The sunshine has returned to the hillsides of Western PA. It did take the sun a while to burn off the morning fog. I have shown up with my seed collected from the Mother Earth News Fair and a brochure from Expo East, to share with Fred and Kristen. Somehow I manage to have a light and nearly productive conversation with the two of them despite the fact that mornings are not my favorite.
Children of the corn have arrived at the farm, 3rd graders from the Waldorf School. By the time they leave I have hardly come in contact with them, thank god. I can hear them squealing all morning, it is not too obnoxious. As they harvest dried out corn stalks in the misty morning I do get the sense of something much more sinister beneath their colorful fall jackets and gap toothed grins.
I have a good little harvest in the heritage seed garden. Mainly for seed, picking overripe tomatoes and putting them in a bucket. The Sheboygan paste tomatoes were overloaded with small pear shaped fruit, many of which were fit for eating. Sheboygan is fun to say. Sheboygan.
I want to say we have finished planting seedlings almost entirely, I can say this because all the prepared fields are filled. I can not say that there are not more seedlings in the poly-tunnel, as there are plenty. What will become of them? Time will tell.
Lunch. We all pitch in making up a large feast. Meg has returned after a long break. Her car has broken down, an old volvo, and I don't think there are plans to fix it. She takes the Custom down to the barn so she can pick up some veggies for our stir-fry. Lynn makes baba ganoush, a garbanzo bean and eggplant puree that is great on many things. Bridget makes a salad and I cut up some turnip greens.
I have to put my sweatshirt back on because the sun has been blotted out by gray skies. This is expected in this region, I thought I would prefer that it was nice out, but I often find strength in the cool. I certainly did not like being cooked by the sun earlier in the season, I have even taken off my cowboy hat and sun glasses and put them aside for the last two weeks. Meg is stressed out because Fred has told her that the Tuesday volunteers have been complaining about having to work in the tall weeds. I suspect that this is Fred's way of telling her to do some work clearing them out. So we are in the turnips, which I believe I helped seed, stomping on the tall grass and ripping out some ragweed or thistle. When I finally come across a matured turnip the bulbous root is the size of a baseball. Impressive. I notice a few black streaks out of the corner of my eye. It seems that we are disturbing the field mice that are not used to human presence in this part of the field. They scurry into their dens.
Last week the girls pulled out all the tomato steaks and strings on the hilltop tomatoes and left them in the field. We collect them quickly, Bridget and I organize them into broken and not broken piles. There are many ways to die on the farm, and in a final destination scenario Bridget gets her shirt sucked into some machinery just to barely break free and get stabbed by the sharp end of a broken tomato steak, an agonizing and bloody death. She will be missed. After that is all cleaned up, I drive up the hill to pull plastic where the winter squash have succumbed to powdery mildew. Lynn and Meg have already started and finished a row perhaps. What comes over me next is mystery. As if possessed I rip out the plastic at a speed that surpasses even Lynn in her row started a few minutes before mine and she is in threat of getting lapped come my second row. This does not happen, I doubt she would allow it. This is the farm work-out program that is sold on late night infomercials. Great for the forearms, grip, pecks, and ob-leeks. Guaranteed to turn a fat flabby depressed slob of a human being in to a ripped and tan happy clean cut photoshop experiment.
Kristen is trimming some bushes outside the farmhouse when we get back. As I pick up the trimming I notice a distinctive red berry that seems to be open on one end. This is a yew, and when I find it in my herb book I glean some interesting information. Not only could it be used to cure cancer by inhibiting human cell division, but an insecticidal smoke is created and can keep mosquitoes away, or a cold decoction can be used on farm animals to calm their twitching nerves. I tell Kristen of my discovery, some info, that around here might come in handy.
Children of the corn have arrived at the farm, 3rd graders from the Waldorf School. By the time they leave I have hardly come in contact with them, thank god. I can hear them squealing all morning, it is not too obnoxious. As they harvest dried out corn stalks in the misty morning I do get the sense of something much more sinister beneath their colorful fall jackets and gap toothed grins.
I have a good little harvest in the heritage seed garden. Mainly for seed, picking overripe tomatoes and putting them in a bucket. The Sheboygan paste tomatoes were overloaded with small pear shaped fruit, many of which were fit for eating. Sheboygan is fun to say. Sheboygan.
I want to say we have finished planting seedlings almost entirely, I can say this because all the prepared fields are filled. I can not say that there are not more seedlings in the poly-tunnel, as there are plenty. What will become of them? Time will tell.
Lunch. We all pitch in making up a large feast. Meg has returned after a long break. Her car has broken down, an old volvo, and I don't think there are plans to fix it. She takes the Custom down to the barn so she can pick up some veggies for our stir-fry. Lynn makes baba ganoush, a garbanzo bean and eggplant puree that is great on many things. Bridget makes a salad and I cut up some turnip greens.
I have to put my sweatshirt back on because the sun has been blotted out by gray skies. This is expected in this region, I thought I would prefer that it was nice out, but I often find strength in the cool. I certainly did not like being cooked by the sun earlier in the season, I have even taken off my cowboy hat and sun glasses and put them aside for the last two weeks. Meg is stressed out because Fred has told her that the Tuesday volunteers have been complaining about having to work in the tall weeds. I suspect that this is Fred's way of telling her to do some work clearing them out. So we are in the turnips, which I believe I helped seed, stomping on the tall grass and ripping out some ragweed or thistle. When I finally come across a matured turnip the bulbous root is the size of a baseball. Impressive. I notice a few black streaks out of the corner of my eye. It seems that we are disturbing the field mice that are not used to human presence in this part of the field. They scurry into their dens.
Last week the girls pulled out all the tomato steaks and strings on the hilltop tomatoes and left them in the field. We collect them quickly, Bridget and I organize them into broken and not broken piles. There are many ways to die on the farm, and in a final destination scenario Bridget gets her shirt sucked into some machinery just to barely break free and get stabbed by the sharp end of a broken tomato steak, an agonizing and bloody death. She will be missed. After that is all cleaned up, I drive up the hill to pull plastic where the winter squash have succumbed to powdery mildew. Lynn and Meg have already started and finished a row perhaps. What comes over me next is mystery. As if possessed I rip out the plastic at a speed that surpasses even Lynn in her row started a few minutes before mine and she is in threat of getting lapped come my second row. This does not happen, I doubt she would allow it. This is the farm work-out program that is sold on late night infomercials. Great for the forearms, grip, pecks, and ob-leeks. Guaranteed to turn a fat flabby depressed slob of a human being in to a ripped and tan happy clean cut photoshop experiment.
Kristen is trimming some bushes outside the farmhouse when we get back. As I pick up the trimming I notice a distinctive red berry that seems to be open on one end. This is a yew, and when I find it in my herb book I glean some interesting information. Not only could it be used to cure cancer by inhibiting human cell division, but an insecticidal smoke is created and can keep mosquitoes away, or a cold decoction can be used on farm animals to calm their twitching nerves. I tell Kristen of my discovery, some info, that around here might come in handy.
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