It seems like I was talking about the beginning of sorghum harvest such a short time ago and we are already on the way to getting it finished. Although it has been a smaller harvest (we planted less due to the market being slower this year), there has still been plenty of work to do to move things through.
As I mentioned in the last column, we had a labor exchange crew come out from Virginia. It was fun to have the folks from Twin Oaks and Acorn communities with us for a week. Puck and Foxx both came again this year and they were joined by Madge, Cloud, Bridget and Glenn. Our former intern and resident, Thea, travelled from Boulder, Colorado where she is attending the Rocky Mountain Herb School this year. She was lucky enough to have a week off from her studies and decided to spend it with us
Our interns from last year, Ann and Kevin, are paying us a visit after spending the last few months in West Virginia. Dena, Sarah and Dori, who are friends of Keren's from California, visited this past week. Dori is staying on for a while and is still here. Jon from St. Louis got here yesterday and we are expecting Brian, Molly and our good friend Matthew to be here tomorrow. We have also had much appreciated help from Owen and Tim at Dancing Rabbit and Tony returned from his month way to be here for the harvest.
With all the extra folks on the farm, there is definitely a feeling of abundance and fun. Meals have been extra special and there have been evenings of games and music. We have had a chance to catch up with everyone's stories and community news (well, gossip...).
This past Saturday afternoon, we hosted our annual Sorghum Festival/Open House. Despite the rather intense chill in the air, the turnout was good. A number of our Dancing Rabbit friends came over. Our guest book showed that we had also had lots of visitors from not only the surrounding communities, but also from further way. I talked to some folks from Nebraska who told me that they had heard from family members at home that twelve inches of snow had fallen the night before.
Folks enjoyed getting to see demonstrations of our milling operation and the sorghum cooking at Sugar Shack. We also offered hayride tours of our sorghum fields, as well as garden/greenhouse tours. A popular attraction was the old-fashioned beeswax candle dipping over an open fire. Both the adults and children seemed to enjoy that one, as well as the cider pressing. We also offered our guests ice cream with hot sorghum.
Laird and Ma'ikwe represented Sandhill Farm at the Keosauqua Fall Festival this past weekend. It was even more chilly there, only reaching a high of 35 degrees on Saturday. They spent Saturday night with Charles, who had been a work exchanger for Ma'ikwe this summer, at his place in Fairfield and had a nice evening visiting with him.
With the ending of our agricultural and gardening year, there is a definite feeling of the completion of the annual cycle at Sandhill Farm. For my husband and myself, it also represents the completion of our time here. After seven and a half years as members of the community, we are returning to our home place in the Ozarks and this will be my last column. Our son is building us a new house and we are returning to our former occupation as market gardeners. It's the beginning of a different chapter in our lives, but we will always have a place in our hearts for this community and the surrounding area. Good luck to everyone and I've enjoyed visiting with you.