Darn the weather

 The past two days have been quite busy around the farm.  We planted tomatoes in the greenhouse on Thursday, 65 to be exact.  Relishing in the myriad of possibilites of late summer harvests, yum, nothing quite like homegrown tomatoes.  It's hard work planting tomatoes digging deep holes in the wonderful gravel soil, vestiges of an old river bed, which is our soil medium.  It has definitely come a long way in the past few years.  Especially in the greenhouse, a nice confined place where straw mulch doesn't blow away and the work is finite.  An easy place to amend. amend, amend and not feel totally overwhelmed by the sometimes never ending tasks.

Those chard you see were planted out last Septmeber, started in mid-August, they made it through the winter despite a lot of neglect during the last weeks of my pregnancy and Aya's arrival.  Amazing, delicious and tender nonetheless...Its starting to bolt now, but was a great test as to winter growing in this unheated greenhouse.  I did cover it with doubled over remay.

Back to the soil...The best part of working soil and seeing its tilth, texture and color improve is absolutely the abundance of worms; slimy and slithering a true litmus to healthy soil.  This brings me to Wren, my 4 year old...One of her FAVORITE things is to find worms in the soil, long ones, fat ones, she perpetually searches for 'the big one'

Another one of Wren's FAVORITE things...Party dresses, that's right folks, earth worms and party dresses, definitely a girl after my own heart!

She pulls it off beautifully, party dress, winter boots and mud...Just one example of the amazing ensembles she comes up with, a super classy farmy gal...

Wren, like most kids, loves water, playing in it, making potions with it, swimming, and for sure one of the best things to engage her in on the farm is to help water the plants.

Yesterday, in the warm afternoon sun, she and some boys were jumping back and forth over the acequia, in her party dress, and at some point she just jumped right in, ahhh, summertime.  Can't help but to laugh, the unabashed, without boundries of social acceptance, that swimming in a party dress is fine, no problem. Thank goodness for children, such amazing teachers of what really doesn't matter AND what really does.

Speaking of weather, who would have thought after a day like yesterday that the night before would have been cold enough, even with greenhouse protection, to freeze the majority of those beautiful tomatoes I had been babying for the past three months and that we had spent all day getting into the ground! BUMMER! The life of the farmer, the ups and downs, the bumper crops and the failures.  Its one of the hardest things about farming and one of the most beautiful, the raw interaction with life.  The lessons over and over of how fragile and how resilient it can be.  And despite my huge disappointment, I must find some gratitude, for the fact that I still have beautiful, large, healthy tomatoes to replace the ones I planted, albeit without the prime choice of varieties, and that I can foresee huge successes within the other babies awaiting their ride out of the, heated, greenhouse and into the earth somewhere to thrive and to dance their dance of life.

And here's Aya, at the end of the day, not looking so grateful to be on my back any more...What a trooper she is!

For the love of potatoes...

Nothing like seeding tons of squash, hoeing deep trenches and digging out compost for potatoes amidst lots of laughter and good friends... 

Some of the babies destined for the deep earth and our deep bellies

Broom corn + Amaranth = beautiful fall bouquets

 Cat in disguise showing off her fierceness

 Avi...the stoic french pickler

Aya slept through today's shenanigans but I thought I would throw in a picture of the sweet berry girl in all her 4 month old glory

Again, my day exceeded my expectations, gotta love it...

Alas...it all gets done

Well, so much for my dedication to writing this blog, ha!, spring time has taken over my life and obviously I haven't had the space or energy to keep up, with any of it!  Actually, to my pleasant and grateful surprise, things have been moving along on schedule on the farm.  There has been tons of help showing up and as long as I don't think about it too much or force anything, it all seems to come together.

I am in awe of this aspect of life, the power of will and intention and the lessons that I gain when I can tap into a clear flow of my intentions.  Somehow, someway, everything seems to be taken care of.  I try to envision myself as a farmer with my little one in tow, or perhaps I should say 'on tow' at this point!  At times it works great, she is content on my back or in a seat or blanket close by and other times she just isn't having it.  Those times I slow down sit with her, nurse her and usually from someplace on this land and within this community someone comes and scoops her up to give her the attention she desires and me the space I need to get a task or two completed before the next belly signal requests my cooperation.  Aya is amazing, so very patient with me and all the moving around, from embrace to embrace in different peoples arms, a sweet smile so easily provoked...

Wren, my older daughter, was raised similarly, I began gardening here when she was just 3 months old.  A good friend got me the job where I could continue doing what I loved and have my baby close by.  It has been a blessing ever since, in so many ways.  Our whole family has benefitted from being a part of this community, I am sure in ways that we don't even realize.  We are so imbedded in the the land and family here I forget what the greater world must be like to live in...Perhaps this is insular and unrealistic but for now it feels very grounded and more and more like the life I have always envisioned for myself and my family.  Enough about that, more about the farm...

We have made a lot of progress, the amazing sevaks got both fields tilled and rows formed.  Makes it so easy to get out there, weed, plant, set up irrigation and just walk away!  As if it were quite so simple, surely we will be back to weed and fuss and most obviously and best of all to harvest the beautiful and tasty bounty.  My good friend Cat joined me last week, like an angel sent from above, she will be my second sidekick for the whole summer...We have been dreaming of the gorgeous meals and hearty juices to inspire our tongues and hands to get lots of good work done.  Carrots, beets, rutabagas, parsnips, peas, lettuces, spinach and other greens have been seeded in the ground while a few short row of kale and chard were planted and settling in from a few days ago.  I have started some of the beets in trays and transplanted out this year, a new technique I am eager to see how it goes.  They have taken quite well and are growing along, seems like a good idea, no thinning, wasting seed just an easy uniform growth and consistent harvest, thanks Carlie for the tips!

My posting seems a little erratic, perhaps too early for fine writing this morning and the house beckons to be cleaned, another neglected aspect of my life, so thats it for now...gonna try to keep it simpler with more pics in the future...maybe easier to keep up with
Ciao