Now it feels like fall has finally arrived. A couple of weeks ago, we finally had a frost hard enough to kill off the summer crops: the peppers and basil and what was left of the beans and tomatoes. And at the beginning of last week we had a three-day stretch of fair weather ideal for the farm’s fall clean-up. So I spent those three days pulling out or mowing off everything but the patch of fall brassicas (broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbages, and the like), tilling everything lightly, and sowing a cover crop of winter wheat to protect the soil until spring.

This was a great satisfaction, to see the fields clean and ready for the next season, as though I pressed an enormous reset button.