i'm loving this cooler weather. beautiful fall is almost here. i can work and be comfortable.

our sales at the market this past week were significantly lower than in the past few. that's because we had less stuff to sell - the tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, beans and peppers are done.
but, the good news is that it was still a great market as far as attendance, and our fall crops are coming in nicely. we're in a little bit of a lull now, as the cabbages, potatoes, spinach, and winter squash are not quite ready, but soon they will be. even with our lowered sales this week, we still more than doubled what we were making last year at this time. at our peak (last week), we tripled from last year. of course last year we didn't make enough to sustain ourselves longterm, but still it is very encouraging. haven't put the numbers together yet for expenses and sales, but overall, i have a good feeling about this year.

with all this demand, we are planning to grow more vegetables, and also get into berries next year. ed and his dad have been working on clearing another 1/2 acre of land for vegetable production. we already have about 200 raspberry bushes which should be productive next year, and are planning to plant more, plus blueberries and strawberries. all very exciting. can't believe i'm already thinking about next season, but i feel like we've learned so much this year, that the only natural thing to do is figure out what we're going to be doing next year.

here are some pics of our field at this time of year:
beets

newly planted beds of spinach in the foreground, then swiss chard, potatoes and other crops further back.

sena and aiyana's seats in front of our house. i think they look sweet.

kabocha winter squash, which i harvested last week. they are curing right now, for about 2 weeks, and i can't wait to have one!

peace

always yearning for authenticity.
silence. stillness. the call of the owl. the howl of the coyotes at night. gazing into another's eyes. laughing. tears.

six years since stanton died. my mother reminded me. i still miss him, although having him was so hard. but he was amazing and i feel like he will always be with me.

sometimes i get overwhelmed with people who seem so disconnected and insane. it happened last time i was at a party about a week ago. just couldn't shake off the feeling of insanity. i needed to come home and go out in my garden. that made me feel more grounded.

i think that there are many troubled, angry people, discontented and jaded and empty, and maybe a lot of that is because they're stuck inside their heads and in front of the TV / computer too much. too little contact with reality. a walk outside may be nice, or maybe just paying attention for a few moments to anything other than the ranting thoughts inside one's head.

but i know that i'm the one that's odd.

another beautiful market day

another amazing market yesterday in Storrs, our best one yet! i can't believe we have four tables worth of vegetables. last year, it would've been hard to believe... i'm having such a good time. i've always wanted to do something that "mattered", something that i found meaningful, and now i am growing food for people, and they're loving it, and coming back for more. it really is a dream come true.

this is me, setting up before the market opened, at 3 o'clock. we had so many people lined up when we did open, that ed and i could barely keep up. we're considering getting some help for the first hour (roxi? maybe next year?).

peace

picking tomatoes

aiyana helped me get ready for tomorrows market. the tomatoes have slowed down a lot in the past couple of weeks, but there are still a few to pick.



peace

every sunday, aiyana's been spending time with kim and chuck (ed's aunt and uncle) and their two horses. she helps kim groom the horses, and take care of them. slowly, she's been working her way to getting to know the horses better and better, and eventually she rode bareback. last week, she rode with a saddle, which she said was less bumpy.

aiyana only rides around the barn, but she's already learned how to get josie, the horse to go and to stop. josie really likes aiyana too, and they're developing a really nice relationship. for aiyana this is a dream come true, and kim and josie seem to really enjoy their time together as well.

these pics are from last weekend, when sena got a chance to hop in the saddle behind her little sis as well.

working on her balance, hands off the saddle (kim is always right along her side, guiding her and the horse). josie, the horse, is very sweet and gentle, and apparently is amazing when she competes in shows.


peace

here is a tomato horn worm. i found it on our cherry tomato plants on monday. it's huge, for a worm, about the size of my middle finger. i usually have no problem with squishing the (many) caterpillars i find on our plants (especially the cabbage family) by hand, but i was not ready to do that with this guy. it makes a pretty loud cliking sounds as it chews the leaves off the tomato plants. those white things attached all over it are brachonid wasp cocoons. we've been trying to attract this wasp to our garden by planting different flowers and generally creative a conducive habitat. the wasp parasitizes all kinds of caterpillars, and lays its eggs inside them, eventually killing them. many conventional farmers spray pesticides to get rid of the tomato horn worm and others, but if you create conditions that will attract beneficial insects like this wasp, spraying is unnecessary. the system will balance itself out. pesticides kill not only the pests, but the beneficials as well, so you become dependent on them.
in case you're interested in reading more about parasitic wasps and other beneficials, here's an article i found online. there are many more, of course.

