I knew it'd be a good day on Thursday because we woke up to rain. I harvested squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers. We're starting to harvest certain produce for CSA (on Friday) a little earlier in the week so that our early Friday mornings aren't as hectic. The drizzle turned into a pour, so I had to resort to getting my rain jacket and rain pants from the top floor of the house. I felt silly watering the hoop house while it was raining so outside. It was so wet and cold. I'm still sick, so hanging out outside in the pouring rain certainly wasn't helping my case. I came in for a hot shower and hot tea before I left for market. Because Mary needed her car to go back to Fiddle Camp Thursday afternoon, she had a friend and CSA member take me to market. Since I know how to work everything at market, Mary felt most comfortable for me to go this week. Janet is an older woman from Connecticut who is now retired in her Great Pond lake house. Janet helped on the farm last summer when the family was short of labor, and she helps out with transportation, working the shop, or working events. We got along just lovely. She knew what Williams was, and we talked at length about colleges and careers and how her daughter just started a post-doc program at Yale.
The rain was no better at market. We rushed to bag the pies and breads to keep them dry while our tent malfunctioned and kept pooling up with water. The showers kept customers away from the market today, so sales were at a record low. Janet was generous enough to run over to get us each some hot green tea (perfect for the cold and my cold) and we even hid in the car to warm up since neither of us had dressed for the weather. On our way home we also stopped off at Wal-Mart to pick up Kenya's wallet that had been found and returned without money missing. The fact that people would return the wallet in good faith without stealing anything reaffirms my faith in mankind.
Jillian and Annie had ridden their bikes to the store to get ingredients for dinner. They then prepared falafel and tomatoes in wild rice - what a feast. The family got home late from Fiddle Camp and it was lovely to be reunited with the kids again, Kenya even teared up a little when she saw me. She then went on to tell me every detail of Fiddle Camp, oh my.l
Every day I've woken up, my cold has felt and sounded a little better. We had an early start this morning for CSA harvesting: lettuce, mezclun, slicing cucumbers. The slicing cucumbers were huge, some close to a foot long. Mary started explaining how to harvest autumn gords - the fall season is upon us, starting even in August. I finished the morning with helping Mary and Kenya set up the CSA section and count/weigh and distribute the produce into 1/2 and full shares. We've started organizing the CSA section a few days in advance, so Jillian already had many of the veggies counted and organized. Organizing went smoother and took less time than the time I helped out 2 weeks ago.
Mary explained that Field 7 would not be used next year. The potatoes, squash, pumpkins, peppers, and cucumbers growing in there are nothing impressive, so this means the field has lost many of its nutrients. Mary will 'retire' it for a year so it can recharge its nutrients. She had me start pulling black plastic off of 3 rows in Field 5 today. It's amazing how the growing season can be coming to an end so soon. I feel like it was just yesterday that everything was in full swing.... I guess that's true too though.
I watched the shop this afternoon. To keep busy, I sliced pace tomatoes and put them in the dehydrator, cleaned dishes, and prepared tomatoes for salsa. I used a pot and its strainer, filling the pot 3/4 with water and bringing to a boil and filling the strainer 1/2 way with tomatoes. The tomatoes were placed in the hot water for 1 minute and were ready to be skinned and then diced for salsa. We fed the scraps to the chickens. The shop was busy today, which was good since Mary's farmer's market was not, and I got the chance to sell yarn, a garlic braid, and almost all of the chocolate chip cookies that I'd made the other day and though I'd messed up on.
We were going to spend our last night together (the family leaves on vacation tomorrow) roller blading at an old-fashioned rink nearby, but the pizzas took too long, so we settled on watching the Ferris Bueller's Day Off DVD that I'd brought while it rained and stormed more outside. Hey, I'm not complaining. Jillian and I skyped Katie tonight to figure out possible dinner plans for next week, and Gil kept eavesdropping on us. He refused to come over and say hi and instead locked us inside the room we were in by tying some fisherman's knot on the door. 12-year-old boys are so silly sometimes.
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| Jillian working in lower hoop house |
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