Mid-June!
It's been awhile since I've updated. Time flies when you work 50+ hours a week. It's funny to notice how the internet was such a big priority to me when we first moved here, being so used to access to it 24 hours a day, but now the 6.5 mile drive to the nearby town with internet access has become a chore. Now I do it only to go to the grocery store and rarely award the time it takes to use the internet.
The farm is bustling! All of our markets have begun- there are 4 total. We harvest Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. We get Sunday off usually, or with just a few hours work. We've started working at 7am and usually get off between 5 and 6 pm. I'm usually in bed by 930pm, so there's very little time available for "extra" activities once you subtract time for making dinner.
Despite this I have splurged 100 bucks to use a ceramics studio just up the road from where I'm living. I get 3 hours every Tuesday and Wednesday to throw on the wheel and get free access to glazes and someone to fire all the pieces I can throw. I've made 5 large pieces so far, and hopefully can find a venue to sell them. There are actually a couple of new art galleries nearby. Granted, I have never approached a gallery before and have no clue "how" to go about it. I have a feeling they will want nothing to do with me, but we'll see.
But back to the farm! The broccoli and cauliflower are the most recent ripeners. The unusually hot weather has made them all ripen at the same time, within 5 days of each other, so we had to harvest them all very quickly and store them in the walk-in cooler. Unfortunately a mold infiltrated much of the broccoli and some of the cauliflower before we could sell them. They also haven't sold as well as we'd hoped because they are a variety that is light green in color and most people at the markets are so used to GMO grocery store broccoli that is perfect and dark green that they all think it is underripe or somehow not good. Too bad for them! I had never tasted fresh broccoli straight from the plant, and it blew me away! Tender like lightly steamed broccoli and sweet, with just a hint of peppery flavor in the after-taste. The cauliflower too! I was never a big fan of the grocery store versions- bland and hard. Fresh cauliflower is the most brilliant flavorful and tender vegetable. Last night I made a vegan lasagna with loads of cauliflower in it along with red and green cabbage, shallots and spinach. I was the best lasagna I have ever tasted, and I owe it all to the beauty of fresh, homegrown vegetables.
In other news, The tomatoes are all planted and twined. Since tomatoes are a vine plant, they can grow up to 6 or 7 feet high. If you do not trellis them properly they will not produce as much fruit, and more will rot. So I have tied miles (litterally, like 6 miles) of strong plastic string around big metal posts to enable these vines to grow to their full potential. The very beginning of orange and red color are starting to show, and I have tasted 3 ripe cherry tomatoes. Omigosh. I am incapable of expressing the deliciousness. You'll have to use your imagination.
Much of the lettuces have started to go out of season. The heat has "bolted" the red lettuce. That's just a weird term that means it has gone to seed. This makes many vegetables turn bitter. I mean really bitter. Sam described the taste as chewing on an aspirin. I declined to taste. The green lettuces are still performing well, although after the many repeated harvestings they produce much less quickly and much smaller leaves.
The arugula and mizuna - peppery flavored lettuces, have also bolted. This makes them taste even more spicy. It also makes them very time consuming to harvest. Instead of taking a knife and slicing many leaves and once, we have to hand pick good leaves. To me, it seems not really worth the effort, but maybe I am a little biased. I don't enjoy the flavor or arugula by itself, although I think its great in a mixed greens.
The mustard leaves have bolted, sending up very pretty yellow flowers. The most surprising thing I have learned is that the flowers are edible, and delicious! I highly suggest people start growing their own mustard leaves. They add great flavour to a mixed green salad, and the flowers are just a nip spicy, but not too much! am a huge new fan.
There is so much else still growing. Tomatillos, broccoli raab, okra, fresh and dry beans, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, artichokes, beets, rhubard, horseradish.
The berry brambles are just ripening, the cherry trees have delicious sour cherries. The snap peas are more sweet and crunchy and juicy than any I've tasted in a store.
Although the work is often hard- the heat really gets to me and the gnats are vicious, they bite in hordes and even draw blood- it is so rewarding. I am learning so much, and daily am more reassured that I want to do this. I don't know how I will ever be able to save enough money to start out on my own- working in agriculture you are not required by law to pay minimum wage, but you still pay taxes of course. And the taxes, insurance and inspections required to be a market grower are intimidated, complicated, and seem to be designed to push small farmers out of business. But still, my dream lives on.
I still miss every one of my friends. I wish I had more time to invite people to visit! But I am grateful every day for the natural beauty that surrounds me, my friends and family, and my darling kittens. I cannot imagine being here without them.
