Falling Forward
Notes from a Shifting Season
As I sit in our northwest-facing office at dawn, I watch the glow of the unseen sun creep over the hills. Canada geese call overhead, their guttural honks layered with the steady hum of combines working the fields around us.
The colors of the neighborhood are shifting day by day—summer’s vibrant green softening into the grey-green that will soon soon give way to a wider pallet. The walnut trees, always first in the fall fashion parade, have already waltzed through their autumn costume change and are dropping their golden leaves to the timber floor, sometimes revealing an already scarlet Virginia creeper draping their bare branches. It’s a wondrous time to be out in nature, and a reminder that change is always just around the corner—on the farm as much as in the timber.
As September unfolded, the farm shifted into that in-between season, caught between the last flush of summer and the first whispers of fall. Our tomato plants, confused by early cool weather, decided to ripen everything at once, especially the cherries. One harvest day found nearly every crate in the barn brimming, the kind of abundance that feels both triumphant and more than a little overwhelming. The Salsa (or Sauce) Box became our annual way of embracing this glut, sending as many tomatoes out to our members’ kitchens as possible with encouragement to cook, can, and savor the fleeting season. And fleeting it was, as short a tomato season as I can recall.
This is a time of many farewells on a vegetable farm, summer squash, melons, and cucumbers reached the end of their run and were cleared from the fields. It’s always a bittersweet goodbye to those crops we’ve tended since spring, but there’s also relief in closing the chapter on beds of tired, bedraggled plants. In their place, we tucked in a tapestry of fall crops—cabbage, chard, kale and choi, plus baby greens bound for the high tunnels later this season. Some beds germinated quickly, others struggled in the dry soil, reminding us that fall has its own set of challenges even in a year when summer rains seemed endless.
Even as we celebrated nature earlier in this post, as always, there is the challenge of trying to grow food that is delicious to us and to our neighborhood wildlife. Like we mentioned last month the deer discovered our choi transplants and polished off nearly the entire bed in a single night, setting us back weeks on an already delayed crop. More recently it was our newly transplanted head lettuce. Fabric row cover now doubles as both future frost protection and current deer deterrent, and while it isn’t perfect, it gives us (and the lettuce) a fighting chance. Farming is always a negotiation—with weather, with weeds, with pests—and September offered plenty of all three.
But there are always bright spots to celebrate. Cooler nights brought out the sweetness in our greens and (perhaps) in our attitudes. The mid-season crops hit their strides and we had the best cucumber year we’ve ever had (a real accomplishment on a chemical-free farm). We also had record-breaking peach crops in both our yellow and Native White Iowa peaches and from our elderly Wealthy apple tree. Several of our young apples trees produced respectable crops as did one of our Asian Pear trees. A bounty of fruit is always worth celebrating!
As always, the farm crew were the real superstars through the long days of harvesting, cultivating and hand-weeding. At the end of August we sent our younger crew members back to school with full hearts and a celebratory lunch, complete with kazoos. Danielle and I felt their absence immediately, especially during a marathon tomato harvest that stretched well into the afternoon the first day we were on our own. The unexpected boon was the crew’s return for part time hours for the next month or so. I can’t tell you how happy we are to have them!
Just last week we finally crossed a long-overdue task off the list. Back in August of 2019, a tornado tore through the farm, damaging our house, packing barn, trees, and high tunnels. In the months that followed we tackled the critical repairs, but some of the smaller projects were pushed off for “later.” Well, last weekend “later” finally arrived. With the help of skilled farm friends, handy non-farm friends and our crew, we gave our small high tunnel new baseboards and a shiny new cover. It was a long time coming—and deeply satisfying to see it done.
So September left us in that familiar farmer’s headspace: tired but grateful, aware of the struggles but surrounded by small joys, moving steadily into fall even as we look back on summer’s last burst of color and flavor.
📅Important Upcoming Dates:
Here are a few upcoming events and milestones to keep on your radar:
Oct. 11–12 – Pierce’s Pumpkin Festival
Oct. 14 – Final CSA delivery (Week #20!)
Oct. 25 – Final Saturday VegEmail delivery
Nov. 4 – Fall VegEmail schedule begins (delivery every other Tuesday, 4–6pm)
🥕 Love the farmers market food, hate the fuss?
If you’re a Central Iowan looking for year-round, farm-fresh, chemical-free food without the crowds, guesswork, or farmers market chaos, our VegEmail program is for you.
Every week, we send you an order form with what’s fresh, and you pick exactly what you want.
✅ No subscriptions
✅ No commitment
✅ Just good food, from people you trust
Pick-up is easy—Saturday mornings in downtown or southside Des Moines, Knoxville, or right here on the farm. Plus, SingleSpeed customers can also grab Ebersole Cattle Co meats and eggs, Lost Lake Farm LLC cheeses, and CottageScapes Bakery goodies—all from one pick-up point.
Sign up at www.bluegatefarmfresh.com and let the good food find you.
Thank you for being a valued member of the Blue Gate Farm community. Your support and participation sustains our commitment to providing fresh, local, chemical-free products and our passion for stewardship of the land.
Is a monthly newsletter not enough for you? Follow us:
Website: www.bluegatefarmfresh.com
Facebook: Blue Gate Farm
Instagram at bluegatefarmfresh.
Bounty Box members can also connect with other BGF members to share recipes or ask questions on our FB community page at Blue Gate Farm Community.
That’s about it for now. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let us know.
Best from the farm,
Jill & Sean (and the whole BGF crew)
I always enjoy your updates! You should consider writing a book some day!