Bare Mtn Farm

Quotable Sunday 11/10/2013

Before and After the Frost

We had a horrible wet September followed by a beautiful sunny dry October. This gave us hope to have flowers for as long as possible.  While we did not stay in our farmers' market as long as we hope or planned; we were able to provide our designers with flowers through October and November.  Our last deliveries were last week.  We were able to choose perfect flowers from these varieties.

Then we got the warning that our night temperatures would be around 28 degrees, so I walked the fields taking photos of some of the flowers and picked a couple of buckets for me and our home.  Felt like I was saying good bye to the flowers for the season.  It has been a rough season for some of the flowers and I felt I needed to acknowledge the effort that some flowers did just to bloom even this late in the season.  The bugs and the critters were especially bad this year and lots of flowers never made it to bloom. 

                                              A bittersweet walk through the fields.

          As predicted the night temperatures dipped to the high 20's and our flower season was over.

So we begin the new season, our 10th flower season this 2014.  All our ranunculus and anemones are tucked in to the hoophouses,  all snug, warm and greening up.  Our new spring season bulbs are going in even as the tips of some of last years bulbs are poking through. 

                            We are redoing the floor and putting in new pallets for our crate house.

       We took time for a very short notice day trip to see about growing fall  mums at King's Mums!

They were all so wonderful and it will be a challenge to choose which varieties we are going to grow for next fall.

So as the leaves continue to turn their beautiful autumn colors and the work slows down a tiny bit; we continue to dream, scheme and plan for another glorious flower season.  The temptation to hibernate from the cool gray days is huge but the payoff of all this fall work is so much more rewarding and wonderful in the spring, it keeps us moving forward.

“November comes
And November goes,
With the last red berries
And the first white snows.

With night coming early,
And dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket
And frost by the gate.

The fires burn
And the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest
Until next spring.”
― Clyde Watson