Several pictures, few words

This is by far my favourite time of year on the farm. The sun is strong and envelopes you in warmth while the air stays crisp and is constantly running across the fields swishing the slightly dry tall grasses. The raspberries are candy plucked from a prickly bush. And the light is exquisite late in the day.

Strawberry picking in the rain

This week it was raining pretty hard as we collected our 4 quarts of strawberries.  The children played out in the yard as Megin and I gathered our greens, herbs, turnips, and other goodies that had been harvested that morning by other CSA members.

We gave each soggy child their little blueish green quart containers and headed out to the strawberry patch.  "Everyone is acting like there it's a perfect day.  It is as if nothing is going on out there." commented farmer/CSA queen bee/flower gardener/and the organizational backbone of our CSA.

I thought a bit about why no one minded the rain.  I think, that first of all the farmers have been out in the rain all day every day for the past week whereas us city dwellers who work in cubes, classrooms, boardrooms, and whatnot hop from car, to shop, to work, to home or something like that.  

The second reason is that we're not willing to give up the strawberries.  Not many members are willing to lose their strawberry harvest for a few, okay many, drops of rain.  As I always said as teacher, when I would round up my kids and take them out after an indoor recess, "We don't melt in the rain."

This year Lindentree has at least six varieties of strawberries.  They vary in size, taste and flavour.  We experiment hopping from row to row looking for the reddest and the sweetest of the bunch.  The berries start to sit lower and lower to the ground heavy with rain.  I hope that we will get at least another week or so of strawberries, because they are such a treat!

The First Day at the Farm

Gorgeous turnips to add some spice and crunch to a fresh salad.

The whiteboard CSA menu with the small share prix fixe and the large share prix fixe.
Strategies for getting onto the swing now that we're are all a year older and some of us are just that much taller and more capable.  
Strawberry picking morning, noon and night.  Henry picked strawberries earlier in the day in North Andover where they were ripe and ready.  The Lindentree Farms berries requested one more week but samples were had by all.  8 strawberries/share

There's a buzz in the air and it ain't the mosquitos yet

Okay. I can't contain myself. I'm a kid in the candy store. I'm camping out the night before for concert tickets. I'm sitting on a rock in the rain with my sweetie pie and there's electricity in the air. I woke up and there's a snow day and there might be one tomorrow too. What is the cause of all this excitement. What telephone call could put me in a tizzy?

Okay. I said I can't contain myself but I did for one whole short yes, but complete, paragraph. So here goes. The farm starts next week. Yes, on Thursday. Only seven short days and seven sleeps away until we get to go to our CSA and enjoy our first farm pick up.

Lindentree here we come!

A note with a single shadowy sunflower

We got our little postcard note from Lindentree farm today. I am so happy when I see that note in the mail. It's a little closure to the end of the last season and a glimmer of the season to come. It's a reminder of the peaceful, and not so peaceful early evenings on the farm collecting our portion of the harvest and trying to feed the kids, share the swing and toys and round them up for the ride home.

I need to think back on those evenings because they're little moments for me with the children and me outside with the grass, the weeds, and the food that remind me about the smaller things in life, hard work, and the job of raising something or someone.

That's all for now.