Goodbye August

The air is feeling cooler on the morning walks, and the geese have started to move in recent days. Almost overnight it seems, the flocks of tourists have also left and town is quiet again. That love-hate thing that so many people have with tourists, I have with the changing of seasons. Autumn is probably my favorite season, yet seeing the summer end always creates some pangs of sadness. That transitional time is always the worst. Once the seasons truly shift and we're in full-blown fall mode, with sweaters and falling leaves and apple everything, those pangs dissipate quickly. Settling into the shifting seasons.

Lots of chores to do around the barn during the coming months. The gardens have been very weird this summer, with some crops doing really well and others not well. At all. Not sure if the rainy and cool June is to blame or my soil...either way, for the first time in recent memory I did not grow one zucchini. The summer squash did great, as did beans and cherry tomatoes; cukes were a bust. The grapes that I planted three years ago have finally taken off. This will be my first grape harvest ever, and while there won't be enough for stomping this year, it is fun to think about focusing on a few crops and doing them well. Grapes and garlic and maybe greens would be my pick, not only because they're three of my favorites to eat but because they seem to thrive in the Salty Ewe's growing conditions.  Learning how to make the most of what we have...reminding my salty self that sometimes what we have is far beyond what we really need, and transitioning from season to season.  Signing off on August from the farmette and looking forward to an Indian summer into fall.