I hope all is well with all of you and I hope you will keep me updated on your lives! Think of me on hot days, and pray for rain being sent my way. Peace and Love Always
It's been awhile since I've updated. Time flies when you work 50+ hours a week. It's funny to notice how the internet was such a big priority to me when we first moved here, being so used to access to it 24 hours a day, but now the 6.5 mile drive to the nearby town with internet access has become a chore. Now I do it only to go to the grocery store and rarely award the time it takes to use the internet.
The farm is bustling! All of our markets have begun- there are 4 total. We harvest Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. We get Sunday off usually, or with just a few hours work. We've started working at 7am and usually get off between 5 and 6 pm. I'm usually in bed by 930pm, so there's very little time available for "extra" activities once you subtract time for making dinner.
Despite this I have splurged 100 bucks to use a ceramics studio just up the road from where I'm living. I get 3 hours every Tuesday and Wednesday to throw on the wheel and get free access to glazes and someone to fire all the pieces I can throw. I've made 5 large pieces so far, and hopefully can find a venue to sell them. There are actually a couple of new art galleries nearby. Granted, I have never approached a gallery before and have no clue "how" to go about it. I have a feeling they will want nothing to do with me, but we'll see.
But back to the farm! The broccoli and cauliflower are the most recent ripeners. The unusually hot weather has made them all ripen at the same time, within 5 days of each other, so we had to harvest them all very quickly and store them in the walk-in cooler. Unfortunately a mold infiltrated much of the broccoli and some of the cauliflower before we could sell them. They also haven't sold as well as we'd hoped because they are a variety that is light green in color and most people at the markets are so used to GMO grocery store broccoli that is perfect and dark green that they all think it is underripe or somehow not good. Too bad for them! I had never tasted fresh broccoli straight from the plant, and it blew me away! Tender like lightly steamed broccoli and sweet, with just a hint of peppery flavor in the after-taste. The cauliflower too! I was never a big fan of the grocery store versions- bland and hard. Fresh cauliflower is the most brilliant flavorful and tender vegetable. Last night I made a vegan lasagna with loads of cauliflower in it along with red and green cabbage, shallots and spinach. I was the best lasagna I have ever tasted, and I owe it all to the beauty of fresh, homegrown vegetables.
In other news, The tomatoes are all planted and twined. Since tomatoes are a vine plant, they can grow up to 6 or 7 feet high. If you do not trellis them properly they will not produce as much fruit, and more will rot. So I have tied miles (litterally, like 6 miles) of strong plastic string around big metal posts to enable these vines to grow to their full potential. The very beginning of orange and red color are starting to show, and I have tasted 3 ripe cherry tomatoes. Omigosh. I am incapable of expressing the deliciousness. You'll have to use your imagination.
Much of the lettuces have started to go out of season. The heat has "bolted" the red lettuce. That's just a weird term that means it has gone to seed. This makes many vegetables turn bitter. I mean really bitter. Sam described the taste as chewing on an aspirin. I declined to taste. The green lettuces are still performing well, although after the many repeated harvestings they produce much less quickly and much smaller leaves.
The arugula and mizuna - peppery flavored lettuces, have also bolted. This makes them taste even more spicy. It also makes them very time consuming to harvest. Instead of taking a knife and slicing many leaves and once, we have to hand pick good leaves. To me, it seems not really worth the effort, but maybe I am a little biased. I don't enjoy the flavor or arugula by itself, although I think its great in a mixed greens.
The mustard leaves have bolted, sending up very pretty yellow flowers. The most surprising thing I have learned is that the flowers are edible, and delicious! I highly suggest people start growing their own mustard leaves. They add great flavour to a mixed green salad, and the flowers are just a nip spicy, but not too much! am a huge new fan.
There is so much else still growing. Tomatillos, broccoli raab, okra, fresh and dry beans, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, artichokes, beets, rhubard, horseradish.
The berry brambles are just ripening, the cherry trees have delicious sour cherries. The snap peas are more sweet and crunchy and juicy than any I've tasted in a store.
Although the work is often hard- the heat really gets to me and the gnats are vicious, they bite in hordes and even draw blood- it is so rewarding. I am learning so much, and daily am more reassured that I want to do this. I don't know how I will ever be able to save enough money to start out on my own- working in agriculture you are not required by law to pay minimum wage, but you still pay taxes of course. And the taxes, insurance and inspections required to be a market grower are intimidated, complicated, and seem to be designed to push small farmers out of business. But still, my dream lives on.
I still miss every one of my friends. I wish I had more time to invite people to visit! But I am grateful every day for the natural beauty that surrounds me, my friends and family, and my darling kittens. I cannot imagine being here without them.
I hope all is well with all of you and I hope you will keep me updated on your lives! Think of me on hot days, and pray for rain being sent my way. Peace and Love Always
