hit the brakes

Are we really harvesting already? For the first distribution??
Is my weekend already over?
Have I not posted since Thursday night?

Well... crazy, but, yes. Indeed, time seems to be moving at a much faster clip than it was in early April. I do, however, feel as though we're hitting a stride. The day-to-day groove feels rather second nature now. Sure we are just now starting distributions which will take some time to understand/execute well, (and there are many forthcoming parts of the season with their own intricacies) but, if I'm not mistaken, I think I'm really beginning to internalize this experience.

My partner/girlfriend (visited this weekend) and I were trying to remember what we did over Memorial Day weekend last year. To recall, I had to dig through old emails. Turns out I was working all weekend and saw a friend's band play a small club in the city. What I was NOT doing was imagining that in exactly one year I would be here... farming... loving everything about it (the process; the connectedness; the community; the empowerment; on and on) and looking forward to next season... when, hopefully, it will be our farm that I'm experiencing. Life happens sometimes...

(I kinda want to leave the post at that, but I've got sooo many pics and particulars to share, so, onward)

Friday was just about as picture perfect as it gets for a spring day.
D was taking a well-deserved long breakfast (as it was his birthday), so E and I hopped to it and dug right in. I began by fixing my diagonal tension wire booboo on the F field fence. I'll have to get a picture of my solution as I was happy with how it turned out. Fence is as good as new.

What to do for the rest of the morning?? Weeding. Lots of weeding. The garlic beds & W1 were looking pretty hairy in a few places. With the help of our (many) volunteers, Severine, Nancy, Johanna, Katherine, Daniel & John, we made quick work of the garlic, lettuce, kale, bokchoi, mas y mas...

Some real breathtaking sights that day









Helping hands









Wow! Love this picture!



Lunch was a GINORMOUS salad of fresh greens, seeds, nuts, raisins, oil, lemon and pepper. Man oh man.

The latter half of Friday we spent "beautifying" an already beautiful farm. Believe it or not, it looked even better afterward. I weedwacked the entirety of the fence line around the main area of the farm, put tools away and headed toward the weekend.

H (girlfriend) and I spent all of Saturday working on the car. Mostly interior work. She directed (read: did most of the work).

Amazing. From this...



To this.



Serious voodoo on that one.

Bad news is that it still does not run. But now I know why. NO TIMING BELT. Go figure. Also, a length of chewed up extension cord (from a diy repair job gone wrong) stuck in the crankshaft gear. Anyway, very difficult to get the crankshaft, camshaft and fuel injector pump turning when there is nothing there to turn them. The installation of a timing belt (while certainly possible) requires the removal and replacement of way too many parts (cylinder head/gasket, fuel injection lines, alternator among them) to list and too much time to do so. Therefore, I have made the decision to pursue professional repair help. I am still rather determined to get this guy running as Jetta diesels are great cars.

Sunday was relaxed and had us weeding lettuce and spinach in W1 in prep for today's harvesting. Which leads me to today.

H stuck around for the morning's harvest. Good stuff.
First thing was to remove the reemay. That fabric is much heavier when saturated with dew. E can attest. Definitely a 3-person job.



With pro guidance from D, we sliced our way through a couple beds of lettuce (100 heads of salad mix alone) and spinach. Yes, I snuck a few bites. Wait.. Yeah, ok, I did. Too good.

E harvests



The Harvester



All greens were weighed and stored in the cooler for distribution. Don't remember exact weights, but we did quite well.

After regrouping we continued our lawn care project. I hopped on the riding mower and H manned the weedwacker (E finished her first member newsletter article). About 45 minutes later H took off. I finished mowing. E finished weedwacking and the day wrapped up early as D gave us some Memorial Day time off. Thanks!

I'm excited to head down to the city tomorrow for this season's first remote pick-up for members. I get to meet those who will be enjoying all the food we've helped grow. Hope they like it as much as I do...

Dig.