Farm update
So not much has changed since the information in the last newsletter. We've taken down our fence, and there's been lots of animal activity: turkeys, a cat, and deer. The activity from the deer has convinced us to protect a few more of our trees, as they're getting eaten pretty badly. We're also cleaning up everything for the final year, and starting plans for next year. Next year will be largely non-food crops, focusing on ecological health, soil quality, buffers, and forages. We're starting to do research on what those plants should be. One other thing different this fall, compared to other falls, is that we've left a lot of our dead crops standing that we would normally take down: beans, tomatoes, okra. We've done this rather than removing them and planting cover crop because they will hopefully serve as a snow fence to catch moisture for the soil. Also, because of dry conditions, the cover crop germination hasn't been great, so the dead plants will provide some kind of soil cover.

Hunger and Homelessness Event with farm team members: monday from 6-8:30
Next Monday, as part of the national hunger and homelessness week, there will be a public forum organized by the story county housing board where various people involved in mitigating hunger and homelessness in Story County will talk about their work and ideas. The last few years, cookies have been provided. From our farm, Alice will be talking about our farm, what we do, and what other farms in the area do to try to get healthy food to hungry people. You should come if you want, it's Commons Hall, Bethesda Lutheran Church, 1517 Northwestern Ave. The event is being organized by the Story County Housing Board and sponsored by the City of Ames Housing Division. Here's more info:
http://www.cityofames.org/index.aspx?recordid=943&page=43

This shows our green bean harvests, in pounds per week, over the last year.

This Friday, November 2nd, we'll talk about the about our farm's past and future: how we did in terms of harvest and distribution this year, how that compared to previous years, and what else has happened this past year,. featuring fun graphs such as those below. We'll also talk about our farm's future: our plans to take a year off from our CSA, and other things we might do, like building an outdoor kitchen, potentially buying our land, building a bread oven, and how we might have the people and resources to do these things. 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 next two potlucks is below:

Mustard Seed Community Farm: progress report and future plans: 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: 704 Duff Ave, Ames, IA 50010

In the past month, we've planted and mulched our garlic, covered our strawberries for the winter, planted the last of our winter cover crops (some rye planted at right), harvested the last of our carrots, and delivered most all of our storage vegetables (cabbage, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, potatoes), and protected all of the trees that we want to protect. Soon we'll take down our fence and the deer can start eating all of our kale. We still have a few vegetables: kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, radishes, though a hard freeze will likely come in the next month that will take all of these out. Meanwhile, our rye, vetch, and tillage radish cover crops are slowly growing, helped along by the somewhat more prevalent precipitation, despite the fact that hydrologically, we're in a drought.

We've checked our carrots, and they seem a sufficient size, and it's also getting a little cold for our harvesters, so for people getting a box (I know it's only 10% of this list, sorry) OUR LAST DELIVERIES WILL BE NEXT WEEK, OCTOBER 9TH AND 12TH, and then our CSA will be over. For our workers, make sure to come, we will be protecting trees and planting garlic, two important tasks for next year.

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.