It's the last day of August and it is hard to tell if it is still summer. That extra blanket sure felt good this morning, as did the hot cup of coffee. Jackets and flannel shirts seem to be the norm for these cool mornings.
Unfortunately, the cooler nights are slowing down some of our crops. At this point, it looks like our sorghum harvest will start at the end of September, which is a bit later than usual. The wet fields this spring are playing a role in that situation, too. However, we are busy with planning for the harvest and folks are contacting us who want to come and help out.
Although it hasn't been a year with the biggest yields ever, we are still getting abundant harvests from our gardens and orchards. Cucumbers and summer squash are winding down, but we are still canning tomatoes and we have been enjoying sweet corn at our meals the past week or so. Some of the corn will also go in the freezer. I see a note on the calendar that Laird put up sixty pints of damson plum jam during one of his days in the processing kitchen. Folks have also been munching on some excellent apples and we have had some great fruit cobblers and other desserts.
We did our honey harvest this past week. Due to the tough winter conditions and the wet spring, we have a much smaller yield this year. We took enough to cover our needs but will not be selling any honey to the public this time around. Stan and Apple are working on building up our bee populations and hives so hopefully next year will be better.
Some of our crew are away at the moment. Keren and Hannah are attending the three week permaculture course being held at the Possibility Alliance in LaPlata. They will return on September 6th. Tony left last Wednesday to spend September helping the man he worked for last year with farming tasks and house construction. He will be returning for the sorghum harvest.
Laird went to Michigan this past week with Ma'ikwe and Jibran to visit Ma'ikwe's mother and other family members. They did some blueberry-picking while they were there and Laird brought them back to use in one of his chutney recipes and in some of our desserts.
We have enjoyed hosting more guests and visitors the past three weeks. Ali brought her family back with her from North Carolina. Her dad Tandy, her mom Susan and her sister Rosa were a lot of fun and really pitched in to help us out during the week they were here. Tandy and Susan are also accomplished musicians (she teaches music) and we enjoyed listening to them play guitar and sing.
Marc from our sister community in Seattle, Emma Goldman, came down from Iowa to visit with us. He had been attending a family reunion up there and also spent some time at one of the cooperative houses in Iowa City. He arrived on August 15th and was with us until the 25th when he biked back to Iowa City. He and Jacob from Red Earth Farms already know each other and Marc is also a good friend of our former intern and friend Thea.
We hosted Rick from Maryland for an overnight stay on August 21st. He was on his way west to do volunteer work at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, helping with the construction of a new school. After that, he will be attending a two week permaculture course which is also being held at Pine Ridge.
Susan from Arizona arrived yesterday afternoon. Laird has been acting as her studies mentor for her major program at Prescott College. She will also be part of the new events coordination team for the FIC. Eric, another friend of Laird, will join her here today. He is involved in trying to start a new community in Arizona. They will be with us for part of this week.
I do want to let folks know that we will be having our Sorghum Festival/Open House again this year. It will be on October 10th from 1pm to 5pm. We will have more details about it in future columns.