Worcester Woods Farm

     We had a couple frosts this week. You probably did too. Squash, cukes, eggplant, melon, peppers…all dead. Basil, cilantro, and many flowers gone as well. Some of these I had hoped to squeeze a little more food out of, others I am happy to see gone. Now comes the process of pulling weeds, tilling in or composting most of the vegetation and planting cover crops where applicable. Even at this point we should still be able to get some decent growth out of a winter rye to protect the soil from the winter and provide nutrients for the spring. There is less time to work than there was before, as dark makes it so I can no longer get anything done after supper. But I’m not really complaining. We are beat. Tired. Sore. We want to watch movies, read books, take walks in the woods and eat a lot of pork. The only problem is that there is a good month and a half of work still to be done if we want to come into the winter feeling organized, cleaned up and prepared for next spring. I need to pull in the rest of the piles of firewood I have laying around the woods and burn a ton of brush. We need to set up a good spot for the hens and the ducks for the winter. We still have five pigs to tend to, and hopefully find all the tools I let get buried in the grass. There are wheelbarrow loads of squishy rotten tomatoes to pick up (gross), sunflower stalks to pull, onions and potatoes to be brought in and broken windows to fix. Worst of all, I need to find a job for the winter. It will be some time yet before this isn’t necessary, and man do I look forward to that day. It’s not like I ever picture Bonnie and I sitting on some beach in the Caribbean, healing our cuts and bruises and relaxing for a couple months (although she may), but after working umpteen days in a row without a break, it would be nice to catch our breath.
                 We need to make money, and we want to start a family and either buy this place or make a move onto something else. Since my shot at being a rock star or playing professional golf is decreasing by the hour, we really only have a couple options left. The most likely one would be to just keep our heads down and continue to push forward, paycheck by paycheck. We both believe deeply in earning what you have, and I think we have the strong backs and discipline to keep at it for a long time to come. The other one would be to organize all the philosophies I have been working on for the last ten years into a best selling book that someone like Kevin Costner would make into a movie. He would fall in love with Jessica Lange, and they would set out to build some admirable life together in the mountains of New England. They would of course have to go through really tough times, like avoiding being run out of town by evil ag-business executives, and almost dying while rescuing some stranded pigs in flood waters. But in the end they would triumph by designing the perfect food system where all the townspeople could have bountiful CSA share for 50 bucks a year. The End.
                 So I hope you can all make it to our little pig roast on the 29th. If you plan on it, please let us know so that we can figure out how much food needs to be made. We need to figure out how many cases to order of Kraft macaroni and cheese and Little Debbie Cakes. Just kidding. And sorry about the celery. It’s a little crappy, but there should be a few good stalks to munch on and put in your soup. See ya…