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.