harvest week six

Hello Everyone,

It's been a great week.Watching those monumental thunder heads roll in, leaving us wetter and better,causing things in the fields to get even more abundant.Of course there are times when ,astride the tractor ,lightening creasing the black clouds hanging seemingly right over my head,that I wonder what good I would be to anyone as a farmer chip.But that's what it's all about right, risking life and limb for head lettuce and bok choi!You can really tell summer is here, by the varying shades of fruit that Carmella has been ingesting.One day, a black raspberry purple, the next,an orange tint from the sungolds .Her small mouth a great indicator of what's good eating at the moment.Yesterday we herded Gerda our cow in, she perched happy on my shoulders.Once down at the farm, we HAD to go see the baby watermelons.Halfway down the bed I looked back and Carmella was painstakingly smushing every squash bug she could find.It was all I could do to coax her away from the carnage.I think she even told me to hold on, she would be there when she was done.

We also began seeding the fall round of broccoli, cauliflower and greens,parsnips and other fall staples.Strange to do when the summer bounty hasn't even hit us full on yet.Seems the days race by,each a blur of soil, fruit, greens and cool deep water.I have enjoyed this spring and early summer immensely,watching the plants rocket forward towards your bellies,so generous in their giving.I will sing the melons a lullaby for all out there,it makes them sweeter!

Here's the goods!

lettuce

onions

broccoli

cabbage

greens

squash

fennel

new taters

Have fun in the kitchen!

peace

gaelan

harvest week cinco

Hey Folks!

Happy to announce the arrival of bright red new potatoes to your kitchens! Always an exciting time, where last week they were merely marbles, but with this great moisture we have had , they have puffed themselves up to truly delectable dimensions.As with the arrival of cherry tomatoes, they are the harbingers of our shift into the high gear of summer.These Andean tubers,which have played such an incredibly well travelled role in world history.Most notably of course the Irish potato famine.I love to imagine their spread slowly around the world,until now when they have become a much vaunted staple of many cultural diets.Looking down the bushy rows,I like to think I can hear the tubers expanding.

The farm is going great guns,as from day to day plants flower and fruit clusters appear.Broccoli, such a space hog, is here now for a couple weeks,but soon we will be gone,just in time for the arrival of full summer croppage.Moisture has remained well balanced so far this seasom, I only spent one week turning the irrigation on,fixing geysers and ignoring pesky mere leaks.Over the years I have received a PhD. in farm irrigation and invention.After endless cutting,splicing and knuckle skinning,our farm water system works almost like I want it to.Some people cunsult techno wizards, spending entire lunch breaks hyperventilating on the phone.I prefer to hyperventilate inb the field, plus I can cuss and kick the offending pieces .Sometimes I think I could diversify into farm therapy.I hope you all take the time to make a cold new tater salad,with plenty of green onion, salt ,pepper and dill.Here are the hoodlums for the week.

NEW TATERS

squash

broccoli

cabbage

head lettuce

onions

kale/collards

Enjoy!!!!!!!

peace

gaelan

harvest week four

Howdy All!

Been a hot one this past week, days, where the sweat trickles down your body in tiny rivulets,your mind struggling to keep the torpor at bay.Yet how could I possibly complain,when things are growing a mile a minute and the river,oh the river is what keeps it all in perspective.Planted out sweet potatoes this week,trying to imagine three months from now,digging those orange clusters from the sandy soil.Enough to make you run through the garden naked.For me it's always fascinating when the heaT bears down,yet the leafy greens hold their own with remarkable grit.I wander the fields aimlessly in the early morning, poking and prodding, feeling like some strange earth doctor,checking on my patients.This past week was also the celebrated first cherry tomato from the high tunnel.At first I thought I was seeing things,maybe someone had droped an orange golf ball, then remembered that noone plays golf in my field.Suddenly it hit me.Sungold!!!!As the trickle of hot , sweet -tart juice flowed over my taste buds,my body went to automatic,running itself out of the tunnel, whooping and screaming.Somehow,as we all know,taste can trigger such a whirlwind of memory and emotion.The taste of the first tomato, however small seems to me to say that everything, no matter how tough the going will be fine in the end.Maybe politicians should eat fresh, sun ripened sungolds.Perhaps then we would have happy down to earth people in office.Carrots are elongating,beets are rounding out,cukes are nascent on the vine and the melons spread stealthily over their beds,like good eats sliding down your gullet.I hope all and sundry are enjoying their food,I really think instead of carpe diem, it should of been seize the food.Here is your playlist for the week.

squash

onions

kale

lettuce

peas

choi

Tallyho!!!

peace

gaelan

Harvest week three: HOT!

Man, time is flying by.Today was a double dip day in the river, felt good to sweat some, really feeling like summer is here to stay.When it's so hot out, I relish the early mornings even more, the lush colors before the sun turns everything a blinding yellow.Today we worked on building an outdoor shower at the apprentice cabin. Nick and Grace are this year's crop of young folks, who give us their sweat and tears, minimal on the blood part. My personal ethic when accoplishing a project on the farm  is to find as much of the materials on site as possible.Saving cash, but also a creative challenge to see what one can create with random parts.We are using an old pressure tank for the water storage, set on a seven foot high platform,connected to the already existing water catchment system.

I've been in a pickle of late, at the end of the day, turning my hands over, wondering at the lack of engrained dirt this year. It's almost as if I have to intentionally rub my hands with schmutz to feel that I really am a farmer. I take pride in my farmer hands.Have to keep up with my peers the world over,whose hands I always admired,coursed with veins ,fingers like vise grips. I swear I'm working hard........really.

All vegetable matter is continuing its rapid expansion, lettuce heads ballooning like they're sucking helium. Melons are starting their slow spread over the black fabric . Peas are fattening on the vine and the tomatoes are putting out buds. This evening at dusk the girls and I were down at the farm, me fixing some last minute wrinkles with the irrigation, the girls, dancing through the fine spray of the sprinklers, yelling and singing.What a great way to end the day. Here's a who's who for this weeks eating!

kale/chard/collards

radish

peas

lettuce

onions

garlic scapes

Choi

Enjoy the Hot weather! Peace, Gaelan