Green Odds & Ends

To say it's been quiet around these parts is telling only one very lopsided half of the story... It's been quiet INSIDE the house (plants make very little noise), while adults are at jobs, in the garden, tending farm animals, weeding, chasing after kids...kids who are are outside running, squealing, digging, whining, tumbling; and our families are traveling to and fro the big city. Unlike the weather adage, our summer season comes in like a lion AND goes out like a lion. No quiet little lambs around here.

Beautiful chives - the first green to emerge in spring.

Asparagus!

Chris, Ellis and I had the pleasure of joining "neighbors" (I'm talking a 30 mile radius here) and friends for a local potluck last weekend. As my mom would say, these are salt of the earth people. Good hearted, joyful, generous, dedicated to the grit of a simple life. And my lord, they are good cooks. The potluck focused on locally grown foods, which made sense considering the majority of these folks are growers...but given the challenge of the time of the season (very little from the garden is edible yet!), there were some impressive dishes to be tasted, mostly based on early spring specialties, and frozen/preserved fall harvest: nettle venison stew, homemade cheeses (brie! cheddar! feta!), rhubarb crisp, sausages, creamed sweet corn, garlic baguettes, basil pesto, deviled eggs, spinach salad, home-raised chicken...it was wonderful and varied and beautiful and local. Good company and food for the soul.

Lower Garden Beds

On the home front, Chris has been earning his farmer tan (and farmer arms) spending nearly every waking hour in the garden - a full time job to be sure. About twelve 5'x20' garden beds have been dug and re-dug, composted and seeded. These "double-dug" beds, along with a number of other spots in the garden, will host our veggies for the restaurants we intend to sell to. Seed quantities, bed & row rotations, spacing, timing, profit estimates - it's like one giant algebra equation that can be completely undone by pests or bad weather at any turn. "Math is hard!" Chris is also working a few days a week for our grower-neighbors Don & Joni who provide the example and advice necessary for us to lay the groundwork (literally) for this venture.

Red Onions

Rhubarb waiting to be transplanted

Meanwhile, Jay has transplanted and doubled his hops garden, now located behind the quonset building. He is also outfitting the chickens with an addition to their space, nearly doubling the size of their yard. Hopefully we'll get them into the garden itself at some point this season so they can help with bugs & weeds...but it's hard to imagine they'd want to leave their cushy coop.

I am learning the art of abstinence...more specifically, abstaining from doing things I love to do but have to say no to so I don't end up flat on my back in the yard (again - oops) or going into early labor. I scooted around the flower beds yesterday with my little blue stool in tow, weeding from the comforts of an upright position. Ellis, my tireless little helper, followed after me with his dump truck to collect and remove scattered weeds and dead foliage (we now have randomly placed piles of dead weeds dumped around the yard, but love the effort there!). I'm trying to be patient. I'm slowly learning to let go of the expectations and standards I hold way up there for myself...and ENJOY these last few (okay six) weeks of pregnancy. I've been trying to force the camera on our little family a couple of times this spring so we actually have a visual record that yes, indeed, I did carry this baby for 10 months!

I am learning to stop and smell the roses, you might say. Only here, I'm stopping to smile at the pussy willows, the fiery forsythia, the asparagus that grows before my very eyes, and those green rolling hills. Ahhhhh, Happy May Day.

p.s. We just polished off a frittata made with eggs from our chickens, milk from our neighbors, spinach from Don & Joni, and asparagus from our garden. I am sustained and fulfilled and satisfied!