Winding up.

We finished planting twenty-six acres of garlic on Friday. Through the bitter cold, uncomfortable implement, frozen fingers and probably about a million sunflower seeds between the seven or eight of us, we persevered!! We also moved a bunch of row cover, and by a bunch, I mean a ton... from one of the silos to a trailer for the winter on Monday. We finished the Brussels sprouts field on Tuesday. Did we do much else besides that this week? Nope! Season's winding up! Corn, carrots, parsnips and rutabagas all harvested and cleaned from the fields. Winter is eminent! Here are the pics of the week:

Nov 12

The last seven standing... or riding, that is. The shadows of our last seven interns in between moving row cover on a flat bed pulled by the tractor.

Nov 13

Small "field trip" into the dried commodity corn at Black One during lunch Tuesday. We were in adjacent Black Two harvesting Brussels sprouts.

Nov 14

Our crew leaving what feels like an endless field of garlic in Pie One on Wednesday. From Left, Chris, Mitty, Joshua, Isaac, Katie and Rachel.

Nov 15

Another day's wrap up after some cold garlic planting. Katie, Chris and Rachel, walking to the truck past one of the farm's natural springs.

Nov 16

Austin, Nate, and Mitty, throwing cloves in celebration of completing 26 acres of two varieties of garlic over two different fields on Friday.

Nov 17

So, this Saturday marked a pretty special day... Garett's and my first day working on what will next year be the site of our market garden, the first step toward our own farm! We are cultivating about half an acre in Golden with the aim of doing farmer's markets and having a small garden membership. We planted two varieties of garlic Saturday, courtesy of Grant Farms!

Garett (my husband!), planting soft neck garlic. Roger (my dad!) with a hoe on the left.

Keeping pests out of the field! Me with Teddy and some hard neck garlic (my fav!) with my dad hard at work in the background! 

Bonus Foto(s):

Rachel, making it rain with our commodity feed corn from the top of the grain silo on Monday!

This field be planted, yo! Garlic in your face next spring in Pie One!!

A blustery, cold, garlicky week! We nevertheless had a great time though, as always. I think this week's pics definitely speak for themselves. Gearing up for a short but sweet week next week, and getting ready to enjoy the bounty of our season's harvest for Thanksgiving!! 

XO,

Val

Mid November Blues

Here we are at the almost end of the season, and I can't help but feel a lot nostalgic for the heavy harvest time of September and the hot days of July. It's wintery and windy now, and the light seems colder, even when the sun is shining. We are planting garlic for next year to overwinter, and harvesting brussels spouts, turnips and cabbage. Stephanie came back to the farm to visit this week, and brought her mom along to help us seed garlic on Thursday morning. Check out their pic in the bonus section this week. Also, we said goodbye to Sarah, bringing our crew down to a mere seven people. Some of us will try to stay throughout the winter season, based on the workload available, and the rest of us, myself included, will be wrapping up at the end of November. The season has seemed both long and gone in a flash, and I feel ready for the break of the winter season, but also anxious, not knowing how I can bear to be out of the dirt and away from the fun of vegetable production for three whole months! Here are the pics of the week:

Nov 5

Katie, harvesting turnips Monday in Fischer Field.

Nov 6

Nate, in the back of the box truck after we broke our backs palleting
110 RPC's of heavy turnips for CSA shares on Tuesday.

Nov 7

Sarah and Katie lounging momentarily on the garlic seeder on Wednesday, Sarah's last day.
They're both sporting a Sarah favorite- sparkly stickers, on their cheeks, courtesy of Isaac.

Nov 8

Rachel, harvesting Napa cabbage at sunset on Thursday.
It looks like she has a tiny Austin on her back!

Bonus Foto(s):

I missed Friday this week, but have some great shots from earlier days. We finished seeding the garlic field on Thursday, worked in the dark on Wednesday, and generally looked pretty photogenic the rest of the time. Enjoy:

Monday's sunset over Owl Canyon, viewed from Grant's plum orchard.

Wednesday afternoon in the garlic field at Matsuta 8.

Working to plant garlic by the light of the tractor Wednesday night.

Steph and her mom helping us out Thursday morning.

Me with a million carrots Tuesday afternoon.

Finishing the garlic field on Thursday! Joshua, Rachel. Me, and Austin.

Isaac and Ike, harvesting Napa cabbage at sunset.

Thanks for reading! Until next week...

XO,

Val

Planting Garlic and Other Delights

As Colorado weather usually operates, after a few weeks of cold, wet, and windy weather, the sun came out to shine last week, giving us some tremendously beautiful autumn days to enjoy. We are down to eight interns after saying goodbye to Steph and Tanea this week, and will be even smaller soon! The past week brought a nice variety of activities, including mucho garlic planting, but also harvesting carrots, turnips, napa cabbage, lavender cauliflower, and a treat on Friday... Brussels sprouts!! Days are getting shorter, and the sun seems a lot further away these days, but the farm has been beautiful this time of the year, and I think I got some good shots. Here are the pics of the week:

Oct 29

Sarah, harvesting purple cauliflower in Fischer Field.

