Seth has been teasing me all week with pictures. It’s his daily ritual. I ask him how his day is going, and he responds with a photo of fresh tomatoes, or mini sunflowers, or a pile of beets. This week it was garlic. “I don’t know what we’re going to do with it all. We’ve got no place to cure it,” he told me Friday night, after I asked him about his photo of the day. I nodded absentmindedly.
When I went to the farm this morning, this is what I saw:
“Oh, did I tell you? We picked 2500 pounds of garlic in two days,” Seth called me to as he pulled a farm cart over to the zucchinis. Huh.
The garlic will dry for awhile in the greenhouse, mounded up on the planting tables. Then the farm crew will lop off the dry tops and transfer the bulbs to the root cellar. The darkness will keep them from sprouting. When it’s time for CSA members to pick up their shares, Stearns will give them about half of the harvest, and keep the rest for next year’s crop. The beauty of the farm at work, friends.
Meanwhile, It’s high July which means zucchini, squash, and cucumbers are dying to grow into baseball bats. Though the farm was closed, Seth, another volunteer, and I went in today to pick any curcurbits that were thinking about taking off over the next two days. This way when the farmers get back to work on Tuesday they aren’t confronted with Monster Zucchini or Patty Pan of Doom.
About 100 lbs. of zucchini and squash, and about 50 lbs. of cucumbers. Not bad for a few hours of work.
The farm is running along otherwise. Some rows have thigh-high weeds, some look picture perfect and ready for a Martha Stewart spread. And some have disappeared.
This used to be several rows of strawberries. Now it’s a plot of dirt. Strawberries are perennials, but apparently they drop off in production after the third year. For efficiency, the farmers rip up the beds after three years and put in another round of plants to start the cycle anew. I guess you really do learn something new every day.
Earth Morning: an ever-growing tiny adventure 