Indian Summer

September was like endless summer here on the island – hot and dry. This rainy first day of October is the first good soaking we’ve had in weeks. The tomatoes are still flowering, and there hasn’t been a single night chilly enough to required row cover on the field crops. All the trees have full green foliage. Walking through the rows, it’s hard to believe sometimes that it’s ending. I got the fall kale and turnips and lettuce and beets started late, but the indian summer is carrying them through.

In farming as in baseball, there’s always next year, and it’s the dreaming that keeps us moving forward. But it can be hard after the rush of august to focus on the here and now of cultivation, the daily grind of field chores once the almighty tourist dollar has past. I’ve had a little time to swim, to cook, to see friends, to remember what it feels like to just be a human being for a while, and for the first time on my own farm I’ve had trouble clicking in to the task at hand. I just want to lay down in the between the rows and look at the sky.