Farmer's Market

Last weekend was the best Farmer's Market I have had all year. I was so excited! I felt like a little girl.... looking and longing to experience everything. I couldn't stop smiling! My friend Stacy (and her family) came by and thankfully captured some of the beauty with her camera.

It was a lovely 85 degrees day... sunny with a slight breeze. I brought the most variety I have ever brought. I felt like a real farmer. The colors were so beautiful. Yellows, reds, greens, purples, white. Oh the splendor!

Stonehead cabbage, red cabbage, cauliflower, cheddar cauliflower, and broccoli spears.... Organically grown. Because they were so fresh, I enjoyed their fragrant aroma every time I walked near.

Acorn squash, sugar pie pumpkins, goofy gourds and Mirai sweet corn.... The sweet corn permeated the area with images and aromas of the most delicious corn on the cob. I kept finding myself taking deeps breaths by the corn. There is something about fresh picked corn.

The spread also included pickling cucumbers, burpless cucumbers, rocambole garlic, purple (red) onions and yellow storage onions, green sweet peppers, snack 'em peppers, Yukon gold potatoes along with a couple of Kennebec potatoes. Chiogga beets (the ones that look like a target when sliced) and regular purple beets (called "red cloud") packed in gallon bags. Green and purple string beans, spaghetti squash, yellow and zucchini summer squash, and a few tomatoes finished out my table.

I spread out my plaid bed sheet, put up my sign, and marveled at the assortment and quantity of the garden's bounty. "Beacon Woods"... our dream of a fruit and vegetable farm (and wood working shop).... the glimpse of a fantasy coming true. It was as I imagined it. Abundant, full, beautiful....

Often my dreams or visions of reality do not come to fruition (please, no pun intended). I often can close my eyes and "see" what I envision. But then, I open them and the view of reality is quite different. Sometimes I am defeated. Usually not. I keep pressing on. Knowing that dreams take time, energy, passion.... and vision.

I wish I were a poet.... Able to pen thoughts and feelings in a creative and artistic way. I feel a song brewing....

Rejoice with me today. God has blessed the work of our hands. Thank You Lord!

Today's Journey Joy - Glimpses of a dream

Ponderings

But I will hope continually,

and will praise you yet the more.

My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,

of your deeds of salvation all day long,

though their number is past my knowledge.

I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,

I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

O God, from my youth you have taught me,

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.

So even to old age and gray hairs,

O God, do not forsake me,

until I proclaim your might to all the generations to come.

Your power and your righteousness, O God,

reach the high heavens.

You who have done great things,

O God, who is like you?

(Psalm 71: 14-19)

"You who have done great things, O God, who is like you?" Good question. During today's journey I will joy in the wondrous things that the Lord has made and taught me.

Today's journey joy: God's incomparable Person

The garden grows

The tomato cages continue to be made and installed (thanks my honey!). And they are beginning to ripen. I can hardly wait to taste that first red, juicy, and sweet tomato. Others have already had their tomatoes ripen. But I got them in late, didn't weed them well, didn't fertilize until recently (who knew that a previous hay field wouldn't have enough magnesium and calcium?). But out of the 77 plants all but 7 are beginning to produce fruit and start to ripen. Within the next month I should have tomatoes coming out of my ears! Early girls, beefsteaks, super beefsteaks (delicious is their name), and Amish paste tomatoes. I hope to put enough ingredients together to make "salsa kits" at the market. The jalapenos are ripening, the garlic is harvested, the onions are available. I just need a little cilantro. That might be a problem. They are buried under weeds.

Cinderella squash.... just something a little different. Not the best for eating but they do make good decorations. These where planted from leftover seeds (2 years ago!)

The pole beans are going crazy! I love pole beans. I think they are just a bit tastier than their bush cousins. But the best thing is that they are much easier to pick. After this photo I picked about 10 pounds of delicious green pole beans (Blue Lake, of course).

This Connecticut pumpkin is fast turning orange. Wow. It looks like it weighs about 15-20 pounds. Should be pretty. There are dozens more where that comes from.

The broccoli, cauliflower, and red cabbage are nearing their end. I will harvest much this weekend. The cabbage is "red" but frankly, I think it should be called purple! It has been a joy learning how to grow these organically. I'm not always successful with the broccoli though. Last weekend I found 5 of those little worms in one head! Yikes! Glad I got them before my customer did.

Journey joys are found everywhere. One only needs to look. Pause. Contemplate. Reflect.

