I like to think about our soil as a kind of bank account. All summer long we’ve been making withdrawals—pulling nutrients out to grow fruits, vegetables, and flowers. Now that fall and winter are coming, it’s time to make deposits back in.

If apples are the bold ones in the orchard, pears are steady and slow.

Every fall, apple trees across the world tell the same story: a rush of abundance that ripens all at once. For as long as people have tended orchards, the challenge has been the same—how to stretch that harvest beyond a few short weeks.

Next time you’re deciding where to spend your food dollars, remember that your choice is powerful. It shapes the kind of food system we’re going to hand to the next generation. And from where I’m standing, knee-deep in the orchard rows, I can tell you this: every local purchase makes a difference.

If you want crisp fall roots on your plate in October and November, now is the time to start planting—yes, even while it’s pushing 97°F.

If you want healthy soil and strong crops, crop rotation is a very important technique. Whether you’re working with a big farm or a small garden, rotating crops is a simple way to keep your land productive minimizing soil depletion.

But ever wonder what it really takes to get that CSA box into your hands? It’s an 8-day full-on dance—and here’s how it all comes together.

Peach season has officially arrived, and I can tell because everything I own is sticky. My arms, my overalls, the steering wheel of the truck, even my phone — if it’s in my orbit this time of year, it’s wearing peach juice.

If you’ve been growing tomatoes for a while, you know this dance. If you’re new to it — welcome to the chaos. Here are a few mid-season reminders from someone who’s currently in the trenches.

You don’t realize how much you rely on onions until you’re out of them. Around here, they’re the start of just about every meal—quietly anchoring soups, sauces, and sautés without making a fuss. And funny enough, that’s pretty much how they behave in the field too: steady, humble, and hard-working from start to finish.

Farmer confession: I haven’t even had a tomato-based meal yet—and I’m already starting seeds for winter.

I wish I were kidding, but this is what it means to farm in the high desert. The season up here doesn’t roll along at a leisurely pace. It sprints. You’re barely recovering from spring planting when summer slaps you in the face, and before you know it, you’re back in the seed trays, talking yourself into planting kale while it’s still hot enough to fry an egg on your wheelbarrow.

Out here, most things take time — trees grow slowly, soil builds year by year, and there’s no shortcut to good tomatoes. But every once in a while, a crop comes along that reminds us that not everything in farming has to be a long haul. Enter: microgreens.

Let’s pull back the curtain on one of the hardest-working crops at Blue Heron Farm: arugula. It’s fast, it’s spicy, and it’s got a mind of its own. While it may just look like a humble bag of greens in your CSA box, behind the scenes, it runs on a tightly scheduled weekly cycle.

Not the accidental ones that pop up in the compost pile. Not just the sunflowers your kiddo insisted on planting. I’m talking about the intentional, built-into-the-plan flowers. The ones planted not just because they’re pretty (though they are), but because they play a vital role in the health of your whole garden system.

Think of soil like a roommate. One who does all the cooking, cleans up after your plants, handles water distribution, and manages the household nutrient budget — silently. Until, of course, they don’t.

It always starts the same: the zucchini plants are thriving, leaves wide and green, flowers blooming, your heart full of hope. You think, This is the year I finally win squash season.

Wrong.

At Blue Heron Farm, we started freeze drying because we wanted a way to capture the flavor at its peak and keep it around long after the season ends. And unlike traditional drying, which uses heat, freeze drying is like bottling the essence of the fruit. The fruit holds its shape, its color, and—most importantly—its taste.

Carrots are liars.

They lure you in with their feathery green tops, whispering sweet promises of long, straight roots just below the surface. "Plant us," they say. "We’re easy." And you, poor fool, believe them.

Let’s be honest: chard has a bit of a PR problem.

It’s not glamorous like tomatoes. It’s not trendy like kale. It doesn’t have the lovable, do-no-wrong energy of carrots or the marketing budget of avocados. In the grand hierarchy of produce, chard is somewhere between “forgotten vegetable” and “what’s that in the back of the crisper?”

Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about storing CSA produce.