This is a sad week on the farm.
Daniel is going back to college.
It is also a little disconcerting that it is the middle of August and school is coming fast and yet we are only on CSA week 9!
If you will remember, we had a particularly difficult spring this year. That may seem like ages ago, but the fact is that we still feel the repercussions of that. If we are indeed going to give 20 weeks of CSA we will be harvesting till the last day of October. When I mentioned that to someone recently he replied: "What? There won't be anything left out there to harvest!".
And it isn't just us in the garden who are still painfully aware of what happened in the spring. A cattle farmer told me on Sunday he didn't know if he would be able to get his typical second hay cutting. He hoped he had enough leftover from last year to last him though the winter.
Yes, it is difficult. Out here on the farm the weather is more then a TV forecast or an interesting event that takes place outside the windows. It has real impact. On our routine, and our moral and even our finances. Megan and I always joke that we don't need TV and movies, because our life is already dramatic enough. Any more drama and we would have a meltdown.
It's like the old farmer joke says: "I don't need to go to the casino... I farm for a living."
Thankfully, right now the garden is grand! At this point in the season, all kinds of things are in season. The fruiting vegetables like tomatoes are in, the leaves are starting to bounce back from the heat, the roots are maturing and of course the flowers are just dripping with color. It is nice to be able to actually choose what we put in the CSA box each week (there are times, like the early season and the late season when pickings are slim).
And of course, the animals are comfortable as well during this part of the year. The heat has dissipated a bit and the grass is still lush... It doesn't get much better then a contented cow chewing her cud in the shade on an August afternoon. The grass is oh-so-green and the sky is oh-so-blue and everything just dances with life.
Let's see what kind of life you have in your share this week.
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Zukes
Peppers
Lettuce Mix
Carrots
Cabbage
Cilantro
Celery