Oct 30

Stephanie in the Napa cabbage patch in Matsuta 8. Sarah, working in the background. We'll miss you Steph, good luck!

Oct 31 Happy Halloween!

Our boss, Isaac, looking like a '90's rapper from space, loading soft neck garlic onto the tractor for planting. Joshua, working in the foreground. PS- this was not a costume...

Nov 1

Chris and Joshua, sifting the soft neck garlic on the wagon before loading on the tractor.

Nov 2

Me and Tanea on her last day, harvesting Brussels sprouts. Now that she is onward, I am officially the record holder for earliest intern of the season. She had me beat by a week! Good luck Girlie!!

Bonus Foto(s):

Looks like a God's Eye or a spaceship on Halloween afternoon! Planting garlic in Matsuta 8.

Mitty and Chris.

And, again, preparing to plant some garlic!!

First week of November is under our belts now, and it's surprising how much there still is to be harvested as we haven't had a truly hard freeze yet. Hoping for some more gorgeous sunny days next week, and more cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, and of course, root veggies. I think it is officially the holiday season... It's so fun to still be able to say I work on a farm.

XO,

Val

Carrots, Coughs and Coldness...

Hey, I have to apologize for the lack of outstanding farm footage this week due to my acquiring of the illness going around last week. It was extremely effective in basically putting me in a coma for two days and out of the field, so I missed foto ops for Wednesday through Friday... In addition to that we had our first snow day on Thursday and two half days on Friday and Saturday where we began to disassemble Pie Four of all the twine and trellising. I can't believe it!! Monday was spent all day in the carrots and Tuesday and Wednesday were focused on harvesting as much broccoli as possible before the hard freeze. We also sent off some of our favorite people who have been with us for most, if not all, of the entire season. We'll miss you Ken, Luke, Emma and Ryan!! Cannot post all the inside jokes and laughs we've shared with you, the blog's not long enough. Here are the (few) pics of the week:

Oct 22

Rachel and Ryan bundling carrots on a sunny but cold Monday morning.

Oct 23

Nate, looking cool on the broccoli harvester Tuesday afternoon.

 Oct 27

Sad to be taking down the trellising we worked so hard on all summer! Me, cutting and winding up twine and removing stakes in Pie Four on Saturday.

Bonus Foto(s):

Rachel, cutting down trellising on snowy Saturday morning.

Twine birdnests on top of stakes in Pie Four. I mean, it just felt so surreal to see the change in the season and our poor expired tomato plants cut down in the snow.

Halloween and good luck send off for some of our favs! From left, Mitty, Joshua, Elena, Jacob, Ken, Luke, Abby, Arlo, Katie, Emma, Rachel, Val, Ryan, Eric, Chris and Tanea.

Harvest sunset Monday night over the feed corn as we harvested potatoes.

The blog had broken 8,000 hits, so I'd like to just take a quick moment to say thank you to those of you who follow or check in on us every once in a while. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be able say something like that when I started taking pictures at the start of the season... I didn't even know why I was doing it, other than to keep a record for myself of the season. It's made me feel great to know that family and friends and interns who've moved on to their next adventure follow our pics week to week. Thanks. I still have the remnants of the cold, but I'm back in the field. I promise to get all my days in next week. Until then...

XO,

Val

The Windy World of Farming

What a windy week! Monday, temperatures were so cold, we had lunch back at the intern house just to warm up and make coffee! And Tuesday and Thursday were so windy, it was a challenge to stand up at times, whether it was moving heavy macrobins through the onion field during harvest, or harvesting broccoli behind the tractor. We pulled a lot of carrots this week, as well as finished up our celeriac crop and the last bit of broccoli. The week was brutal on us for another reason too, many of our crew came down with a crummy fall cold, and were out of the field resting up, leaving us with a much smaller crew than we are used too. We made it happen though, as always. And to prove it, here are the pics of the week:

Oct 15

Rachel and Mitty riding the tractor to loosen carrots from the ground, with Emma and Sarah bundling in the background.

 Oct 16

The tractor with the garlic seeding implement at the top of Matsuta 11 on windy and chilly Tuesday afternoon.

 Oct 17

Sarah and I weighing down the shoe implement on the tractor to lift carrots Wednesday morning. Working hard, right Sarah? We made sure to finish our coffee first. 

 Oct 18

Joshua, manhandling a macrobin into the yellow onion field during our Thursday windstorm. Isaac in the background.

 

Bonus Foto(S):

Rachel holding up a massive purple cauliflower in Fischer field.

