“Total disillusionment.”

This is the answer Jesse Daves, the owner of Amyo Farms—a local pesticide-free grower—gives when I ask him what prompted his transition from a formerly computer-centered life to one of hard manual labor and sunshine.

Full disclosure: I knew Daves in college. He was one among a group of my friends who lived at the Coronado dormitory in our first year at UNM. We were a fairly nerdy bunch, and my primary memories of Daves consist of him crouched behind his PC, mouse furiously clicking as he navigated the maze of a first-person-shooter video game. Back then, computers seemed to be Daves’ life, and he planned on earning his degree in computer science.

Autumn is harvest time, and even though this year hasn’t been the most fertile in recent memory, you’ll still be able to find plenty of delicious fruits and vegetables grown by your neighbors until at least mid-November.