This year, one of our big challenges was the drought. So, to start out our Ames winter potluck schedule- the first friday of every month, we'll be talking about drought, water use, and resiliency to stresses such as drought. Following that, we'll be talking in November about how our farm did the last year, and what our future plans are. In December, we'll be going in a different direction with a discussion on social justice, inequality, and education, led by Chris Fowler. The goal with these potlucks is to inform the attendees, but also realize that everyone that comes has information that can be valuable for others, and foster a productive discussion about subjects in agriculture, social justice, spirituality, and the environment, or some combination thereof. Before that discussion, we'll have a potluck dinner to share food with eachother, from 6 to 7 Information about the first few potlucks is below:

Drought, Water, and Resiliency: October 5, dinner at 6, discussion at 7
Location: 704 Duff Ave, Ames, IA 50010

Mustard Seed Community Farm Season Review: November 2, dinner at 6, discussion at 7
Location: 704 Duff Ave, Ames, IA 50010

Social Justice and Inequality in Education: December 7, dinner at 6, discussion at 7
Location: to be determined, but likely at 704 Duff Ave, Ames, IA 50010

So our growing season is coming to an end, and in the next few days we will likely have another severe frost that will kill off the rest of our warm-season crops. We will still have a fair amount of winter greens and carrots, daikons, and other things to harvest, and lots of sweet potatoes and garlic that hasn't been delivered yet, but right now a lot of the work on the farm isn't focused on vegetables for this year. We've been protecting our trees from deer, which have been coming on our farm more now that the frost has killed a lot of their normal food. We've been planting lots of cover crop, in some cases even watering it, as it won't start growing without a little help from us. And soon, we'll be planting our garlic for next year and mulching it, along with our strawberries and other crops we want to protect over the winter.

The farm is looking for mulch, and we imagine lots of people have leaves they'd like to get rid of. So if you're in Ames, and are interested in giving us your leaves, give Nate a call at 515-231-2002.

Two Saturdays ago we had a very serious frost on the farm. We were expecting frost, and we covered our tomatoes and peppers and we knew we might lose a few things, but it was much colder than we expected. We had extensive damage in our tomatoes and peppers and all the rest of the warm season crops (beans, melons, cukes, eggplant, etc) are black and melted looking, and even some of the cold weather crops look a little singed. So this morning's harvest was much smaller than usual and we've decided to wind down the CSA a little earlier than planned. We feel good - our season has already passed 20 weeks - which is always our estimate - but it's still sad to see food go to waste, and of course sad to let go of summer and the farm season. So the plan for now, based on our most educated guesses, is that last week was our last regular delivery. However, we still have some cold weather crops that we had planted to be ready in october, so we will do one more delivery in october - probably next week though it could be later, depending on when carrots are ready.
To our paid shares-we'll let you know when you'll be recieving your last box.
To our working shares-we will still be working on the farm and donating our smaller harvests to the food pantries. Give me a call if you have any questions, or if you are missing your vegetables a lot, or if you want to help out. We probably will have a lot of extra green tomatoes and kale and chard.

here's an abbreviated version of the long blog i just accidentally erased:
1. gratitude for all those who helped make a music festival in the rain an amazing success.
2. upcoming pot-lucks.
3. opportunities to work at mustard seed.

i just wrote a super long blog and then it all got erased with one little click!

This friday, a little after dinner, we'll be watching a movie put out by the Greenhorns, an organization one of our farm team (Kristen) is planning on going to work for later this year. They're a real cool organization that promotes new farmers and innovation on all farms. It'll be a fun event the day before our music festival! (see above)