Here we are at the last newsletter of the season – and the end of our first decade of living on the farm, off the grid, on the land, in the woods.

It’s been quite a ride, surfing this learning curve, and I am pleased to report an uninterrupted streak of no regrets – in leaving behind the life we’d known – career, city, and microwave ovens. I know a decade is an arbitrary point, but it truly feels that we are making a pivot from learning to live, and into living the life. Planting, harvesting, selling at the market, firewood and drinking water and electricity and all the basic activities and necessities come … not easy, but with much less stress and confusion.

We started without a business plan or a financial prediction, just winging it with faith that things would work out somehow. Without knowing if we might hemorrhage away all of our little savings, we leaned hard into learning to do without, and scavenging all the free detritus we could from the edges of civilization. Today we find ourselves with a new confidence, feeling that we know when and where we might choose to spend some of our precious nest egg to better our lives.

This week, that came into play with two major upgrades. Power-ups, indeed:

First, the replacement of our minimalist low budget solar battery bank with a mightier lithium ion system, thanks to our WWOOFers Evan & Nikki, who planned and built the upgraded 24v system while they stayed here … making it possible to power everything we do, including the daily irrigation of the high tunnel.

We have also powered up our abilities out on the land, with the purchase of a modern tractor! After 10 years of wagons, carts, backaches, wheelbarrows, and borrowing Neighbor Dave and his tractor, we took the plunge and committed to the most versatile, powerful, and iconic of farm implements!

We’ve window shopped online for years but the right thing never came along until, like our dogs and cat have done, the Right One came along with divinely perfect timing, flowing seamlessly into our lives, clearly meant to be.

The tractor came from a friend from the farmer’s market old days; we named the machine after her once we got her home. And getting home with the tractor was a journey, no mere shopping trip. I sent the picture below of Bonnie and the Boys to a farmer friend, and he responded that “Tractor trips are epic and mythical” – and mere minutes later, a tire shed its tread beneath Goat Dave’s trailer, laden with thousands of pounds of tractor.

It could have been a disaster. It should have been. But somehow … it was just a lovely little adventure, likely ling remembered by us all. We managed to limp four miles along the shoulder of the highway to the next exit, where a lovely trailer rental business quickly and painlessly set us to rights and gave the boys hats to remember the epic and mythical tractor trip with.

The best and most important things in our lives flow, unforced, and the best adventures feel epic and mythical, from getting power-ups to raising a farm and a family to growing vegetables for you all for another year.

It’s a profoundly lovely way to live our life together, and I feel like I should thank you for giving us the chance to do it. It’s been beautiful. Enjoy your veggies.

Thanks.

Inside the Year’s Last Box

Winter squash – a butternut & a storage squash (either Tetsukabuto or Winter Sweet). The storage squash will be better in a couple of months than in a couple of days – could go longer too, but keep an eye on it in case it starts to turn evil whilst forgotten in the back of a dark cupboard.

Note: I was knocked out of a spelling bee in third grade on the word “cupboard” and I haven’t forgiven it.

Russet Potatoes – best for mashing or baking whole

Kale – a nice addition to winter squash soup

Brussels sprouts – our finest crop yet; we think we might know why, and make it The Way we do them henceforth.

Carrots – not our finest crop of these yet; Que-rrot sera, sera.

Zucchini 

Tomatoes – I love having these all the way into October!

Cherry tomatoes – you’ve had a lot this year, since we had a lot …. here’s a couple recipe ideas if you’ve forgotten the feeling of winter in your bones and don’t want to eat them raw anymore:

• Cherry Tomato & Cheese Galette
• Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Onion

More Beautiful Peppers – they have been finding their way into everything here. Stir fry, fajitas and tacos, sauces, salads…

Salad Turnips

Sage – left to my own devices I might just sniff the bag of these periodically, for pleasure, but Kristin recommends eating it. It is delicious to snack on battered and fried, or you could make a brown butter sauce.

See you at the party, or next year; wishing you sunny days & cozy nights!

