August: month of plenty, month of seemingly never ending work

The fields are bursting with fruits and vegetables - everywhere you look, abundance, and if you live on a farm, everywhere you look, lots of work. I am grateful for the abundance, and most of the time, I am happy to do the work, knowing that in doing so I provide for my family, the CSA, and our animals, as well as for myself on a spiritual level. There are also times when I am resentful of the work, like when I don't get enough rest, or when I am under too much pressure, and things get too intense.

At this time of the year, the work of planting is almost done (although a few crops are still going in the ground for fall harvest, crops like lettuces, spinach and Asian greens). The weeds are mostly under control, and the bugs too. Most crops have given their best already, as clearly seen by fruits hanging heavy on branches and vines. Our work now focuses on harvesting and storing these fruits for the winter, and on prepping the ground for overwintering by planting cover crops or mulching. 

As far as food preservation goes, so far we put away sweet corn, sun-dried cherry tomatoes, and cucumber pickles. Much more is to be done: tomato sauce, apple sauce, peach jam, roasted peppers, pickled jalapenos, dried beans, dry corn, and I’m probably forgetting something. Each one of these entails a full day spent in the field harvesting and then in the kitchen prepping for canning, freezing, dehydrating or whatever way the crop will be stored. Is all this work worth it? In the past, people put things away for the winter by necessity, but now all you have to do is go to the store if you want tomato sauce, or even fresh tomatoes in the winter, and you get them cheap, way cheaper than if you were to consider the labor you put into it to produce it yourself. So is it worth it? Yes, considering the quality of the product, knowing where and how it was produced, and the satisfaction of having provided for yourself year-round.

The heat of the past few weeks has subsided and going out to milk the cows in the morning feels more pleasant now. There are fewer biting flies, to my great relief, and the cows’, I am sure. Last month we inseminated Jasmine and Olive, but Jasmine did not get pregnant, and possibly neither did Olive, as demonstrated by their antics of mounting each other, bellowing, and other in-heat type of behavior earlier this week.  We will inseminate again in three weeks.

 The crickets have been loud every night, and before I close my eyes to go to sleep, I like to listen to them, and imprint in my mind the sound of fading summer. It is a nice way to go to sleep after a day’s work.

Peace

our field in Willington

I posted this picture of our Willington field last spring. It had just been tilled and was bare.

This weekend I brought my camera when Aiyana and I went there to harvest. Thought I'd show what it looks like now.

 Standing in the field - behind Aiyana are kohlrabi, rutabagas and potatoes

Sweet Potatoes, eggplant, Brussel sprouts, cabbages and broccoli

Peace

Farmy pictures from last week

I only took these pics a week ago, and already the fields look so much different: the apples are larger and more ripe, tomatoes are redder, and so on. Things are going well, but I do hope we get some rain soon.

Work carts at the end of the day

 Tall spindle apples on a trellis

 Lots of apples on all the trees. Sena's been making apple crisp. Yum!

 We let dill and cilantro flower in order to attract beneficial insects. They always come.

 

 Flowering dill

 Dill in the foreground, then peppers and tomatoes

 Fall carrots in the foreground, winter squash in the back

 Ripening tomatoes - many of these have turned red by now

This apple tempts me every time I walk by...

Sequential multicolor lettuce plantings, corn in the background, and cucumbers in the foreground. The white covers and sandbags had recently covered the cukes for insect protection.

Grain corn. We don't sell it, but only grow it for ourselves. We grind and cook it all winter long

 Corn, beans, lettuces left to right

Peace

A sense of connection

Last Saturday, a family from Ghana stopped at our farm. The man got out of the car and started talking to me, asking abut our chickens. He saw the chicken coop, which was at the time close to the road, and was interested in buying a live chicken to slaughter for his family. I told him that we're not ready to part with our chickens, but I'd call him when we are. Then I could tell there was something else, as he just stood there and seemed hesitant to leave. He looked towards the fields sort of wistfully, and then told me that he likes our farm very much because it reminds him of his home in Ghana.

That our farm reminds people of something dear to their heart and soul, is something that occasionally comes up, and when it does it makes me very happy. A Russian couple who first came to our farm two years ago and is now part of our CSA, told me that our farm reminded them of a dacha back home, a little farm in the country associated with simple living, comfort and family. Anther couple in our CSA is from Nepal, and every week when they come for their pickup they stay a while, walking arond the field and visiting the cows and chickens with their little son. There is clearly something else drawing them to our farm besides the veggies. Yesterday the husband told me that what they come here for is real food and a sense of connection. He said that this is very important to them: connection to the land, and to a lifestyle they still hold dear from their past.

