Like all farmers, our lives are lived according to a series of seasons with calendars just a tool to track appointments. A fairly new employee asked me this week: “So, what comes next? Just so I know what to expect.” I hadn’t really thought much about what she was asking as everything just seems to blend together and we have been farming so long that the series of seasons just “is.” But as I started to talk about what we were doing and poised to be doing behind the scenes, I found I loved every single season and all of farming season is my favorite.
We just cleaned up from the Christmas season, tucking away supplies for wreath-making and Christmas tree cutting and sales and ordering inventory at the store to replace empty shelves. Christmas season is one of my favorites. The hectic long days of helping folks find the perfect Christmas tree and wreath or the gift basket for Aunt Flora are fun filled and stimulating. With the retail store a focus of every individual farming season as well as the year-long seasons of meat production and consumer shopping, it becomes even more a focal point in Christmas season with lots of visitors we see only once a year for their Christmas shopping.
From the Christmas season, we enter the planning and ordering season. Looking back at our production records from previous years, we plan for the upcoming growing season and order seeds to fill the fields and hoop-houses. We always have some failures amidst our successes, and look to new varieties to best suit the needs of our customers and the growing conditions we anticipate for the upcoming year. Planning and ordering season is one of my favorites, as we have the hope and promise of another growing season just around the corner and we get to reflect on the successes and challenges of the year past.
At the same time we are planning for the growing season we are working in the maple orchard, repairing the sap-lines and main-lines that carry the sap from the woods to the sugarhouse toward the upcoming maple syrup season. Before we know it, the temperatures will start warming and the sap will start flowing and all we will have time to think about is maple season as we produce the year’s liquid gold. Maple season is one of my favorite seasons, as we get out of the house and into the woods on a daily basis and get to see first-hand the first stirrings of springtime — the owls hooting for a mate, the trickle of sap as we drill for sap flow, the squirrels chasing each other in a mating race, and bits of green under the blanket of snow. There is something extremely satisfying about a hard day trekking through the snowy woods with the sights and sounds of the great outdoors. As soon as the maple season ends, we will be in the hoop-houses and fields prepping for planting in April.
Planting season is one of my favorite seasons, with leaves popping, grass growing, flowers blooming, birds singing and sun shining the light of promise on new growth. The potential packed in every seed we plant is mysterious and amazing, and knowing that we will most likely garner a harvest from most every seed we plant is thrilling.
In only a few short weeks after planting, we will be picking and harvesting and the full height of summer will be upon us. Raspberries and blueberries bushes will be laden with berries, apple trees will be loaded with small fruit, hayfields will be ready to be cut and harvested, cattle will be feeding on lush pastures, vegetables will be ripe and ready for the picking and summer harvest season will be in full swing. Summertime is one of my favorite seasons, with the full rewards of growth and life in full glory and the sun and warm temperatures a blessing.
Summer season is always too short it seems, no matter the flip of the calendar. Before we can blink, it’s pumpkin and cornstalk time. This is one of my favorite seasons as the summer crops linger and overlap the harvest of the fall crops. The leaves turn and the palette of fall paints the entire landscape around us. The pastoral scenes of the cattle in the pasture with the backdrop of brilliant foliage is awe inspiring and breathtaking no matter how many sunny summers and snowy winters you have under your belt. We spend this time both harvesting and cleaning up from the growing season. It is always a very busy season as we plan for the nearing Christmas and winter season.
Just a tick of the clock away and we head into another of my favorite seasons at the end of the calendar year. The smell of pies and balsam fills our life as we make Thanksgiving pies for our grateful customers and start the harvest Christmas trees and balsam brush for wreath making. The perfect wrap-up of a calendar full of many seasons, the year-end is a gift as we spend time remembering the successes and joys of the year past and look forward to the seasons to come.
It is a seamless loop we farmers live in, with the challenges, hard work and failures almost always outstripped by the beauty, promises and successes. We may not be rich in dollars, but we sure are rich in the gifts we coax out of the land and the rewards of being stewards of that land.
Becky Nelson is co-owner of Beaver Pond Farm in Newport. You may reach her at [email protected].
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