Week 11 in Heaven

The weather this week was cloudy, except for when it was sunny.

rain on the melon
rain on the melon

 

The gray made the sunny days even more beautiful by contrast; it worked so well that in my memory, this whole week was marked by beautiful weather and warm blue skies. Although I think the facts may not support it, I’m gonna leave my impressions unrevised. It was a beautiful week, and today was a gorgeous harvest day – one of those idyllic summer weather days that we will fantasize about for all 15 months of winter weather, not humid, puffy towering clouds, warm but not baking sunshine, a gentle intermittent breeze. The kind of day that you call in sick to work to be outside in because life is short and our time in the sun so precious.

Yeah, I liked it. Harvest went nicely too, with a good crew and an increased collective understanding of how to get done what needs doing.  We’re getting better at a lot of this farming business, really – the field looks amazing, we’re getting wonderful yields from the notoriously sandy soil of the Barrens, we’ve been setting personal records at the farmers’ market … feels good, like we have our footing for the things coming next in our lives.

This week we lost Brooklyn (Baxter, Alexi, & Sean) as they departed for the rest of their year-long destination-less pilgrimage, and gained Mexico (Azela), as she begins her USA adventure with neither destination not duration determined.

Neighbor Marcia bids farewell to Team Brooklyn
Neighbor Marcia bids farewell to Team Brooklyn

We foraged feral apples and wild choke cherries,  saw the late season salad greens emerge and thinned them out, and began the annual tactical retreat from the rising tides of tomato blight.

We laid in the grass in the rain and witnessed the eclipse peeking out through the edges of the rainclouds, we preserved the fruit we’d foraged and the tomatoes too flawed to sell, we lived and we loved it and we hope you did too.

Can you find Gabe among the Fall colors!?
Can you find Gabe among the Fall colors!?

 

Kristin witchcrafting a potion of foraged feral apples and wild choke cherries
Kristin witchcrafting a potion of foraged feral apples and wild choke cherries

 

 

And now, a word from our sponsor:

BOX 11: the Stuff Inside

thanks for the pic shareholder Jennifer!

Tomatoes – the star of the show, the belle of the box. We are in prime tomato-time now; cherish them now for soon the ravages of entropy and time take their toll.

Carrots – Three colors, infinite shapes, many bites. We topped them so you wouldn’t have to (and so no one would forget and get the saggy carrots (also there was no room in the box for em)

Baby Broccoli – just a little bit of the side shoots that the early season crop is still producing (The fall crop is looking good, but still tiny and headless)

Beet Greens – Tasty and healthy, almost the same thing as Swiss chard. Best when cooked down a bit. Omelette or frittata? Juiced?

DJs Marcia & Azela work the beets
DJs Marcia & Azela work the beets

a Beet or Two –  we cut these off of the greens and included them. Did you know that the root of beet greens is edible? FACT!

Sweet Corn –  seems a little less sweet than the first batch, but still quite edible. Works well if cut off the cob and used in a fresh salsa, corn chowder, etc.

Eggplant – just one!?!  You guys are getting soft. Back in my day, we ate eggplant at and between every meal.

Ginny, one of the finest farmers' market customers the world has known
Ginny, one of the finest farmers’ market customers the world has known

 

Zucchini – ONLY TWO zucchini!? I remember when even the CSA box itself was made out of zucchini.

Slicing Cucumbers – I blame the single digit cucumber content on The Millenials and their lack of discipline.

Sweet Pepper Medley – None of these are hot, despite appearances … we do have a lot of hot peppers starting to ripen; do you want hot peppers?!

it gets knocked down but it gets up again you aint never gonna keep sunflower down
it gets knocked down but it gets up again you aint never gonna keep sunflower down

the farm crew may have come up with a name for the future spawn?
the farm crew may have come up with a name for the future spawn?

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Week 11 in Heaven”

  1. I have just binge watched your entire blog and found it fascinating. I am an old Autistic woman and we just moved to a place everyone else considered a knockdown in Southern Colorado. Our intention is to start an Autistic homesteading community at our place and the neighboring land around us [working on 501c right now so we can get fund raising started. We will be a community built and run by Autistic people with other AUtistic people.. We just heard about Wwoofers [an article about wwoofers was how we found your blog] and there are a few younger people in our group interested in learning skills in that way. We were also thinking it might be great, though we are beginners, that hosting wwoofers might be a good opportunity to introduce others to Autistic culture. What do you think?
    Also, we have some chickens and are buying some nigerian dwarf goats this spring. Who takes care of your chickens when you are wwoofering in the winter and how long before you plan on staying at the homestead in the winter?

    1. I do think it could be good outreach, although it will also present plenty of challenges/learning opportunities as WWOOFers and residents figure out how to coexist in a working community… something that is always interesting even among “normal” people (if such exist…)

      I would be interested to check it out if we ever came through!

      We gave the chickens away one year, had different people take care of them the other two winters. ( originally planned to eat them at the end of the year, but wound up getting to know them by accident) We are going to stay some / most of this winter and see how it plays out!

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