Winter's A'Coming

The last of the Canada geese are straggling through Central New York and my harvest is officially finished. I've finally processed the last of my fall produce, grown and bought. Boxes of chili peppers, corn, tomatoes, apples and pumpkin are now all cooked, canned, dried and frozen.

Our experimental farm plots are all plowed and planted in cover crops. We picked the last of our corn towards the end of October. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect fall day. We busily shucked and gossiped our way down the range, occasionally looking up from our hands to take in the cold, blue sky and surrounding forest of straw-colored corn plants. Most of our colleagues were less fortunate the previous two weeks, picking their corn in sub-40F weather as their bags filled with sleet. I was thankful to be wearing gloves when we hit patches riddled with a pink fungus known for the production of carcinogenic and brain-melting mycotoxins.

I'm ready for our current warm stretch to subside. I'm amazed that some insects aren't dead or hibernating yet. I actually saw a 6" dragonfly last weekend. The Pacific salmon and steelhead are thick in the famous tributary of Lake Ontario, the Salmon River, but I don't think our local Atlantic salmon and lake trout will start climbing the rivers until we get some more cold rains.

Here's to some snow!