here's a tomato horn worm without the wasp parasites


and this is our seed garlic, and onions in the background. our onions and garlic were beautiful this year.

peace

sena got dressed up in a hand-me-down princess dress we got from a friend, and wanted a picture by the old maple in our front yard. i like it.

a few days ago, aiyana said to me: "every day is a happy day", and i was very moved by this.
life is so sweet and simple and beautiful when you're as pure as a four-year-old, unencumbered by all kinds of artificial wants and hopes.

another record market yesterday. things have been going really well, and i am very grateful.
it's hard to believe, but even with all our hard work and everything going well, financial sustainability is still a huge issue for us. hopefuly we'll come out positive at the end of this year. all i want is to be able to keep doing this. i don't want a lot of money at the end of the year, just enough to sustain our simple lifestile and to allow us to continue to farm.
peace

we're already into fall planting. can barely believe how fast summer is going by.
but it has been an amazing summer. i don't think we can ask for better crops - they've done so well, with all the heat and humidity we've had. we haven't had much rain, but fortunately, ed and i dug our well and installed our irrigation for the field just in time. it would've been a very different situation without the readily available water...

we have so many tomatoes right now, and they are so good. very exciting, especially after last year's late blight, which wiped us out. these days though, it feels like all i'm doing is harvesting tomatoes all day long, and i remind myself that that's something to be grateful for when i get tired of it.

our CSA is almost half-way through, and we continue to get very positive and encouraging feedback. many people tell us how happy they are, and how they want to sign up again next year. also, they say that they know other people who'd like to sign up. so our waiting list for 2011 is growing, and we will most likely be expanding the CSA next year.

all is good over here,
peace

this morning

aiyana and i went to the field this morning and i had to take some pics of her:

in the chicken coop, getting eggs (i love her expression)

and standing by the zinnias


peace

yesterday we had entertainment at the farmers' market - a man who played guitar and did some very nice covers. at the end, he played a few songs just for the kids, and here are sena, aiyana, annie and jaden dancing and enjoying themselves.

this is that big eggplant i referred to earlier. it weighed 2.7lbs. and tasted really good in the eggplant parm my sister made with it.

crop, no zucchini, circles (i think they were made by an insect. pretty cool, aren't they?)

peace

i love this picture of sena, which ricardo took at our last farmers' market.
and check out this picture. see those watermelons in the background? we grew them! (very exciting...). i wasn't holding out much hope for them, but here they are, nice and ripe, and sweet. and i learned a few things too, like make sure to weed them early, so next year, they may be even better.

peace

helping each other

my sister and ricardo have been a huge help. ed and i grow our food, but we're so busy doing that all day long, that we have no time for cooking, let alone preserving. often, we have more veges than we can sell, so my sister and ricardo take them, and they cook or preserve them for the winter. they keep some, and we get some, and so it works out for everyone. they've made garlic scape pesto, as well as basil pesto (my freezer is already full); they made about 25 quart-sized jars of pickles for us; soon they'll can tomato sauce. not to mention all the cooked food, like the eggplant parmesan my sister made yesterday with the hugest eggplant i ever saw (it weighed 2.7lbs); and a roasted pepper salad, which was the most heavenly thing. i ate it with pesto, and could not believe how amazing it was.

i'm really happy that we can work together this way. not only do we have fresh, delicious food right now, but we'll have some for the winter too...

so thank you roxi and ricardo.
peace

sena's PSA and website

my little born-activist, Sena, did a Public Service Announcement (PSA) on the radio. it plays on UConn's radio station, WHUS 91.7FM. we heard it once last week, but we heard from various people that they played it at least four times, and another time, two DJ's were just talking about it and about sena.

the first time i heard it, i almost burst into tears. it's really moving to hear this little 6-year-old who is so earnest in pleading with all of us to care more for whales, and for our planet. she really humbles me.

you can hear sena's PSA anytime on her website, www.senawhales.org.

we've been so busy. last night i felt beyond exhausted. there's so much to do right now: harvesting, planting, weeding, getting ready for the market and CSA, and so on. it never stops really. but i think this time is the busiest of the year, so it will get easier. ed and i haven't had a day off in months.

here are some beautiful vegetables from our field:

sweet hungarian, italian and bell peppers

our table before the CSA last week

and some flowers i grew to make small bouquets: sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, mixed in with basil, dill and cilantro flowers. i think they look sweet.


