A Note From Scott | Sowing the Root Crops to Taste in Late Autumn

I was there to sow the root crops farm members will taste in late autumn, and those who are part of the Winter Share will savor through February. I plowed and disced this Town Lane field in early July, anticipating in summer the sowing for autumn and winter. I had company: monarchs danced among the red clover that had germinated in the shade of our wheat.

We have been rather proud of our milkweed meadow (off of Deep Lane) maintained as on offering for the butterfly known as “the Wanderer.” But now I find that certain of the species prefer to feed and reproduce in the more open fields we tend along Town Lane. Red clover, stems rising 18 inches into the air, is an abundant food source for a fellow species that shares with us the airways and meadowlands of North America.
 
Nearby, in the field we call “Town Lane North,” we are cultivating several crops that you will find at the stand in the prime harvest months (September and October): Sweet potatoes, watermelons, 10 or so more potato varieties, more roots, and fall brassicas. Your harvesting job will be eased when we enter the early autumn season, as we take over harvesting from our further farm fields. 

For now, as you walk the path to Birch Hill in search of tomatoes and peppers and lettuce, look to the grasses - and milkweed - for the Wanderer, Danaus plexippus, the one with golden wings, good company as she flies somewhere to the South.