Doug washing beets at our packing shed. Photo by Scott David Gordon

Well, the weather in Texas is as wild as ever this week. We are currently preparing for a slow moving band of heavy rainfall over the next few days, with the potential to drop up to 7" of rain at our farm! It's hard to prepare for a deluge like this one, but we will be grateful to see some moisture after months of dry weather (which followed months of the wettest weather we'd ever seen!). Luckily, most all of our crops are already in the ground, so we will welcome the moisture, although we're anticipating that the packing crews will have a lot more washing to do next week than usual.

Our Potluck and Harvest Hustle scheduled for this weekend has been postponed, since the party grounds are going to be quite the mud pit this weekend. We hope you will join us on Saturday, November 14th for the rescheduled JBG Potluck and Harvest Hustle. Tickets are currently still available at http://www.jbgorganic.com/hoedown. I think that after this rain the farm is going to really be thriving, and I can't wait to see you there!

We'll see you on November 14th! Photo by Scott David Gordon

I hope that the rain doesn't stop you from eating locally this weekend. Saturday, October 24th is national Food Day, a country-wide celebration of heathy eating and improving our local food systems! According to Foodday.org, "The typical American diet is contributing to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. Those problems cost Americans more than $150 billion per year ... Eating Real can save your own health and put our food system on a more humane, sustainable path. With America’s resources, there’s no excuse for hunger, low wages for food and farm workers, or inhumane conditions for farm animals." We can get on board with that mission!

Photo by Scott David Gordon

I really encourage you to take this message to heart by stopping by one of our weekend farmer's markets and doing your part to ensure a viable local food system. Your participation is necessary to keep your local farmers markets running. We harvest, wash, and pack produce every single week, and send staff to markets RAIN or SHINE to ensure that local organic food is available to our Austin community. This takes a lot of time and money, and so we're asking YOU, as the consumer, to show your support for Austin farmers and food producers by also showing up, rain or shine, and voting with your food dollars. A happy Food Day to everyone in the JBG community! What are you cooking up this weekend to celebrate?

For more of the farmer’s perspective, follow Brenton on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram @farmerbrenton.