The cold sets in

“Why do farmers farm, given their economic adversities on top of the many frustrations and difficulties normal to farming? And always the answer is: “Love. They must do it for love.” Farmers farm for the love of farming. They love to watch and nurture the growth of plants. They love to live in the presence of animals. They love to work outdoors. They love the weather, maybe even when it is making them miserable.” ~ Wendell Berry, Bringing it to the Table

Our fall harvest dinner, held Nov. 30th, was a great success! Although stormy weather contributed to a limited turnout, we had a great night of food and family conversations. It was all anchored by our menu, which our talented and passionate JobCorps culinary students and I crafted; just some of our selection included buffalo chicken (with homemade sauce to use our abundance of cayenne peppers), roasted Chioggia beets, deviled eggs from our own laying hens, Southern-style mustard greens, barbeque kale chips, and a truly first-class Swiss chard salad with red wine vinaigrette.

One of my favorite aspects of our garden program is its interdisciplinary nature. One of our teachers, for instance, who specializes in music and drama, put together a little experiment with his one of his music classes. The goal has been to measure plants’ response to stimuli – in this case, the mood of a particular song, artist, or genre of music. And yes, the hard rock plant was named Robert Plant (you can’t miss an opportunity like that).

After the heavy rains (finally) and before the ground set in, an accidental crop of mushrooms appeared in the garden.