Silence

Today the farm is eerily quite. The walk-in cooler and greenhouse fans are finally shut off, the fields have all been harvested, tilled and seeded to cover crops, and the greenhouse beds are empty. The food bank crew came today and harvested what little was still left in the field.

The farm feels like it's the end of October, but the thermometer reads about 85- so that can't be right. If you have been following this blog you will know that Tammara and I are taking the second half of the season off to take a long needed extended vacation (sabbatical). Our plan is to drive across the country to camp and hike in National Parks in both the US and Canada. To find out more about this trip visit our new travel blog at Vagabond Farmers http://vagabondfarmers.blogspot.com We plan to start making posts to the site in the near future.

We must admit we were quite nervous about the reaction our customers would have toward this plan. We need not have worried, everyone we have told about the trip has been very supportive and genuinely happy for us. Granted, there is typically a brief moment of anguish when they realize there will be no Minglewood tomatoes and they will have to find a new source for salad greens and arugula, but then most people say "Good for you" - and then start telling us about all the places we have to visit.

We would like to thank all our dedicated customers for their understanding and assure them we will be back in the spring of 2011 with renewed energy and enthusiasm for farming. We would also like to thank this years superb crew both at the farm and at the market. With the reduced number of crops we were trying to manage the farm never looked better, and despite having less variety available at market, our sales were still 10-20% higher each week than in previous years.

Enjoy the rest of the summer, and stay in touch.