In years past, the end of May brought with it a reprieve from heavy outdoor work. Once the tomatoes went in, we breathed a big sigh of relief and settled down to a good balance of maintenance work and getting on with our lives. But this year is different. In so many ways it is so very different!
The flower planting, typically finished by now, is still trickling in, with one more package of lilies (they were on a super sale!) coming in this weekend (the last one, I promise!). Oh, there's plenty of room for them. Establishing new beds means that bare spots are numerous. So yes, I've put in some 225 new plants this year and if you sent me ten more, I could easily find places for them. (But please don't send me ten more! I want to be done with planting!)
Then came the rains and the weeds. So many weeds! Enough on that.
But by far, the tree project dominates our lives right now and zaps our energies. Ed has the heaviest of the heavy jobs: clearing that bit of farmette land was huge. And he's still not done with it. Too, he does the digging. And the soil is awful and the chunks of clay are heavy and stubbornly clumpy. I know, because I have to break them up. That hope of planting ten trees each day? Forget it. There is so much prep work for each one that we're struggling to meet half that goal. (Though today, to our credit, we put in six: five English walnuts and one pecan!)
So of course, today -- a warm day, a mostly cloudy day (we like that when we're working out in the fields!) -- was spent on all the above. Flowers, weeds, trees. Outside, working with few pauses. Sparrow typically spends some chunk of time here on Thursdays, but today the parents had scheduling issues that kept the lad home. This simply meant that after my morning walk...
(clematis)
(iris)
... and after breakfast...
we get right down to work.
But here's a pleasant change of pace: in the afternoon, we hop on Ed's motorcycle and go to our local farmer's market -- this is a first for me! I missed the entire season last year, so yes, it's been two years since I've had a face-to-face with, say, Farmer John.
Too, we signed up for a new for us CSA. (Remember? A CSA is Community Supported Agriculture, where you pay a farmer for a season's worth of produce -- whatever he or she puts in the box every week.) It's called Tipi Produce and I'm quite excited by it because I think it's a good match with our eating habits. Today's box had everything wonderful in it: overwintered potatoes (great for a frittata addition!), asparagus (we're swimming in it right now and I could not be happier!), spinach (there's never too much of it!), green leaf lettuce (Ed and I eat at least a head a day), arugula (we consume a huge amount of this as well and the locally grown one is always hugely better), amara kale (I tend to stick a bunch in my veggie soup), small radishes (into the salad they go!), and green garlic (a spring delicacy!).
Tipi's also has a wonderful blog with beautiful photos from their farm. Today's post was just perfect. If you didn't click on it, let me tell you that (in addition to cool recipes and notes on how to work with their produce) it has a lovely sentence about finding joy in a beautiful sky. So true. So much grandness from just tilting your head up a little.
Evening: I need to use up last year's tomatoes, so it's chili time at the farmette. Ever had chili with a side of asparagus? We did!