Today's Journey Joy: The harvest is nearing

It's canning time!

The wonderful thing about string beans is that they never seem to stop. Once they start producing they keep going and growing, and going and growing. So much so that those that are ready throughout the week must be picked and preserved.

This year I have grown both the purple beans and my favorite "Blue Lake" pole beans. Both are very tasty and very pretty. At the market I often get asked, "What's that?" as the individual points to the quart of purple beans. Then I go into this repeated story of how they are just like the green beans but have a little more vitamin A and (I think) a little more bean flavor (especially the little ones). I then explain that the purple color disappears with extremes of temperature (both very cold and hot). So that when the beans are steamed or cooked the purple beans look just like a green bean. Kids love 'em because they are different and fun to watch change color.

Sometimes it is a hard sell but lately more people at the market are adventurous and trying new and unfamiliar items. Good for me since I will have a few "blue potatoes" in a week or so. They stay blue even when they are heated. That might be a little weird.... eating blue potatoes. Don't we throw them out usually when they look like that? Ah, the new and unusual. Isn't that what experiencing life is about? Dare. Dream. Experience. Embrace.

Today's Journey Joy: Trying new things

Endlessly...

Endless.

I sigh and take a deep breath. "Am I making any progress?" "Am I ever going to catch up?"

The long rows lined up perfectly. Three foot spaces. Tilled down the middle. Long green grasses choking growth. Yet the stalks grow.

I can imagine the warm crunchy corn as the white kernels pop. The aroma. The taste. The miracle of change. Changing a plain dry kernel of popcorn into a fluffy white morsel.

But the rows need cleaning.

Hand pulling. Hoe raking. Stooping. Bending. Kneeling. Deep breaths. Breaks while standing. Gazing down the row. Endless.... And overwhelmed. I am left with tears. I have failed. The muscles of my bottom ache. The lower back longs to stretch. Stiffness enters into my hands. I will not finish today.

But I persevere. One more weed. One more plant. One more row. And the grasses which have been competing for nutrients and space with the corn are left rooted up. To die without hydration. Baked in the late July sun.

Eight more rows to go. Forty five minutes each row. But they will wait. Left to fend by themselves for another day. To struggle against that which grows so readily. While I, the weary farmer, rest.


"May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves." (Ps 126:5-6)

Today's Journey Joy: Persevering

Cool as a Cucumber

This morning, as I was walking around the gardens, I saw several beautiful cucumbers growing. The bees were busy pollinating all the squash, melon and cucumber blossoms. And this little guy was patiently growing. There is nothing as refreshing as a cool cucumber. I will probably pick this one on Wednesday. And then again on Friday afternoon, I will pick for the Market.
The produce is finally getting ripe. The summer squash is in full production; the tomatoes are trying to turn red; the corn is tasseling; the beans are beaning; the broccoli is broccolitizing. (OK, so that's not a real word.... a little neologism never hurt).

It's time to start thinking about planting again. That's rather hard to do. I am so tired of weeding and the harvest is just beginning.... but the cool crops can yet again grow. It is great having spinach, lettuce, radishes, and other spring vegetables in September. So perhaps later this week I will till the earth and sow again.

"The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." -- A biblical verse pertaining to giving cheerfully. Isn't it interesting how many agricultural metaphors there are in the Bible? There is something so common and simple in growing things. Common sense. Shared experience. One cannot reap what he or she has not sown.

Time to get those seeds in the ground. Are there other seeds (cheerful giving, spontaneous praise, or a thankful heart) that need sowing today?

Today's Journey Joy: cucumbers

Weeds don't look quite so bad

Buried behind our garage and growing faithfully in front of the (now harvested) garlic is a smattering of perennials.... purple cone flowers, black eye Susan's, Shasta daisies, chamomile....

Normally I weed this patch of flowers often. This year I haven't touched it. But it surprised me nonetheless with splashes of color, fragrance and beauty. You can hear the rumble-bumble buzzing sounds of the bumble bee lazily swooping from bloom to bloom. What a pleasant surprise. Even in the midst of weeds these flowers bloom faithful.

"Bloom where you are planted" the saying goes. It might be more difficult. It might seem impossible. It might even feel like you're choking.... gasping for air.... frustrated in the thick of things pushing for attention, sun and nutrients. But "bloom where you are planted."

It may not be the exact words, but the Bible says something quite similar. "Be content", "Be thankful" "Be joyful". Sounds like an excellent way to travel in the journey....

Today's journey joy: Blooming