It felt right to be harvesting carrots this morning, bundled up in my fleece, down vest and hat. With my fingers chilled from the wet morning dew it seemed like the big October push to get the root crops in before winter. The tomatoes are less excited by this weather than the carrots, our vines are finally getting a bit taller and setting nice big fruit, it will take some hot weather to get them to ripen though. They, like the eggplants, melons, peppers and cucumbers are hanging out on the vines now, waiting.

We made a huge push on hay last weekend, devoting three very long days to mowing, tedding, raking, baling and moving the bales around. We have one more field to cut this weekend and hope to have enough first cut at that point to see us through the winter. Special thanks to Dave Lincoln for coming by several of those days to make the big round bales you see along the road for us.

I dug up some of those red fingerling potatoes we all loved so much last summer. They looked nice and healthy, but like everything still behind schedule, there were a lot of little potatoes started but not many fully grown. As tempting as they are I’ll hold off another few weeks to let them size up and get a better yield. The fall brassicas and roots are looking good as well. They were all seeded and transplanted at the end of the rain, and have germinated and grown beautifully. The storage cabbage plants are nearly as big now as their summer versions, despite being several months younger. The third succession of green bean vines are still growing up, hopefully they will start to flower soon.

Please bring plastic bags for the bin if you have any to spare. We still have a beautiful pottery bowl that was left here after the farm dinner in July, please ask for it if it belongs to you.

In the Farm Shares

In the veggie share: sweet Walla Walla onions, kale, swiss chard, carrots, beets, lettuce mix, mesclun mix, basil, herbs and flowers. Summer veggies—cucs, zucs, eggplants, tomatoes and sweet corn—still getting going but available with limits.

In the meat share: Fresh Beef. Whole and half broiler chickens. New larger size Beef Stock is ready in the freezer.

Sara Kurak 
Full and By Farm

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• Full and By Farm: Heat Good for Hay (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)