Me, and Joshua after harvesting, packing, and stacking crown broccoli for our CSA in Pie 3.

The endless onion field. Matsuta 11. Tanea, Ken and Rachel. from behind.

Stephanie carrying in an armload of celeriac for shipment in Fischer field.

Here's to next week carrying a few days of warmer temperatures.. and less blustery wind, in general! The sunshine was great this week, so we'll keep that! Cannot believe we are into the third week of October! The season's wrapping up and flying by...

XO,
Val

Rootin' down in the post harvest aftermath

There's no doubt that there is still plenty of things in full harvesting swing at the farm, including celeriac, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and the other roots we haven't even started with- turnips and rutabagas and parsnips, but it does feel like things are beginning to wind down this week with the weather change and the first frost happening the week before. Several mornings we have had solid frost on the ground and we've definitely had some cold days too. We had a half day on Monday after pulling carrots and cleaning up after Harvestival, harvested some large orders of broccoli and finished out the week planting hard neck garlic for next season! It was a great week despite the cold twist in the weather, though some of my fotos are lacking this week, just due to overwork and forgetfulness. Here is what we got for the pics of the week:

Oct 8

Harvestival cleanup Monday. Katie with a new 'tail" she found during trash collection!

Oct 9

Freezing Tuesday! Luke built us a fire in the field during lunch between harvesting broccoli. Rachel, Emma, Steph, Sarah, Katie, Luke Ryan and Austin. And of course, my sweet new ride. Note the bomb wood paneling on the door!

Oct 10

Nate, chucking a broccoli onto the implement during Wednesday's harvest. Ryan, Ken and Isaac behind.

Oct 12

Friday's garlic planting in Matsuta 11. Rachel. Chris, Luke, Sarah, Katie, Ken and Joshua on the seeder, Isaac driving, and Emma walking behind.

Bonus Fotos:

Emma, super excited about planting garlic!!!

Justin came back to help us this week! Here he is with Rachel. Katie in background.

Sorry for the somewhat lack in foto diversity this week, I realized much of it might be due to the chronically overcast sky this past week. It looks cold in the pics, and it was! Though, aside from my toes I can say I am getting used to it a little more, though I am still missing my warm summer, tomato eating, sunburning months. Ah, well, I guess that it's all in the cycle, and I will just have to look forward to next season, and get ready for the snow, squash, and soups just around the corner!!

XO,

Val

October and Harvestival Weekend!

I have to apologize for not getting the blog out on time last Sunday! It was a busy week at Grant Farms, as always, culminating with our fall Harvestival last weekend. As I worked the whole seven days and was back at it again Monday, there wasn't much time to eat or sleep, much less get the blog together! We have been working past dark most nights this last week, trying to keep up with orders for broccoli, carrots, celery, and celeriac root. Also, we had the greatest time collecting pumpkins for sale and for our Harvestival pumpkin patch. We spent a great deal of time on Friday setting up for the event, including building a massive hay bale maze for the children, erecting tents, cutting cornstalks and placing signs. It was a super fun weekend, if you didn't make it out to attend, we had local vendors and bands, a farmer's market, hay rides and potato harvesting for the food bank! It was a great way to welcome in the fall and also some truly freezing weather!!! So, without further ado, here are the pics from last week:

Oct 1

Ryan harvesting celery for our CSA members in Fischer Field. Tanea, Katie and Luke in the background.

Oct 2

Austin and Mitty harvesting broccoli for wholesale in Pie Three as the sun sets over the mountains. We worked until 8 pm this night.

Oct 3

Our butternut squashes at Whole Foods, saved from frost this day in a mad windstorm
by all the working crew on the farm, including ours!

Oct 4

Mitty and Katie during pumpkin harvesting on Thursday. Ken in the background.

Oct 5

Joshua and Emma holding down cornstalks in the back of Katie's truck to transfer the the Harvestival grounds. Katie driving.

Oct 6

Hanging the Harvestival sign at the endtrance to the grounds. From right, Ken. Isaac, Alex, Chris, and RIchie.

Bonus Fotos:

Luke and Emma during pumpkin harvest Thursday.

Me with the new hoopty and some massive red chard we found in the corn. I'm calling it the ValStar. A good name for a spaceship. or this truck. Yess!

Nate and me with a heart shaped potato during potato harvest for the food bank during Harvestival. Emma is the best part of this picture though, by far, down in the corner of the frame. 

Thanks for being patient with me while I took my time getting last week's post out this week. The farm and my commute keep me so busy that if I miss my allotted time to get things accomplished, they sometimes just don't. It was a great week, busy, and cold, and I got a new pair of work pants and a warm jacket just in the nick of time as weather has definitely changed! Look for this week's blog immediately following this one, probably by about an hour. Welcome to October!!

XO,

Val