September, sweet potatoes, and sweaters - Newsletter Week 3

Somehow, it's already the last day of September - where has the month gone? A warm mug of tea seems necessary most mornings now and we're all digging into the depths of our closets to pull out the sweaters again. Personally, I'm not ready for the coziest of those yet, I want a few more warm days!

This week we've been busy with harvesting all of our sweet potatoes! They've been cozy underground for months, since we planted them in the spring, and it's always both exciting and a little nerve-racking to dig them up. You never quite know what they're going to look like, how many you'll get, how big they'll be. All-in-all it's an exercise in patience and hope that everything is going as it should under the soil.

Our process starts with Farmer Mike going out on the tractor to mow down the greens. Then he comes back with our potato digger to pull the sweet potatoes to the surface. The rest of the team comes along behind with crates to dig around and pick up the orange beauties.

Despite the hefty nature of the job (each full bin is around 40 lbs), it's always a fun group activity. We compete to find the biggest sweet potato, every once in a while hollering out, "look at this one!" or "this has to be the biggest one yet!". Occasionally we dig ones up that look like a pair of pants or a funny little person.

Now they'll sit in the high tunnel for a couple of weeks to cure and get extra sweet. We can't wait to share them with you!