First of all I want to thank all the people who came out for this year’s Garlic Planting Gala. It was a wonderful time had by all despite Washington County’s attempt to diminish our fun by banning all fires within the county. What is a bonfire without a fire? See the picture to the right to find out! Anyway, thank you all for the help. Only nine more months before we harvest it!
Two weeks left of this season though stay tuned, this MAY change.
I was watching a movie the other week – “Ramen Girl”. It wasn’t particularly bad nor was it particularly good, but it was from Netflix so it didn’t cost me any more than if I didn’t watch it. It was a good diversion from farming yet still retained the whole connection to food thing. The reason I bring it up is there is an interesting point one of the characters makes in the film. When asked why making ramen correctly was so important, the wise, elderly mother says, “Each bowl of ramen you prepare is a gift to your customer. The food that you serve your customer becomes a part of them. It contains your spirit. That’s why your ramen must be an expression of pure love. A gift from your heart.” My first thought was, “Why is it that the elderly are always telling the young ones what to do? Can’t they just mind their own business?” My second thought was, “This is indeed wise”. And in some ways it is how I feel about farming.
We work hard to provide the best, most nutritious and delicious food we can provide to you. It is hard work. It is dirty work. Some days the work goes into the evening. And as the old farmer saying goes, the day isn’t done until the work is finished – which reminds me, despite what the calendar says, this is still the continuation of Saturday. We put a lot of our heart and soul into your produce. A lot of blood, sweat and since there is no crying in farming, no tears (except occasionally when we are harvesting onions). Because our farm is a Community Supported Agriculture farm we have gotten to know many of our members through on-farm pick-ups or on-farm events. Growing the food we grow becomes more personal; we grow for our friends and neighbors and family. Many of our members have been with us for years, some since the inception of the farm 10 years ago!
So yes, the produce is like a gift to you. Many of our customers – especially our drop-site customers – feel it is like opening a present every time they get their box. They are sometimes surprised in a good way and sometimes receive Daikon radishes. In either case it is a surprise. So in this regard I agree with the elderly mother; we are providing a gift to our customers. A gift from our heart; a piece of our spirit that becomes a part of you. Sure you pay for it so Dear Abby or Miss Manners would have a hard time calling it a gift. But maybe they don’t understand the personal nature of this business, that we are a community of like-minded people. And by providing this service to our community we are giving our customers a gift, not just of food, but of personal service that is hard to find in today’s cost cutting, money-grubbing corporate America. It is a gift of food, friendship and some other word that starts with f since there always has to be three things in a list.
But then the scientific side of my brain takes over and pushes aside the spiritual, sappy side and thinks about molecules and atoms and energy. When the wise elderly woman says the ramen “becomes a part of them” I thought “Yes, you are so right!” The carbon atoms the carrots commandeered from the air get eaten by our customers and become part of their liver. The water molecules absorbed by the tomato plants and stored within the tomato fruits get absorbed by our customers and becomes a part of their brains. The nitrogen scavenged from the soil by the broccoli builds the muscles in their arms, or, for the romantic readers, a piece of your heart. Each and every one of you who have eaten the produce we grew for you now has a piece of the farm – both figuratively and literally – inside you. So our gift will continue to grow and thrive and multiply every time you open your delivery box, or pick-up here at the farm. And many of those molecule and atoms we deliver to you every week will be retained within your bodies for years or decades to come.
So accept our gift each week and enjoy this thought: That calcium atom that just became a part of your tibia may have been excreted by a lowly earthworm sometime in the last few weeks. So romantic…
What is on tap this week and why do I always use a beer hall metaphor? We will have some more tomatoes though in dwindling numbers, peppers also dwindling, onions (dwindling), garlic (dwindling), potatoes (really dwindling), carrots (not yet dwindling), Brussels sprouts (still plenty), kale (still a reasonable amount), cabbage (dwindling), celery (didn’t do well this summer but there is some), and a few leeks (another struggling plant this year). Oh and don’t forget the winter squash, which is the exact opposite of dwindling!
No FruitShare this week. One more coming next week.
We are finishing up the last of the CheeseShares. This is it for the season though we are taking orders for winter CheeseShare.
Same with MeatShare.
The last of the CoffeeShare will arrive next week I believe.
WinterShares are ready and some people have already received theirs. The rest will go out this week.
FlowerShares get a dozen ears of ornamental corn if you haven’t already received them.
I think this is all for now. Thanks again for the help with the garlic and enjoy this week’s selection of atoms, molecules and energy!