This sense of connection that draws some people to our farm is one of the most important reasons I farm. I think that the great intelligence we call God or Spirit or Tao is in everything, but I find it most tangible in natural physical things like the land, all the life forms it supports, the rythms of the seasons, and so on. I don't know if this is the kind of connection that people feel when they come here, or if it's connection with something from their past - a different lifestlyle, forgotten traditions, or maybe grandparents who used to grow food and keep animals. Maybe a little of everything. Whichever it is, I am happy that they feel it when they come here.

In contrast to that, we sometimes, rarely thank goodness, have people who come who just want to get the best whatever for the lowest price. We had one lady recently, who was eying all the vegetables like just so much merchandise. She kept picking up one bag of lettuce after another, slapping them back on the table after a quick look, searching for "the best one". Her attitude struck me as disrespectful towards us, and towards the lettuce, and mostly she struck me as disconnected. Not thinking that other people may not appreciate her touching all the bags before picking one, not thinking that we may not appreciate her smashing our hard work of harvesting and preparing the lettuces. This is an extreme example, and maybe she was just having a hard day. I hope so, for her sake.  Maybe she'll feel more connected to her lettuce when she eats it. Maybe she'll think abut the little seeds that went in the ground, the sun and rain that helped them along, the soil and its miriad forms of life that nourrished them, and the work and love we put into growing her lettuce. This would be a nice way to eat, and I bet it would bring a smile to her lips and a sense of peace in her heart.

Peace

At this time of year

Here is our CSA display frm this past week. We had carrots, beets, cucumbers, summer squashes, zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, kale, chard, amaranth, lettuces, cilantro, dill, parsley, and raspberries.

And it is pickle-making time again.

We hired three new people this year. Two of them I am very happy with. They are women in their 50's and I think we need to hit this demographic more in the future. They are serious, competent, experienced, efficient, and easy to communicate with. What a relief to work with people like them. We've had our share of the opposite: incompetent, unreliable, too slow, no attention to detail, no work ethic, etc. etc. I must say that with some notable exceptions, unfortunately the younger population (20's and younger) seems to fit this last description.

I've been studying cheese making from a manual on traditional methods of cheese production in France. It really is a study in microbiology, and how the micro-organisms in milk act to produce a series of transformations that, under specific temperature and humidity conditions result in cheese of one type or another. It's fascinating, and it leaves me in awe of the invisible life that's all around us and inside us, that helps us live and be healthy.

Peace

Hot!

It has been so crazy hot and humid out lately! Over the past 2 days, milking has been no fun at all. Being next to Opal is like leaning into a hot oven. Ste radiates so much heat, that the sweat is literally streaming down my whole body as I milk. And this is only 7 o'clock in the morning. On top of that, the flies have been brutal. The poor cows are tortured, and when I milk I also get bitten quite a bit, which forces me to continually stop and try to get the flies away from me. Opal put her foot in the milk bucket this morning as she tried to get the flies away from her. Not fun for anyne.

But the veggies are loving this weather. The raspberries, which started off sketchy a cuple of weeks ago, are now ging crazy, loaded with fruit, we just can't keep up. Raspberry frenzy.

Peace

More Khalil Gibran from The Prophet

On Marriage

      Then Almitra spoke again and said, "And what of Marriage, master?"
      And he answered saying:
      You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
      You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days.
      Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
      But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
      And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
      Love one another but make not a bond of love:
      Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
      Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
      Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
      Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
      Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
      Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.
      For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
      And stand together, yet not too near together:
      For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
      And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow. 




I read The Prophet for the first time in my 20's, and then re-read it at various times after that. I always loved it and always got something different out of it. Gibran's road can be very hard to follow but worth striving for.

Peace

My beautiful Sena

Many people tell Ed and I that we should be proud of our daughters, and somehow I feel uncomfortable with that. I mean, I do feel like we have an influence on how they turn out, and that how we raise them is important. But pride is not something I feel entitled to, in the sense that like Khalil Gibran said I feel like "your children are not your own" (see below). In that sense, I feel, rather than pride, gratitude and humility at being given the chance to spend my life in the presence of such special people, like Sena. She is more than good, she cares so much about others and the environment, and what is true and good and fair, that all I can do is just aspire to be a little bit more like her. Often, in her presence I feel ashamed of my pettiness and small mindedness.

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Peace

Cutiepie and her chicks

Here's a picture of Sena and Aiyana's hen Cutiepie with her newly hatched chicks. One of our customers was watching them with his children and took the picture. Cutiepie is a really good mother and it shows in this picture.

