After the Harvest

First frost reddens off cranberry vines and sets them into dormancy for the winter.

Harvest is over but as with everything in life the cleanup goes on for a couple of weeks after the last truck heads out. Pulling stakes, bringing in booms, winterizing the beaters and the elevator, putting the dump truck to bed for the winter...all the stuff that comes after the crop is off.

We are two years into a five year plan to take the farm from forty barrels an acre to one hundred and fifty. So far the plan is working out, though thinking incrementally over several years is somewhat frustrating. My berry count in late July projected seventy-six barrels and we came in at seventy-four. Pretty accurate but disappointing none the less. The pre-harvest anticipation always becomes a mish mash of hope and desire for more, though the plan is well founded and more will come in it's own time. The good Lord willing.

There are many benefits to working on a farm, not the least of which is having the time to reflect on the inexorable slowness of the cycles of the seasons.

There was a wonderful warmth to the day today that made the work go quickly and I kept looking up at the mountains and blue sky. A few dragonflies were out and a good number of late season bees. They will all be taken by the four degrees of frost we expect tonight.

I am amazed that nothing but bugs and people eat cranberries. They are such an elegant and nutritious little fruit.