December-Take Your Time

Last week Rich, May, Jack and I rose under a fantastically full moon. The beaut lit our way across the George Washington Bridge on our road to home. May called our attention to the moonshine glittering on the Hudson River, which flowed beneath us and into the city that never sleeps. I'll never forget seeing the moondance this same river the week I moved to New York at 18 in pursuit of a future. I was rewarded for the intimidating move across the country with such a sight. The Hudson, the city, the man I met on a farm just up the river from Manhattan...I found my future in New York.

We went away for Thanksgiving. All four of us piled into "the silver car" and trekked it to the suburbs of New York City where Rich's hometown lies. Every time we go through the rigmarole of buttoning up the farm to survive our vacancy, I'm unable to anticipate how meaningful of a memory we are about to make. This time around I vacillated between sending my crew off while I stayed home with the puppies, the sheep, the chickens, and our the flora and the fauna, and hopping in the car to visit our family and friends in New York. If you look through a farmer's lens, you'd understand the sense of responsibility that Rich and I feel to this place...to keep all the components of this grand symphony we orchestrate moving. A new section begins with the winter frost which enters the scene at about Thanksgiving time. When we leave, it's as if without the conductor's baton, percussion can't keep the time, the strings fall out of sync with the brass and the woodwinds go AWOL. And sure enough, we come home from trips away with business opportunities missed and a need for retuning before the music finds momentum again.
The missing piece of that story is the glass half-full bit. There is undeniable energy that time away from the farm generates. We clock out and become guests of another town, witnesses to other ways of life...places that move to their own beat. Beside our curiosity of and our attraction to novel experiences away from home, beat our lovesick hearts, which grow fonder of our way of life. The passionate sentiments of long-distance love stir within us when we are away, evoking a renewed and strengthened desire to do what we're doing. When you make your way to the 'greener pasture', you fill your belly with it and look back to see the sun setting over yours, growing lusher in your absence.
There are so many places to call home. We once called the Pocantico Hills of New York home...the first place we lived together. Upon our return to these hills over Thanksgiving break, the tempo of the place was electric, prestissimo, increasingly so when we made it to the mother city herself. Folks wrapped in parkas, surged through the city and up 6th Avenue as we made our way to the Radio City Music Hall to be treated to the one and only Rockette's holiday performance. I wondered about those women dazzling on the stage, at the pinnacle of their careers. What has it taken them to get here? Have they come up for air to recognize and relish where they are? After the show and a pastry, and a souvenir stop for the kids, we swam our way through the crowds of people all on their way to somewhere and nestled into a train car in the subterranean bowels of Grand Central Station...quiet. All was still, but for the folks hurrying ahead to the front of the train. Our hearts calm, we hunkered down for the ride back up the river and began to digest our the whirlwind day.

The city is so reminiscent of the internet era we live in: the increasingly fast-paced and lively world bustling with energy, ideas, distractions. Navigating Manhattan, there's not a chance to take stock, to catch someone's eye, to relish it. Each time we get a taste of the city, we feed off of the vivacity only it can offer. And once we exit the current, we double down on our life on the farm. My departure from big city professional cooking way back when and Rich's transplanting in the midwest, were sparked by the compulsion to live a life outside of this paradigm of perpetual movement. And now that we have carved out this life on the farm for ourselves, we have ample opportunities to catch each other's eye...and to take stock of our life here before it passes by.
Take is the key word there. At a time when you could always be plugged in or go-go-going, you have to take breaks, take the trip, take the special moments for yourself, take your May and your Jack and certainly your Rich in your arms and hold them. May is tall enough now to ride all the rides at all the parks, Jack is tall enough to pull himself up into the climbing tree, and I'm the tallest I'll ever be. If we don't take it as it comes, I'll be losing inches before I know it...speeding toward old age, wondering how it all slipped by. Take your time and take the trip :).

Updates from the farm:
-Great market season...ordering continues: We had a fantastic market season. It seems folks are prioritizing local food and wares. It's a warm feeling at year-end to look back at such a good market season. We continue to open our online shop every monday with order pick up in the Oakwood Market lot every Saturday from 10-11:30 am.
-Christmas Preordering: We love baking for you all for the holidays. Preordering of our classic pies, breads, rolls, and Christmas gifts has opened. Pick up will be on December 23rd from 4-6pm in the Oakwood Market Lot this year. You can peruse the menu and preorder at the following link:
-Hens Call it Quits for the Winter: Our ladies in the chicken coop molted at the end of the month, shedding feathers and growing in a fresh plummage. They halt egg-laying when then put all of their energy into the molting process. It looks like with this timing they may not lay again until the spring when the daylight hours increase again.
-In Business in January: We've decided we will continue to take orders in January, a month during which we have closed the online shop completely to recuperate. We feel energized and look forward to continuing with orders. Our menu fluctuates throughout the winter based on what is ready in the hoop house, etc.
Thank you for reading :).
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