Things are going well. Our new field in Willington is looking great, with potatoes, sweet potatoes, eggplant, beans and brussel sprouts all growing strong. Our home fields are looking fine too; for a while the weeds were getting the upper hand, but now we got them under control. Bug problems have subsided and we're mostly ok now. We're harvesting all kinds of things, like squash/zucchini, cucumbers, lettuces, different types of greens, peas,carrots, beets, fennel, herbs, and even some early tomatoes. Food prep is a lot easier when there are so many fresh veggies to chose from.

The cows were giving us 2 gallons of milk a day, but now the flies are really bothering them, and they don't like the heat too much either, so the milk production dropped to 1.5 gallons per day. Enough for us to drink, make yoghurt, cheese and even give some to my sister at times.
Jet and Oceana are getting big and they're great buddies. They hang out together most of the time. Opal and Jasmine are good mamas, and milking them is still fun, but it gets so hot now, when I'm next to them. They have so much body heat, that by the time I'm done milking I feel overheated too. They're good girls, even though the flies bother them, they rarely kick on the side I'm milking. Opal did a few days ago, and put her foot right in the milking bucket which was a shame.

Sena and Aiyana had an insane week this past one. They had karate, gymnastics and swimming all at the same time, and I felt like all we did all week was run from one activity to another. That is not good and nobody liked it including the kids, but fortunately after this weekend it will be much more relaxed.

I know some mulberry trees nearby, and I've been wanting to go and harvest mulberries, but it has been so busy with all the driving around to activities, I never got to do it.
Our strawberries are done for the year after a great harvest, and the raspberries are now in, but they're not doing great. I think the hard winter really set them back. There are tons of apples though, and peaches, and asian pears, so there will be plently of fruit.

That's the news for now.
Peace

Blackfish and the story of Tilikum

Sena picked up a movie from the library, called Blackfish, which she had read about in a newsletter from Cetacean Society (her whale friends). The movie is a documentary about Orca Whales held in captivity at SeaWorld and other such parks, and about the heartbreaking lives they are forced to live in order to put on a show for people, and bring in a profit. I highly recommend the movie.

Coincidentally and totally separately, yesterday, I also saw some pictures of bullfighting in Spain, in which bulls are purposely set up and provoked and forced into an unfair fight with several bullfighters on foot or horseback. They are made to suffer and eventually killed in what seems a very painful way, for the entertainment of spectators and for the sake of making money.

When I went to bed last night I felt empty, on the verge of tears and of throwing up at the same time. Seeing how much suffering we cause for these creatures, and knowing that this is so vast, it's not only happening to whales, or dolphins, or bulls, but to so many other creatures, it just leaves me feeling hopeless and hollow.
The only thing I could do as I lay in bed is cry and pray for them.

Part of me feels like as long as I know that there is such cruelty and suffering out there, how can I be happy, unless I purposely shut myself out and bury my head in the sand, which I sometimes chose to do.

My experience with animals has taught me that above all they are pure. They are who they are, and they don't pretend to be anything else. Some are gentle, some are aggressive, and so on, but whatever their nature, they are true to it and they usually let us know where we stand. Why can we not treat them with respect and dignity?

I understand that some of us need to or want to eat meat, or other animal products, and I feel OK with that if the animal is happy and raised in conditions suitable to its nature, and if it is slaughtered quickly and without unnecessary suffering. But to use animals for entertainment / profit-making, to take them away from their natural environment and make them suffer, that I cannot get over. It's more than intellectual, I feel it in my body, how awful it is.

Today at milking time, I gave Jasmine and Opal extra thanks, and some extra treats as well.  I also did some research on Tilikum the Orca still held in captivity at SeaWorld 30 years after being kidnapped from the wild. I was very excited to find a group of young people working to help Tilikum and other whales and cetaceans. These teenagers give me hope, and Sena will be very happy to know that other people her age care. Already last night both she and Aiyana were asking me "What can we do to help"?, and I couldn't say much because of the state I was in. But I have some ideas today.

So, please don't go to SeaWorld, or bullfights, and don't let your money support that kind of cruelty. And teach your children to respect the dignity of all creatures, human and non-human. That can make a difference.

Peace

This time of year

Life on the farm can feel oppressive at this time, when everywhere you look there's something that needs to be done and there's no way you can get to it all. Crops need to go in the ground, weeds and insects need attention, fruits and vegetables need to be harvested regularly, food needs to be preserved for the winter, cheese must be made or else the milk will spoil, cows need new pasture, and so on. But this is how it is every year, and I have learned not to freak out because it will pass and things will ease up.