peace

i'm feeling really good today. yesterday's CSA went well, and everyone commented on how nice things looked, and how good it all is. i love hearing that, it's a nice reward for all our hard work.

my friend Dragos from Montreal stopped by after the CSA, and it was really nice to see him. i took him and my dad (my parents are here visiting) around to show him the farm, and it was relaxing, and it gave me a new perspective on our work. i knew Dragos when i was working at Pratt, and before, and seeing him brought back memories, which were all good, and it also made me realize at what a different place i am right now, in my life, which is also good.

i've been reading a book by joko beck, named "nothing special", which i find very helpful in dealing with everyday difficulties, especially ones of the internal kind. i read it to ed every night before bed, but he mostly falls asleep because he's so tired from all the work, so i continue reading just to myself, and i find some of it stays with me and gives me food for thought the next day. it's been mostly helpful in not taking myself so seriously, and in allowing me to just observe how i react, etc. it feels very liberating, not being so caught up in oneself all the time.

so i feel light and good today, a very simple, sweet feeling. i came to shandra's to have a shower, as we still don't have water, and i noticed how tall the weeds got in the eggplant patch, and i noticed how that made me tighten and feel stressed, and i just kept walking to my shower.

i've really been trying to work more efficiently, and one thing i realized is that i waste a lot of energy in worrying about things, and in indecision, and planning and all that. so instead, i'm trying to just "do it", "do it, mama, do it" as aiyana says. just do what needs to be done, one thing at a time, and put all my energy and focus into that, and that's got to be more efficient than doing something while thinking about all the other things that need to be done.

so i'm just working on getting out of my own way, so i can do the work i want to do in the field. fortunately, Nature provides plenty of inspiration in this endeavor.

peace

we made it through yesterday. had a record number of people at our house: ed's cousin, uncle, and grandfather, plus ed, all working on the well and piping for to the house and field. we will have irrigation to our field after all this.

i was working with my sister, Nicu and Shandra, harvesting and getting vegetables ready for the market. meanwhile, Albina and her girls were hanging out with sena and aiyana. all in all a very busy day, but we made it to the market, and we did well, and it never would have happened without all the help we had. thank you so much to everyone. it was fun. my sister said that it was like a commune, everyone doing something different, but all working together.

thank you!
peace

we're a little crazy right now.
our well just ran dry so we have no water. i'm at Shandra's getting drinking water and having a shower. the dishes are piled up in the sink, the toilet does not flush, and tomorrow morning we need to wash our lettuces and other veges for the market and i don't know how we'll do that yet. ed's trying to hook something up.

the good news is that we had another well dug, and they hit 15 gallons per minute at 300ft depth. that's really good, and it will be enough for the field and house, but it won't be ready until next week. so in the meantime, we'll see what happens.

now i have to go and plant some more potatoes.
peace

from "The Essential Rumi"

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to
kneel and kiss the ground.

rainbow over our tomato patch

a picnic

last friday i took a break for farming (first in weeks) and went on a picnic with sena and aiyana. we had so much fun, and i was actually able to just relax and be with them, and not think about anything else - we decided we'd do this every week.

the girls did gymnastics, while i watched. here's sena in a handstand.

and aiyana, rolling in the grass, which is just like her. in general, sena's serious and precise, and very honest; while aiyana is crazy, happy-go-lucky, and really sweet. also, she makes up stories, and you never quite know what to believe. i think some of these pictures show these qualities a little bit.

sena coaching aiyana on a headstand.

looking out over the water.

sena's own headstand. she likes to do things well. she always amazes me how she takes things on and just does them, whether it be gymnastics, or whale-activism, or whatever she chooses.

my beautiful girrls with sun-bleached hair

i think that this picture captures aiyana's spirit particularly well. she's wild and very free.

big sister helping little sister with her bathing suit. this is so sweet. they really get along well together, and they compliment each other perfectly. i really do feel blessed to have them in my life.

peace

Messenger, by Mary Oliver (from her collection 'Thirst')

My work is loving the world.
Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.
Here the quickening yeast; there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
keep my mind on what matters,
which is my work,

which is mostly standing still and learning to be
astonished.
The phoebe, the delphinium.
The sheep in the pasture, and the pasture.
Which is mostly rejoicing, since all ingredients are here,

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

-------------------
(what a lovely way to think of one's work, as standing still and learning to be astonished)

i just spent the whole day today watering our field. it's been so hot and the soil is getting really dry. on the upside, everything is growing really well, and this weather is notconducive to the late blight...

