Into August we go...

 

I survived July, on a wing and a prayer and Chris and I both boast with a grin, “we are in the downhill coast.” Well, not really coasting. But we’ve made it more than halfway through this thing, so what’s three more months?

Besides more transplanting, more seeding, more weeding, more harvesting, CSA box packing, three more months of early Farmer’s Market Saturdays, and preparing the farm/ soil/ greenhouses/ crops for the winter. We’ll be planting fall garlic and harvesting pumpkins before you know it.

Jon’s three-week stay on the farm was a nice change of pace. Nice to have family here and very nice to have some extra help too! On his last day we all visited The Ice Cream Man where he took ice cream eating to an entirely new level with The Banana Bucket (a six scoop, six topping, banana split with a mound of whipped topping. Meant for sharing. He finished about ½ of this half-gallon’s worth of ice cream before announcing, “I’m full.” The guys told him it wasn’t about being full and that he needed to simply power through and finish. This did not happen.

…

I wish I had some wonderful farm news to share, but each day is full of so much activity and so many tasks that I can’t even recall what I did two days ago. Weeding. Picking tomatoes for 142 families, washing beets- it’s pretty mundane and needs no explaining. Dig potatoes, pull onions, spray clay on broccoli to prevent flea beetle damage, pull weeds in the cucumber beds.

My days are long and hard. My wrists ache with this arthritis/ carpel tunnel ping. I’m self-diagnosing here, but I hope it goes away when I’m not crawling all day long. We are on all fours to weed, to plant, to harvest…. Maybe it’s just the 140+ pounds of weight bearing down on my little ole wrists every single day.

…

I’ve canned more beets, spicy green beans, my Nana’s bead and butter pickles, and peach preserves. (Only after no less than three calls to my mother.) I’m doing this canning thing for the first time on my very own and I wish I had some wiser, older person in the kitchen with me sometimes. There are so many variables that I feel like sometimes it’s a little too easy to mess up. Everyone does pickles different. Cold pack. Hot pack. Times are different, seasonings vary, refrigerate overnight… Oh, well. I got to learn sometime.

This weekend I’m canning a very small batch of Brandied Peach Preserves. It takes three days to make… And better be worth it. I currently have four canning/ recipes books from the library and I’ve almost made them my own. My favorite one has been Well Preserved- small batch canning for the new cook.

We are still here. We are working and living and trying to decide what’s next for The Chambers. I did manage a day off from Farmers Market and will be spending my Saturday getting a massage in Clifton Park (45 minutes away). It is well overdue and a gift from a dear friend in NYC- birthday/ going away in late March. Overdue indeed.  

(husk cherries- a new fun, favorite treat!)