The "new norms" are everywhere, spilling over from a pandemic of adjustments into how our food grows in this tragic new season of smoke and fire.
We're at an unusual point out here at the farm. Normally, we'd be preparing for the abundant harvests of late summer. The cornucopia of fall should be fast approaching, and yet, there is something glaringly amiss across our fields. We began noticing it a few weeks ago when the AQI topped the scales at 500 and we experienced the worst layer of smoke we've seen out here (even worse than when last year's fire was just 70 feet away!): our crops appeared to have paused. It was hard to tell at first, and there have perhaps been small gains in the intermittent clearings we've had, but now it is undeniable. Several of our crops are hardly growing at all. It's unlike anything we've ever seen in the summer and actually resembles the way crops grow in the winter—a classic response to decreased light, we presume. When the smoke settles in, even the pollinators retreat. We've come to expect a few "new norms" for the fire season, including the reduced staff from the challenges of working outside in heavy smoke (working becomes optional on those days), but paused growth in the peak of summer wasn't something we'd anticipated. It means you'll naturally see less of our produce on our online store and in our market booths. It might also mean that we will split harvests across CSAs, letting half the members get, say beets, one week and the other half the next week. Honestly, we aren't sure what to expect. We're hopeful that things will bounce back, but it seems every day brings reports of some new nearby fire, so we're planning for continued smoke and continued slow harvests. It's a strange, sad, and somewhat scary place to be. The implications of what our little farm is seeing mirror so many other discoveries researchers are discussing around climate change: just more unexpected bad news.
Like the rest of nature, we too must find ways to adapt to these challenges. Our hope is in knowing that nothing seems to motivate humans better than discomfort. Up here in the mountains, the losses are hard to ignore.
May it move us all.
Tenacious layers of smoke replacing concealing the range only a mile away.
Inside Your Box This Week
Red Butter Lettuce
Bunched Carrots
Slicer Tomatoes
White Kohlrabi
Curly Kale
Cucumber
Zucchini
Scallion
Parsley
Garlic
Recipes Worth Trying...
{click images to go to recipe}
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