Last Tuesday, as we went to drive away from the last CSA box drop in Northeast Minneapolis, our weekly cycle’s opening moments began with the van’s abrupt inability to be shifted out of park. That sounds like the week started off terribly, but no!

We have AAA thanks to a Christmas gift from Grandma & Grandpa, and while we waited for the tow truck, we walked to a nearby pizza place for an ice cream cone in the urban afternoon sunshine. (thanks for the tip, kindly CSA member!)

We happened to be without either dog or our children for the breakdown, we had some time to spare … and it turned out that being forced by the dissolution of a linkage bushing to take an ice cream stroll through Minneapolis was really downright pleasant. We even held hands while walking down the sidewalk; surprise date!

After we got home, the week went on, even more quickly than those before.

The chilly mornings returned, and so dd Squirrelly & Dragon, the two orphan squirrels we’d befriended this spring, whom we had not seen up close in months. Dragon’s dragging hind leg looked even worse, but she has gotten much more adept at going up and down trees without its use. They are much larger now, but we know them from the unnamed woodland masses when they come up close and watch expectantly for us to fetch them sunflower seeds.

The squirrels don’t climb into our hands anymore,but one of the two surviving chicks from August’s predation spree has turned out to be quite the friendly foul – Robin seems likely to be a rooster, but if he continues to outwit death, we will keep him on the team as a father for the next generation of chicks.

Oh and this week we finally got some September rain! First some tiny intense thunderstorms that hit us directly in spite of all odds, and then a long wall of rain, for a total of 1.3″ of much-appreciated moisture over the course of the week.

The acorns continue their noisy bombardment of our structures, the leaves slowly lose their vibrant greens, and thoughts return to snow removal, firewood, frozen water lines, rodent prevention, snowload supports, winter travels to warmer climes, and the Farm Party that qwe hope to see you at on October 13th!

Find Inside Box 16:

• Tomatoes – the cool nights has really slowed them down at last! Good time to transition to:
• Winter squash Jester or Delicata or Acorn
• Broccoli – unless you’re Bree in which case you get an Eggplant.
• Potatoes
• Fennel – roasted or raw, delicious and crunchy when roasted with potatoes onions and sausage. Fronds are also edible. I think people do something with them and fish?
• Carrots – We don’t know why they turned out rather poorly this year, in spite of being weeded and pampered.
• Zucchini 
• Cherry tomatoes
• Onions
• assorted Sweet Peppers – did you know that Green Peppers are just unripened peppers? When ripe they have more flavor and nutrients!
• Thyme – would pair nicely with your potatoes, roasted or mashed.
• Daikon radish -we left the greens on because they’re edible and tasty when cooked! The root is beloved by kimchi people, but alas for you if you’re among them, because our fall Napa Cabbage crop failed (abundant rain and improved soil = slugs for us it seems)
  
  (PS: spoiler: our whole Leeks crop failed too, alas, but that seems to have been the fault of a lousy batch of starts)

Only ONE more 2024 box to go …. how on earth can this so quickly be?!

This week was weirdly hot, and yet the sumac started turning blaze red, acorns fell like carpet bombs, and mice tried moving into everything. One such rodent tried tunneling through a plastic table, while another built a nest within the propane shower heating element, resulting in a shower surprise of smoke, fire, and a mouse that flew away like a misfired rocket.

We are back into drought talk time; We haven’t had rain since August. We are running the drip irrigation again, perhaps a bit reluctantly. Seems impossible that I just dumped a small pond of trapped tarp-water ontp myself a few weeks ago, but it seems to be so.

With help from our neighbor, or WWOOFers, and Deb and Jim, we finally managed to get up to Lake Superior with The Boys. It’s magic there, to us – and now perhaps to another generation.

inside Box 15

• Ground Cherries – at last! This year’s ground cherries are the tastiest ever in my opinion. Peel the husk and snack, one at a time.
• Broccoli – the first of the fall broccoli crop has entered the chat
• Turnips – great variety for fresh eating; sweet and not all that turnipy
• Radishes
• Zucchini
• Tomatoes – they are slowing down, now.
• Cherry Tomato Medley
• Peppers – a mix of bell and sweet peppers (no hots)