Harvest Time

(Chris setting up at Farmer's Market- week one 136 quarts of strawberries!)

What a week already! It’s only Wednesday and already I’ve had a full week of experiences.

This week begins CSA deliveries to our 142 members. Deliveries are made on Thursday, which means all of Wednesday is spent harvesting, cleaning and boxing lots and lots of produce. Some things can make it a little longer in the cooler so Tuesday we began with cilantro, garlic chives and escarole.

I find harvesting so fulfilling and satisfying. Even though we are bringing a plant’s life to an end: it is time. The work has been done. Our labor has paid off and someone will get to eat this amazing thing that we grew from a seed planted in late March. Our cilantro, basil and arugula are the most beautiful plants. And, we had the best-looking basil at Farmers Market last week, hands down.

In this week’s CSA boxes we packed: a huge bundle of arugula, cilantro, garlic scapes, garlic chives, boc choi, lettuce, scallions, escarole, and either a pint of peas OR kohlrabi. The heads of escarole were these massive things that I wonder what people will do with them… The reason the kohlrabi OR the peas is due to a shortage of kohlrabi. The plants were just obliterated with some sort of fungus or pant disease that more than half were non-edible. So, at 12:00pm we headed into the field to harvest peas…

Unfortunately after lunch, upon final box count, we realized we needed another ten pints of peas. 2:00pm. Temperatures in the 90’s. Head pounding. Out we go… Ten pints of peas. I can do this.

Today was the first day of summer and it was definitely hot HOT in upstate New York. I feel bad even mentioning it, being from Texas and all (“we’ve had over 100 days of over 100 degree temperatures…” Yeah, yeah… I know…) BUT, it was simply just sweltering out there today. In the greenhouse. Cutting boc choi. Sweat running down my brow.

…

This week has brought more life and more death here on the farm. A weasel got in the chicken coop on Sunday night and killed most of the chickens. More than six. Then again on Monday night he came back for more. In the animal kingdom we call this smart. Two chickens were left Tuesday morning: a gray hen and a blondish red rooster. That is it. But Wednesday morning Thomas found one black hen with fifteen (that’s 15) chicks wandering around the shop. (That’s where all the tools and saws and gasoline and chainsaws and extra parts and screws and broken “need to be fixed” things are kept.) Fifteen chicks. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.

I’ve just been swamped from sun-up to sun-down. I canned 14 jars of strawberry jam on Monday night. I just couldn’t STAND seeing them rotting in the field, so Sunday morning I went and picked more. More than the three or so quarts that were already filling our fridge. Strawberries galore. I froze a couple gallons. And pureed a quart, just to eat with yogurt and granola… Then I knew I had to make jam.

Making jam does not sound like an easy task to me. Real, domestic women make jam. Women who make their own bread and grow their own herbs…(wait a second here, maybe I’m becoming a real housy-house wife). I did make Farm bread this week too. I feel like I’ve really mastered the recipe and the art. Chris is convinced we could sell my loaves for $4.00 a loaf.

Did I mention Tuesday Chris turned some other age in his mid-thirties? So, two peanut butter pies were in the line up as well. We shared one with the other farm staff Tuesday after work. Mmmm, cold, rich peanut butter pie on a hot, sunny afternoon after working our butts off.  Oh, and the Mexican food dinner. It was a birthday request; I couldn’t say no. So, Tuesday was “build your own taco night” at the Chambers.

I’m overwhelmed by the ample, beautiful, fresh produce at our fingertips. We enjoyed some wonderful cilantro and scallions with our Mexican dinner. Arugula, strawberries, lettuces, and peas have been on our table… and I have boc choi in the fridge right now. Beets will be on the menu soon. Beets and beet greens morning noon and night.

One other thing that we’ve been enjoying is Chris’s new motorcycle. New *used motorcycle. He finally got the backseat and sissy bar installed on Sunday evening. Riding after work has been a great way too cool off, unwind and be together. It is lovely up here in these rolling mountains.

I’m calling this The Summer of No Air Conditioning. We have no a/c in our apartment, which has been okay thus far, given that we live in the root cellar. We have no a/c in the two farm trucks we drive to farmers market and on the CSA delivery route. And the a/c in our car only works on full blast. Same with the heat. So it’s good if it’s extremely hot, or extremely cold- otherwise we just deal.

And we are dealing. On most days. But it is still a really good life we’re living up here.

Afternoon motorcycle riding- the best way to cool off and unwind