September 23 at 2:50 a.m. marks the Autumnal Equinox, the first day of astronomical fall in the Northern Hemisphere, where the amount of daylight equals the amount of night. In Latin, equinox means “equal night,” aequus (equal) and nox (night), and finds the sun directly above the equator.
Following this brief harmony between light and darkness, here in the Northern Hemisphere we’ll continue to lose daylight until the Winter Solstice on December 21.
So what does this mean on the farm?
The days are getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping, and the plants know it and start slowing their growth. The full moon that occurs closest to the Autumnal Equinox is known as the “Harvest Moon,” and historically farmers would use the light of the rising full moon at sunset to give them extra light to harvest their crops.
We weren’t out in the fields at twilight tonight (well, maybe one of us was to tend to some plant friends that needed a little TLC), but we pulled in a bountiful harvest this week and are setting out to make some special deliveries this weekend. We are very grateful to those of you who ordered your market goods by email today and helped us make the best of tomorrow’s wet and windy weather.
We’ve already started planning crops for next year, and this week we started shelling beans to plant in the spring and continued harvesting other seeds that we’ll grow next year.
Personally, I’m looking forward to roasting squash, making vegetable soup to go with VOHF focaccia, and baking apples tomorrow while the rain falls. What a perfect way to celebrate the start of autumn.
Happy Fall, y’all!
Allison Schumacher
Farm Manager
“X”
By Wendell Berry
“Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
“Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.
“And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace.That we may reap,
Great work is done while we’re asleep.
“When we work well, a Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.”