our first heirloom tomato of the season

it weighed 1.3lbs and it was delicious.

to me, every fruit that comes out of the ground is a miracle. think about it: how do soil, water, sun and a million other things come together to make a tomato that goes on to become part of our body?

peace

lunch

today for lunch we had:

• raw kale salad
• raw carrots, cucumbers, and sugar snap peas, fresh from the garden
• kale and dill spanakopita
• lentil-quinoa salad with fresh parsley and dill
• strawberries

everything was simple and fresh and delicious. the best part was watching sena and aiyana enjoy all the fresh veggies, and knowing that their growing bodies are nourished in a good way. when people ask why we farm, that's the top reason.

my mom will like this picture of her 5 grandaughters

sena, aiyana, julia, stella, and lucy

the rains

we got about 10 inches of rain in the past week. the average normal is 1 inch per week, as far as i know. i've never seen our field so wet. i don't want to touch the plants or walk around too much for fear of spreading disease or compacting the soil. it's very mucky out there, and our boots sink in deep. there was standing water in the spinach patch a couple of days ago, and the potato beds were started to erode. i drove by the fied of one farmer i know down in the valey, and half of his field was covered by a foot of water. i felt sick to see it. we're up high on the hill but even so, the ground is saturated, and we're seeing standing water and little rivuilets running through our fields, first time ever.
i've seen some fungal disease starting in the beets, cercospora, in one bed. i think i'm going to pull them all out so it doesn't spread somewhere else.
despite all this, however, most of the plants still look good. the CSA has been going very well also, so overall everything is OK, but i do feel somewhat anxious. the plants have been stressed a lot by all this water and cold temps, and i'm just hoping that they'll get a break now so they can be healthy.

my mom just got back from europe and said that the danube is 8 meters above its normal level. it's crazy. better learn how to grow your own.
 
peace

sena and aiyana

sena has been making bread: crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, delicious. she grinds her own wheat berries before baking, and uses a sour-dough starter which she got from my sister. these are some of her loaves

 aiyana with her strawberry harvest

more aiyana

peace