casey Kulla
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Meet this week’s vegetables:
- Tomatoes
- Basil
- Plums
- Red russian kale
- Beets
- Carrots
- Summer squash
- Scallions
