So our growing season is coming to an end, and in the next few days we will likely have another severe frost that will kill off the rest of our warm-season crops. We will still have a fair amount of winter greens and carrots, daikons, and other things to harvest, and lots of sweet potatoes and garlic that hasn't been delivered yet, but right now a lot of the work on the farm isn't focused on vegetables for this year. We've been protecting our trees from deer, which have been coming on our farm more now that the frost has killed a lot of their normal food. We've been planting lots of cover crop, in some cases even watering it, as it won't start growing without a little help from us. And soon, we'll be planting our garlic for next year and mulching it, along with our strawberries and other crops we want to protect over the winter.

The farm is looking for mulch, and we imagine lots of people have leaves they'd like to get rid of. So if you're in Ames, and are interested in giving us your leaves, give Nate a call at 515-231-2002.

Two Saturdays ago we had a very serious frost on the farm. We were expecting frost, and we covered our tomatoes and peppers and we knew we might lose a few things, but it was much colder than we expected. We had extensive damage in our tomatoes and peppers and all the rest of the warm season crops (beans, melons, cukes, eggplant, etc) are black and melted looking, and even some of the cold weather crops look a little singed. So this morning's harvest was much smaller than usual and we've decided to wind down the CSA a little earlier than planned. We feel good - our season has already passed 20 weeks - which is always our estimate - but it's still sad to see food go to waste, and of course sad to let go of summer and the farm season. So the plan for now, based on our most educated guesses, is that last week was our last regular delivery. However, we still have some cold weather crops that we had planted to be ready in october, so we will do one more delivery in october - probably next week though it could be later, depending on when carrots are ready.
To our paid shares-we'll let you know when you'll be recieving your last box.
To our working shares-we will still be working on the farm and donating our smaller harvests to the food pantries. Give me a call if you have any questions, or if you are missing your vegetables a lot, or if you want to help out. We probably will have a lot of extra green tomatoes and kale and chard.

here's an abbreviated version of the long blog i just accidentally erased:
1. gratitude for all those who helped make a music festival in the rain an amazing success.
2. upcoming pot-lucks.
3. opportunities to work at mustard seed.

i just wrote a super long blog and then it all got erased with one little click!

This friday, a little after dinner, we'll be watching a movie put out by the Greenhorns, an organization one of our farm team (Kristen) is planning on going to work for later this year. They're a real cool organization that promotes new farmers and innovation on all farms. It'll be a fun event the day before our music festival! (see above)

In this newsletter:
Workday
Potlucks
Music Festival
Farm Update

Workday
Sunday, August 5th, from 8 to noon, we'll be having a workday on the farm. We'll likely be doing some watering, digging potatoes, and processing some garlic. Come, and bring a friend!

Potlucks
Here's the schedule:
8/3 Gleaning
8/10 The importance of soils to humans
8/17 Tar sands and fracking
8/24 Greenhorns movie
8/31 The ethics of hunting
9/7 To be anounced, and then we'll move to potlucks in town

Here's the time schedule for each potluck, which occur at Mustard Seed Community Farm, 366 W Ave, Ames, IA 50014
5PM: soccer
6PM: potluck
7PM: discussion on the topic mentioned above.

Feel free to come to all or just parts of any of the above. Bring a friend!

Music Festival
There will be a music festival on August 25, in the afternoon. it will be a potluck. Bring several friends!

Farm Update
Despite some recent rain, our farm, like most of the rest of the North America, is in a drought, which means lots of watering and lots of plants that are still alive, but have decided to save energy by not producing fruit, or very much fruit. This includes our green beans, peppers, tomatoes, okra, and many other crops-really, most everything is not doing great. Our garlic is not curing super awesome, and we'll see about our onions and leeks. Also, I think our beehives might be pretty diseased, maybe we'll burn them?

Nicholas