With harvest season upon us and autumn in full swing, I find myself reflecting on the busy days in the bountiful gardens, the long nights spent around a bonfire or preserving produce in the kitchen bus, and the challenges of living close enough to the earth under my feet to be truly affected by the changing seasons. With each passing day, the list of projects and preparations is shifting. With each change in the weather, importance and time frames are re-established and a new list is compiled.

This has been yet another season of transition here at Coffee Creek. I am glad that as the busy nature of the growing season turns toward the wood stove with a mason jar of peaches and a good book in hand, Waylon and I are the only humans in the menagerie. While more helping hands are needed at times, quiet space is also crucial to focusing attention where it is needed.

I always consider us to be holding space for community, and know that a huge part of my personal offering is in experiential education- not only to grow food, but to grow growers of food. To this end Coffee Creek has hosted many WWOOFers, travelers, and inquiring minds throughout the years. I also know that in order to offer, one must refill their cup by integrating experiences into knowledge and by resting with dreams of forward movement dancing behind one's eyelids. Soon begins my time to sit with the lessons of this season.

Though we have one more delivery in November (along with the last and largest butcher), this last week of October is a very special time in which the regular CSA deliveries and weekly farmers' markets come to an end. The season of planting and harvesting gives way to organizing and clean up- battening down the hatches for a season of cold rain and introspection. Because I so enjoy growing food for my family and yours, I know that I have put all of my energy into doing my best by our gardens and animals. Because I have put all my energy out, I know that it is time to focus energy inward and toward my son, and our relationships- toward the foundations of the life-giving energy that I have to invest each spring when it starts all over again :)

I appreciate you for your support of this tiny farm. I am thankful for our interactions with each other, and with our local economy- not just financially, but energetically. By understanding and accepting our individual offerings- be it growing a portion of your family's nourishment or investing in the supplies for a successful CSA garden- we are working together to expand each others' potential and re-establish a true meaning to the word Value. Thank you for your involvement, support, patience, understanding, and confidence. Thank you for a great season- I look forward to serving you through land stewardship in years to come, every bit as much as I look forward to this winter of rest ahead!