Unity Farm Journal - Fourth Week of September 2016

It’s the first week of Fall and leaves are beginning to drop.   The drought of Summer has stressed all the trees and they are going dormant early.    We’ve done our best to keep our orchards thriving, but the Apple harvest is about half the usual quantity as well as a few weeks early.   Last year our Macs and Red Delicious had the desirable sugar levels (15-20%) in mid October.   This week, they were already at 16%, so we harvested.    We’ll be pressing cider over the next two weekends and begin the weeks of fermentation for our 2016 vintage.  

We’ve harvested the last of our peppers, tomatoes, and eggplant.   This weekend we’ll have night time temperatures in the 30’s.    The lettuce, spinach, and carrots will happily thrive at those temperatures, but the more tropical plants will literally melt.    Within the next two weeks we’ll begin our first Fall lettuce harvests.   When you’re an organic farmer, using heirloom seeds and all natural growing techniques, you see a lot of variation.   Sometimes our peppers are very “Micky Mouse”

This week we moved forward on our efforts to create the Unity Farm Sanctuary, hoping to double the size of Unity Farm.    If all goes well, we will close within 90 days.   Between now and then, we'll plan how best to host additional animal rescue operations and education as part of our non-profit charitable mission.     We 'll consider adding an aviary for bird rehabilitation and a clean area for veterinary procedures.  

The past 5 years have been about creating the infrastructure to support farm operations for Unity Farm LLC.   The next 5 years will be about creating the people, processes, and workflow to support Unity Farm Sanctuary Inc.    I’ve started a new notebook - Unity Farm Sanctuary Projects and we’ll set priorities during our next few months, then begin taking action once ownership is transferred in December.