Last Harvests

   Since I last wrote we have lost the hour of  evening daylight that daylight savings time gave to us and the nights start much earlier now. I have gone back to work full time and so the farm chores have been relegated to the weekends. I have found that the loss of that evening hour has affected me more than I thought it would. The pressure to get the outside projects finished has just soared and the limited daylight and much cooler temperatures has just moved those projects to the top of the list. Last weekend I harvested the remaining habenaro peppers and put them in a brining solution. Today I packed the peppers in canning jars filled with olive oil and checked one more thing off the to do list. All the posts have been set and the door has been hung for the chicken run, now all we need to do is install the fencing. Yesterday I prepared the area for planting sun chokes and today the chokes went into the ground. It was warmer than I expected it to be and so the planting was easy and it was a pleasure to once again have garden soil on my hands. I planted the tubers exactly as my friend told me I should and thought about next years harvest of a new addition to the garden. The thought made me smile and I smiled even more as I checked another item off my list. I accomplished most of what I intended to do this weekend and now all the garden plots have been spread with rabbit manure and all the dead stalks and canes have been cut down for composting or removal.
    The full beaver moon has come and gone and we've only had a few really chilly days. The anticipated cold snap has yet to come and so the last of garden crops is hanging on. Kale, that wonderful and healthy green is hardy and I've seen it growing in several inches of snow, is still hanging on in the garden. There have been green worms munching on our last crop and I removed several of them today. The weather men are predicting a touch of the polar vortex will come at the end of the week and I hope it will end the lives of my little green poachers. I had written in my last post that I was ready for the growing season to be over and also to finish the last of my outside projects, this has not changed but I'm still hoping to nibble some of our kale. I have sold almost all the current litter of rabbits and so am really leaning toward a winter breeding of the does. This decision means that Issac will have to sire the next litters and I'll have to gear up for another outside project, mainly keeping the new born kits from freezing during their first few days of life.
    As I write this post I can see the leaves blowing from yard to yard and I can also see that most of the leaves are off the trees. Autumn is more than half done and winter is just six weeks away and although I have been talking about what I've been doing outside I know that those things are coming to an end. I am anticipating the coming change and have picked up two carboys from my brother for fermenting cider. I will order the yeast for inoculating the cider next weekend and the weekend after that have a carboy filled with freshly pressed cider from Woodstock Orchards. We will also begin looking into a cheese making kit in the next week or two which is a very exciting prospect for me as I love cheese. These are all inside activities and I'm really looking forward to starting them  because it's another phase of farming we haven't really tried yet. I don't mind the cold, in fact I love deer hunting or checking traps on the crisp falling mornings, so it's not why I'm ready to move our projects in doors. I'm ready to move inside because I'm looking forward sharing our  new experiences with our friends, so as I look out the window and see the long shadows of a shorter day I'm excited for the changes brought on by the season of  last harvests.