Bye Bye 2012

...and another CSA season bites the dust. This morning, we had all of the baskets laid out and ready for members to cart away. The garden has just played itself out and we just divided everything up between the members - and everyone got their much-awaited jar of honey. I figured everyone was exhausted (and we all are) so we were ready for people to just come and take away the last of the goodies. But then members  started showing up -ready to help. And before Will got home from his morning meeting (he's on call), both cucumber fences were stripped of plants, fencing was rolled, stakes were pulled and put into the barn. The two tomato rows in the greenhouse were pulled up (although the stakes won't be coming as easily)...and I think our members would have stayed had we asked. They are truly amazing.
Jen brought a giant Cushaw and a handful of lavender from her own garden (a lovely gesture); Pam gave us a galvanized tub (yea!)

  ...As usual, we had some ambitious young entrepreneurs. A young man (on the right in the green shirt) who made jewelry and sold quite a bit of it between last night and this morning! Everyone's a sucker for a cool young person

The tomatoes had been delivered of their green babies and, on the way out, members stuffed some into their bags...there is a Questionnaire this year - maybe we'll gain enough insight from our members to do some tweaking in the off-season. It finally rained yesterday, after two weeks of hot and dry and wind...garden killing weather. It's strange to look forward to the destruction of the garden - the plowing and cover-cropping. You hold on and hold on and then you just
let go.