Instead, if you can change your frame of mind and walk around the farm sort of like a visitor, not like you actually live here, things look incredibly beautiful and bountiful, and all you feel is joy and gratitude at all this abundance and diversity. Berries lusciously waiting to be eaten, cows contentedly grazing or loafing in the shade, baby chicks just hatched picking at the ground with their mother, flowers and herbs with enticing aromas, birds chirping, insects buzzing all around, sun and a nice breeze, everything is alive and fertile, plentiful and diverse. This fills the soul and makes one get over the fatigue and the unending chores.

Some pictures:
Excellent strawberry harvest this season

We made strawberry jam. Here, Sena and Aiyana are preparing the berries.

Stirring the pot. Just Strawberries, maple syrup and a little lemon. It smelled divine.

Canned about 40 pints of jam. Not sure that will be enough. But we also froze about 60 pints of raw berries, so I guess it will be.

 And after all the work, a treat: cheese and jam, all made by us.

Peace

Cow girls

When Sena was a baby we used to call her Bug. And when Aiyana was born, before she could say Sena, she said Bug. This picture of Sena with a big-eyed bug reminded me of all that.

 Sena and the cows

When I went out last Thursday morning to milk Jasmine, I looked in Opal's stall and saw her standing there, and next to her a sweet little black calf. She had calved during the night, and there she was, a proud mama looking at me, her baby cleaned up, shiny and healthy. The calf was a little heifer, and Sena and Aiyana named her Oceana, or Oshi for short. Opal acted very calm after the birth, there was barely any difference as far as her behavior towards us. She was protective of the calf, but not aggressive in any way, did not try to ram or kick us or anything like that. Every cow is different, and every birth is different. After Jasmine we were prepared for some aggression, but Opal surprised us. Oshi is as sweet as can be, jet black, with big soft eyes and long eyelashes.
Here she is coming out of the stall where she was born for the first time.

And here she is running and bucking and just fooling around for pure joy. Jet did the same when he first came out. It's like they're so happy to be here. Makes me ashamed of being tired and weighed down by stuff. These little ones just come into the world and they're so exuberant - it's like they're telling us it is a good place.

Ed, Sena and Aiyana watching Oshi run around with protective mama Opal following close behind

 Our herd of five.

Sena and Aiyana leading the cows out to pasture

Jet peeking from behind mama Jasmine.

On Sunday, Aiyana had an idea for a surprise desert. Sena helped her make it. They ground some corn that we grew last year and baked the cake part, picked fresh strawberries for topping, and melted some chocolate. It was very good.

Karate girls got some 1st and 2nd prizes at their last competitions. They competed in forms, sparring and bo staff, as well as with their demo team.

Peace

Leave what you don't need

It’s a beautiful, sunny day, and Opal seems to be in labor. Another little calf is on the way. We moved all the cows to the birthing area, which is at the barns in the back of our property. Opal is so big, Sena said she would not be surprised if she has five calves. Aiyana is excited that Jet, who is almost 2 months-old now, will have a little cousin to play with. The mama cows and Olive the heifer, are usually too dignified, and too comfortable to join in his antics.

The CSA started last week, and all went well. The crops are doing well overall. As usual, there are setbacks, insects mostly at this time of year, but we have some ways to deal with them. Leafminer has been bad on spinach and chard this year, and cutworm has taken down quite a few lettuces. We’re replanting every week in the case of lettuces, and for leafminer we’re covering crops and have tried introducing a predator wasp to reduce their population. These measures seem to be working to some degree. I know that this is a particularly bad year for both leafminer and cutworm, and I heard of cutworm taking down entire plantings at a time, so I can’t complain too much with our situation.

Last night I was finally able to go again to the sweat lodge. It seems like the past few times I tried, there was always some kids’ activity going on, either Karate or Gymnastics. I am starting to feel like our kids are overscheduled, like everyone else, but they strongly object at the mere suggestion of cutting back, so I keep going along with the situation as is.

The lodge was beautiful as always. The fire, the intense heat, the rocks, the herbs, the ceremonial atmosphere – being in the presence of all that was like a soothing balm to my stressed out body and mind. I am so grateful for having this in my life.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is what my good friend K. said at the lodge: “Leave what you don’t need”. It seems so simple, but I do have a very hard time practicing it. What she meant is leave behind your anger, your resentment, and all of that which is not helpful to you or others. That way you will walk more lightly and more joyfully.

I know that I carry with me much that I do not need. Ed will make a comment that hits me the wrong way, and I carry that resentment for many hours. Or something stressful happens with too many things going on at once (this is pretty much how it goes every day), and that stress stays with me long after the situation is over.

Most of the time I have a hard time leaving behind the things that do not serve. But sometimes, somehow, I am able to shed any resentment, stress, or resistance that I carry, and instantly I feel lighter and so much better. It’s a good skill to practice.

Peace