It is a beautiful day in Tupelo, MS

Good morning,

It is a beautiful day in Tupelo, MS and all of us on the farm are thankful for the cooler temperatures and for the wonderful crisp morning that we have experienced. We have just finished up our two week soil steaming project and are moving on to setting out the first of the big Fall field transplants tomorrow morning. Today has seen us steam our landscape fabric, pick squash and okra (including from the beautiful young squash field pictured above,) mow around our tunnels and continue with the never-ending work of sorting tomatoes and all the little details involved in keeping the Farmstand clean, presentable and ready for your enjoyment five days a week. One reason that we are closed on Monday's is so that we can take down all of the tables, wash tablecloths, reset everything to hopefully have it looking impeccable for you first thing on Tuesday morning. This time of year the Farmstand is being filled with lots of produce from the mountains of North Carolina.

The August heat, humidity, pestilence and disease makes organic veggie production tough and aside from winter squash, summer squash, peppers, okra and small tomatoes we are buying in from our more Northerly farmer colleagues to keep the Summer time vegetable party rolling. Working with small growers 400 miles away is a challenge to say the least. It takes two days for us to make the trip and trying to manage availability several days out is not always a straightforward process.

The rain from the hurricane in the Atlantic has slowed down the tomato harvest and made some fields too muddy to pick from, lots of phone calls, a fair amount of pivoting, you can likely imagine. But, as things usually do, the produce buying this week has worked out and the farm van will be back with a good load of all kind of good things to eat later this afternoon. While I enjoy the challenges of sourcing produce for this in between time, I am ready for the start of the Fall season, which is just about 5 weeks away. Carrots, turnips, radishes and mustards are popping up in tidy rows throughout our fields (the carrots are a little weedy and will need quite a few hours of hand weeding but this is for another email,) we transplanted out the first rainbow chard, collards and kale of the season last week and tomorrow will see us transplanting an acre of Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, collards, squash and zucchini.

With luck we will also be seeding rutabaga, storage turnips and more radishes out into the field tomorrow as well. And the cleanup work continues, miles of weedy spent tomato trellises are being cut down, stakes pulled from the ground, mulch lifted etc... Despite feeling a little bit burned out, there is a lot happening on the farm right now and regardless of how tired our minds and bodies may be, NOW is the time to make it happen. Speaking of now, it is also the time for you to get signed up for the Fall CSA. Things are crazy in the world right now, insulate yourself a bit from the industrial food supply chain by purchasing a Fall Community Supported Agriculture share. $360 will get you ten weeks of delicious Fall veggies.

Even if you don't eat it all, it will leave you healthier than you would otherwise be and you can always share some with a friend or partner up with a neighbor or family member. And with all of the farm shenanigans to write about, I haven't left much time to share about the farm kitchen. They are working hard as always and we will have a great display of all of the wonderful kitchen items that you have come to expect when we get the retail side of this business opened back up for you tomorrow.

Thanks for reading, there is lots more to share but with the state of things in this era of informational overload, I believe I am expecting too much to think that you have made it down this far. But if you have, thanks for reading, come by and get signed up for your Fall share this week.

Will Reed