but the lack of rain is definitely starting to be worrisome, especially since our well will not be able to meet the needs of the field for long. we're having another one drilled in a couple of weeks, but until then we have to work with the one we have, which means very little water pressure, and very little water. today, the water level went down from 8 to 4 ft in the well. that's a little scary. hopefuly it will go back up substantially overnight.

well, among other things, farming brings the gift of adventure. it keeps you on your toes one way or another.

peace

a little bit of rumi

"keep walking. there's no place to go".

i've been reconnecting with rumi lately, which feels so nice. he always fills a need that is so deep, i forget i even have it. i've also discovered another amazing poet, mary oliver. her poems are earthy and full of longing.

thank you to my friend C. for re-opening me to all of this.

late blight was reported at two farms in CT a few days ago! again! can't believe it...

my tomato plants look great so far, so i'll try not to think about the blight which wiped out all of our plants last year. not much i can do, just hope it does not spread...

some pics from our CSA this week:
summer squash, zucchini and scarlet queen salad turnips

eggplant! cannot believe we have eggplant in june. that's very early, and we have a lot more coming.

people were very excited to see all the new stuff that was available this week. i was too, you should've seen me picking in the morning, i was so happy.

these are the edible violas we put in our salad mix. they're so pretty, and they taste like peppermint, so the kids love them. now i just have to teach them how to pick the flowers, without ripping the entire plant out of the ground (especially aiyana)

rainbow chard - i am always amazed by how beautiful it is. and it tastes so good too. i just saute it with a little salt.

eggplant flower. so beautiful.

this is me at the market a few weeks ago. i think our table looked good here. but yesterday it was even better. we had 3 tables, filled to the max. i wish we had the camera...

peace

happy summer solstice! longest day ofthe year and the beginning of summer just this past monday. enjoy.

i really miss the kids. they went to rhode island for a couple of days, to be with grandma and grampa, and things are too quiet without them. ed and i were listening to some classical music last night after the market. we were so tired, and it was nice to be able to just sit and relax with the music. we don't get to do that when the kids are around. but after a while, ed got up and went to the goat pen, and let coffee out. coffee loves company so she grazed a little bit outside our house, and then she came right in and jumped all over ed and i and on and off the couch. so we felt a little less lonely, now that we had some craziness from coffee.

at one point ed said to me that the kids will grow and in a few years they won't want to be with us as much as they do now. so we should just make the most of it now, when they're still young and still want to do everything with us. it was hard for me to hear that, but it was a good reminder.

things always change. all we can do is be present for each precious moment as it happens.
peace

had an excellent market yesterday, our best one yet. the zucchini and cabbages we brought were a hit, and sold out right away. people were also very excited about the broccoli raab. i can hardly believe it, but our eggplants look ready and i will bring them to the market next week.

ed and i are very happy about how things are going, but we're also pretty tired. his back is still hurting a lot, and he cannot do much, although, if you know him, you'll know that he's pushing himself. i've been doing more stuff to keep things going while he's recovering, and i'm feeling it.

i guess we're realizing again how important it is to take care of our bodies. stretching, in particular, is something we need to do all the time.

our vegetables are coming along really well though, and that's always inspiring to me, no matter what difficulty we're dealing with at the time. i like to just go out and take a walk around the field- seeing the plants grow always makes me happy.

here are some pictures of our field, which i took last sunday when i was out on such a walk. things have actually grown a lot since then with the beautiful weather we've had this past week...


eggplants and peppers

potaotes on the left, peppers on the right in the foreground

tomatoes

summer squash, zucchini and cucumbers.

peace

the sun came out

phew!
but now ed hurt his back. he's at the chiropractor right now, and i told him to tell the guy that whatever he does would better work, cuz we got work to do...
poor ed, he looked terrible this morning. i do hope he'll get better soon.

Waiting for the sun

I'm a little grumpy. Last Saturday, there was a tornado watch. Despite this, the market went well for about one hour. Then there was lightening and thunder and the wind picked up a lot, and it seemed really scary for a while, and everyone left. It never actually rained, because the wind was strong enough to sweep the clouds right passed us, but all the customers and most of the vendors were scared away. This Saturday, we picked heavy because it was supposed to be clear most of the day. About 1 o'clock, it started to rain and it rained on and off the rest of the day. It was so sad to be sitting at the market with all this bounty of vegetables, and barely anyone came. I was very grateful for the people who did show up though.
So, our Saturday market has been disappointing with all this weather stuff going on.

