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It is November and the growing season in New England is officially over. Please enjoy this photo-dump of all things 2025 from the Food It Yourself garden.

Okay, I know you are all very interested in knowing what happened to the chicks we acquired in May. I’ll lead with that.

The integration of the new chicks with the older hens went swimmingly! They are functioning as a unified flock. They are sharing food and water in the run. They are roosting together at night. This is a huge difference from our prior attempts to bring together chickens who were not familiar with each other. Mr. Food It Yourself and I are very pleased with the civility displayed by our girls.

The new hens have started laying, and we are very excited. I had to resort to (GASP!) buying eggs in the past few months, but now we once again have an adequate supply of eggs from our own backyard birds. We also are feeling very accomplished at having repaired the door to the chicken run, which was not in good condition. Carpenter bees had nested in the frame and last year’s ice and snow took its toll on the structural integrity of the door. My Amazing Dad helped us build and install a new door frame and door on the run. We are confidant the girls will be safely contained this winter.

My Amazing Dad messed up his back this summer while doing yard work, so I had to do yard work for him for a while. This is not a big deal. I was mowing his lawn and spotted some weird bugs. They are spotted lantern flies, which IS a big deal in Massachusetts. These invasive insects can do serious damage to crops, even though they are not directly harmful to humans. Your best bet if you see this invasive insect in the northeastern USA is to remove their primary host trees and report that you saw them.

My favorite foraging grounds for cranberries are starting to recover. In the past few years, had a very dry summer which weakened the plants, then a very wet summer which flooded them. Being wildly resilient, they are now producing again. I am hoping the plants will supply my Thanksgiving Day cranberry needs next year.

Speaking of resilient and wild things- we had a bit of an issue with some kind of creature which gave no fluffs about our electrified fencing. We think it was deer- one or many, we can not tell. There were hoof-prints in the soil, the fencing was tangled, and some tomatoes were chomped. Besides, a bear would have skipped the veggies and raided the chicken coop.

Not to worry, the fence was easily mended. Also, we had already harvested enough plum and slicing tomatoes to eat, preserve, and share. I even made a big batch of my favorite green tomato salsa, because it is never too early to start thinking about Winter Holiday gifts.

Every growing season has its challenges in central Massachusetts. We welcome the challenge and we learn from the struggle. What did you learn from the most recent growing season? How will you use this lesson in the next growing season? Share in the comments!