Cultivated and Wild

Farm News

In Aldo Leopold’s famous A Sand County Almanac the opening sentence reads, “There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.” Although we as farmers spend our entire existence trying to cultivate vegetables, constantly watching weather patterns as if we had some microscopic control or predictability, we believe in our hearts that we are closer to those who cannot live without wild things.

I believe every day we surround ourselves with the inner workings of wildness and seasonal growth configurations that afford us a canvass for nourishment both in its real form of food and its wildness of design.

Quiet fortitude and lovely harvest gatherings of a full summer now define our early fall days. Downy mildew has started to form on all the winter squash leaves, a normal progression for these veggies as their energy will form in the squash.

Many animals are gathering for winter and our paths cross in the beans and squash. The kales and chards are deliciously effortless to pluck and bunch, almost calling us to put them in your boxes and reminding us that they will dominate our food choices for the next several months. This, of course, is good as we all love kale—red, green and Lacinato. The kids love kale and enjoy picking it fresh from the field on their school outings.

As we settle in to more cooking days, we hope your boxes are filled with the sweet and tender offerings and delight your pallets conjuring up the cultivated and wild.

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– Wendy