This past week, I feel like I've barely seen the sun. It's been wet and overcast, and cold. I started to get worried about my plants again. I have such a hard time letting go of that. I know that there's nothing I can do about the weather, but I get worried anyway. It seemed like every time I looked at the tomato plants this week, their leaves were wet. Which is not a good thing. Iím starting to get flash-backs from last year, when we had a cold, wet, overcast June, and we lost all our tomato plants to late blight. Late blight is a fungus, and fungi love these conditions. Well, hopefully things will get better this week. Sunny and hot so things can dry out a little and get growing again.

One day this week, I got out to the field really early, and I was inspecting everything, and felt so grumpy. Everything seemed so weedy and wet, and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of work to be done. I was in such a foul mood, and I was just looking for an argument. I knew that when Ed came, I would just bait him into arguing with me. I could not help it. It felt terrible. Ed eventually came, and I made some comments, but he never took the bait. He actually turned it around, and he was so positive, that by the end of the whole thing, I felt cleared up, and in a much better mood. At one point he said "Look at what we've accomplished" and he pointed to the field, which is really so beautiful, and I almost started to cry, because it's true, we've done so much, but I couldn't see it, being caught in the little details as I was. I was so grateful to him for handling things like that, and I felt better the whole day.

So, on a more positive note, despite past week's weather, the plants in the field look great. The zucchini are growing really well, and look big already. All the solanaceous crops: tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers, look good. The cucumbers are flowering and coming along, but I'm noticing that some of the leaves got a white lining on their rims, and I'm not sure what that's all about. I'm planning to fertilize them with fish and seaweed this week, maybe that will help. The beans are already climbing up the trellis we set up for them, and my sunflowers and zinnias are coming along too. The strawberries we planted this year are delicious. They've been fruiting some, but most of the fruit will come next year when they get established. I think that if we get some sun and heat soon, things will do great.

The weeds have been fierce in the past 2 weeks. They took over some of our beds in what seemed like overnight. Ed and I have been spending a lot of time on our knees, weeding. As for bugs, weíve been seeing some, but not many. I found 3 Colorado potato beetles on my eggplants a couple of weeks ago, and since then I haven't seen any. I saw quite a few cabbage butterflies (we have a lot of cabbage family crops), but Sena and Aiyana got their nets and caught most of them. Today, Ed and I found a squash beetle and a stink bug, but other than this, I haven't seen any other pests. We have lots of ladybeetles, which are beneficial, and it's nice to see them.

The goats and chickens are happy, and we're thinking of getting a cat (for mice and voles), pigs (for rooting out stumps), and a cow (for dairy). The cow and pigs are just ideas though, at this point. Maybe next year...

I had a great conversation with two women friends who helped me weed onions this past week. It started with Rumi, and then it moved to Jesus and his life. Very inspiring. I felt renewed after speaking to them.

I love this about farming: that it allows me to reflect on spirituality, and at the same time it provides an outlet or a physical expression of my thoughts and feelings.
Peace.

cabbage

the cabbages are almost ready. i picked the largest one this evening and cooked it for dinner. it was so good, sweet and tender. i made my favorite romanian recipe: stewed cabbage with spiced paprika. what a treat!

peace

i have to post more of these pics because i really like them. they're from last week, when sena and aiyana were really helpful to ed, who was spreading compost on a part of the field we were preparing to plant.

yesterday we had a downpour and all the while the sun was shining bright, which made for a cool scene in the little grove outside my window

here's my beautiful sena with my beautiful scallions

aiyana and coffee

peace

we've been very busy lately, but everything is going well. it's been a great season so far, with lots of sun and heat, and enough rain. our vegetables are coming in really nicely - beautiful and plentiful.

we started the CSA, and had several pick-ups already. the most popular comment we heard from our CSA members so far is how excited they are to be part of this. i feel the same way. it's been great to meet everyone, give them farm tours,and start to get to know them. sena and aiyana are really excited about the whole thing too, they want to be out there greeting people and helping to get their vegetables.

we have a waiting list going for our 2011 CSA, but since things are going so well this year, we're thinking of maybe expanding our 2010 CSA and adding a few more people in july. we'll have to see how the crops are coming along before making a decision.

our saturday market is still rocking. we cannot bring enough vegetables, it seems. we sell out of most stuff despite thunderstorms, etc. the only downside to being so busy at the market is that i don't get any time to talk to people s much as i'd like...

other than that, i have to say i really haven't been doing anything. i'm out in the field from morning till evening every day, planting, weeding, hoeing, harvesting, or preparing veges for the market and the CSA. i work harder than ever before in my life (by far), make much less money (by far), and am far happier. i guess work is just different when you do what you want and love.

peace