10/17/2026
Open Hands Farm: Updates & Offering
Hello from Open Hands Farm!
A new kind of busyness has emerged now that fall is underway. It is brisk and sturdy at times like a crisp fall day, but slows down to a productive percolation at other times to herald the coming of slower days. This year has been really good and brought my move to Pennsylvania and the beginning of beautiful friendships, but it has also brought much growth and change to chew on. It’s really striking me how much my life has shifted and how, although my brain keeps up the best that it can, my body is still reeling from everything that is new. Next farming season I may produce more through these cooler days, but for now I am eager to use this slower pace to truly reflect on what the year has brought and where it will take me.
Even so, we still have rows full of beets and lettuce, arugula and turnips, radishes and the last of the peppers. Flowers are blooming (at least for now) and we savor these final green days. This weekend we will dip into thirty degree temperatures which will slow everything down and possibly completely terminate some of the warm weather crops still hanging in.
We are working on pulling tomato plants, saying a final thank you and farewell to the crops that fed us so well all summer.
What's Available at Market?
Greens
Mixed Greens
Spinach + Baby Beet Greens mix
Herbs
Parsley
Cilantro
Dill
Veggies
Daikon Radishes
Final day of tomatoes
Banana/spicy peppers mix
Shish*to Peppers
Green Sweet Peppers
Green Bell Peppers
Flowers
Mix Fall Bouquets
Markets We Attend
Market on Market (https://www.camphillborough.com/departments/downtown_camp_hill/farmers_market.php) Tuesday afternoons from 3 - 7 pm
Camphill, PA
Trinity Lutheran Church
Adams County Farmers Market (https://www.acfarmersmarkets.org/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16068586957&gbraid=0AAAAAoaEKqcVEr9MIRKxd5NGMHaEvbOdv&gclid=CjwKCAjwu53SBhAhEiwAJzSLNhuOXnQZdo3O8L6xcz03N4KHlROMDyjtsgF8KLLEJWC-PPVn2DZIcBoCGwQQAvD_BwE) Saturday mornings from 8am - 1pm
Gettysburg, PA
Gettysburg Rec Park
Harvest days have shifted in these slower weeks but today was a more bustling one as we completed a final large harvest of tomatoes and peppers before the potential frost this weekend. We also covered many of the crops with frost cloth to help accelerate growth during the warmer and sunny afternoons and to protect on these cold nights.
These are familiar rhythms as it is how we started the season. The frost cloth is a tool that allows the season to be extended on both ends of the summer, granting us earlier crops in the spring and later harvests into the fall. The cloth acts like mini green houses over each row, both keeping the frost off of the delicate leaves, and trapping heat over the bed.
Even down in Florida I utilized frost cloth, but for a far shorter period of time, and typically in the middle of my season down there which was September through May.
Flowers are another item that we harvested extra hard in preparation for the frost, so we are coming laden to the market in beautiful bouquets. Come by and pick one up, they are in need of a home.
This week I also took time to work with Dorothy at the farm she works for, Three Springs, which houses about 500 total acres of apple and other orchard trees. We were harvesting apples for the c***r made by their daughter company, Ploughman’s Orchard. It was so cool to see the facility, smell the yeastiness of fermenting fruit, and sample some of the upcoming flavors. It was hard work going up and down the long rows of apples but it was so rewarding, and gave me renewed respect for the unseen hands that harvest so much of our food.
Prep for next season has already begun. Talks of production expansion, and with that the need for cold storage additions, establishing permanent seedling housing, and pictured below is our latest influx of harvest bins (featuring Elisha expressing excitement for their arrival). The bins are a great example of one of the many puzzle pieces that come together to make a successful season. Life can go on without them and I have farmed my share of years without, but they do make life easier, keep the produce better, and make for a more organized farm, all of which brings higher quality produce to peoples' tables.