Memphis Democrat Column from October 23, 2005

I said in my last column that we were having a sorghum extravaganza this year. Those were truer

words than I realized when I wrote them. It has been a really amazing sorghum harvest and we are expecting to make over a thousand gallons of syrup this season. The new cooking process using the boiler is turning out the lightest, yummiest sorghum I have ever had.

All of our cane is down and we think we will probably have one more cook after the one we did today (Sunday). We have been fortunate this year to have had a long run, considering that we had hard freezes on October 2 the past two years in a row. Everyone here at the farm is feeling very good about how things have gone.

We have also been fortunate to have such a great harvest crew this year. If my count is correct, we have had over forty five volunteers in total. It's made for a lively scene, with a great mix of people. The community folks from Twin Oaks in Virginia, East Wind in southern Missouri, Songaia in Washington state, Colibri and Bolozone in St. Louis and our local neighbors Dancing Rabbit and Red Earth Farms were here in force. We also had help from some of Dancing Rabbit's and Red Earth's visitors. We have also hosted former interns Brad, Megen, Ingrid, Geoff and Jane during the harvest as well as many old and new friends.

Apple from Twin Oaks and Bree from East Wind stayed on for a while after their groups returned to their home communities. Doug also stayed longer before finally setting out on his planned float trip down the Mississippi to Memphis, Tennessee. The extra help was much appreciated.

This year's remaining interns have been also been an important part of the harvest and have been heavily involved in the field and processing work the past few weeks. We said goodbye this past Monday to Joy and her son Kai. They are visiting Joy's family in Miami, Florida before she has to return to her job at the University of Alaska. Heather and Karene will be here for another week or so and Justin is staying on until mid-November.

Laird's daughter Jo has started school at the San Francisco Culinary Institute and she visited with us for a few days before she headed out to California. She also spent time with Ceilee in Columbia on this trip.

In spite of all the sorghum busyness, we have managed to get in some other necessary activities. Stan, Gigi, Michael, Laird, Apple and I all did fairs. Michael and I were at Keosaqua October 8 and 9.

The same weekend Stan and Gigi went down to St Louis for the Winter Pantry in Maplewood on on Saturday and the Harvest Festival at the Shaw Nature Preserve on Sunday. The following weekend, Laird and Apple represented Sandhill at the Hannibal Folklife Festival. Apple sure looked cute in the poke bonnet I loaned her.

During the past few weeks, Stan did an inspection at the university farm in Fairfield, Iowa and we also made delivery trips to Columbia and Iowa City.

Michael and I are starting a three week vacation later this week as soon as the harvest is done. We are going down to southwest Missouri for a while and after that we will visit our daughter and her family at their new home near Columbia. Will catch you up on all the news when I get back.