Joe Wideski has built a very skookum three-bin special made out of recycled cedar telephone poles. The Sharing Farm in Terra Nova Park finally has a permanent spot to do it right—no more “dump and run” piles for us.

The walls are made out of stacked beams spaced to let the air in. Everything has been set level and straight with precision. Posts were set deep into the ground with concrete footings. Drift pins hold it together and angle irons on the front parts were installed so in case somebody hits the walls with the new tractor, it won’t collapse. Everyone is happy how handsome it looks.

At first we were thinking about using concrete lock blocks. I’m glad we didn’t. This is the last big project to complete for this year and was made possible with the Microsoft Canada legacy fund.

Our last big field harvest took place on Tuesday. Carissa Murphy is cutting cabbages. The low-in-the-sky-sun made everything look so sharp and fresh. In the background photographers can be seen with their huge zoom lens taking pictures of the snow geese. The geese don’t eat our vegetables. If you really want to see a lot of snow geese check out the potato fields near Gilbert Road and near the bottom of No. 2 Road. On some days there is such a population of them that the ground turns snow white.

Big fat parsnips being washed in a wheelbarrow for the food bank. They are so good roasted in olive oil with herbs and also delicious in slow-cook stews. Carissa has been working at the farm since last April and we had a chat about how in six months she got to be part of a farm season—spring, summer and autumn. It’s always a good feeling to step back a bit and realize the rewards of a lot of hard work by so many who helped out this year. I picked the last of the tiny broccoli heads to make a soup this weekend as part of a harvest party we’re doing to thank those who’ve been helping and who’ve been amazing friends of the farm.

Bright October side lighting hits the veggies in the food bank truck. Kale, cabbages, leeks are ready to go. I don’t know how many boxes were filled up like this since July. Hundreds and hundreds is a good guess. We often talk about how people come out to the farm to get their hands dirty. Try also getting the gloves dirty!

I took home two boxes of soiled gloves on Tuesday to throw in my washing machine. There was over 300 wet soggy, semi mildewed gloves to deal with. Plus several earwigs who escaped from the box. Putting the farm to bed for the winter is upon us except for the Greenhouse Social Club, which will continue to grow food in the greenhouses for several church community programs in

the months ahead.

Norm Stick, is one of our regular volunteers who is a reliable “watchman” and “Mr. Fix-it” at the farm. Norm keeps an eye on the drainage issues, fixes and sharpens the tools, takes care of the irrigation and always brings a lot of initiative to every challenge, plus his own mix of wry Newfoundland humour. Norm got to operate the tractor on Tuesday and the rest of us can’t wait to learn how to use it too.