Gesturing August in
Something rather special happened at the close of July. A friend of ours invited his love to Foxhole under the guise of touring the veggie field. What appeared to be a sweet Sunday afternoon stroll, amounted to one of the grandest gestures of love. At the tail end of the walk, under the old apple trees which have stood to see at least a century of life play out on this property, a proposal and an ensuing agreement to spend life together unfolded.
In the preceding weeks, my heart swelled to think that this place was deemed a felicitous setting for such a pivotal memory as a betrothal. And now, our place is also someone else's place. A place graced by budding love and one embedded with stories of lives being born: new little humans joining the world (our Jack and nameless more before our era here), and the birth of a new life together for our friends.
And upon further marination in my feelings about the impending 'tour', I bathed in the sweetness of this major gesture of love from our friend, who never intended to marry, but who in fact seemed wed to his friendships and his passion projects. For him to have fallen into a relationship with a person who elicited such love and fondness, it is evident that they have experienced that dancing of the souls, that deep connection which binds one to another.
While of course I can't shake the twinkly effects of the engagement, I continue to witness a whole host of other gestures which strengthen my belief in the inherent kindness of humans. We are the recipients of innumerable ones ourselves, warmed by the generosity of others. Regularly, people take the time to shoot out an email or share a picture in appreciation of our harvest or bakes. It's difficult to express how that fuels our fire and excites us to roll into another big week of summertime farming. For every troll that can haunt a small business, there are many of these sweeties writing emails or shedding light on the fruits of good labor.
A customer of ours brought the kids a few old tennis rackets a few weekends ago, when he heard about their budding interest in getting on the court. Their eyes dazzled to think that someone thought of them, and new life has already been breathed into those rackets. Perhaps it is the most overlooked of the gestures which comforts me the most...those sincere "how are you?"s or "how are the kids?", or "I hope that you have a good week".
Maybe just maybe, the real draw to this down to earth way of life of ours is that it serves as the conduit to real connections with people. True interpersonal relationships that are the essence of life, untouched by the vitriole of the internet and the political world. It's reality, and the one that I love to exist in.
Updates from the farm:
-Farmers Market Expansion :): we added a second tent to our set up at market to accomodate the bigger harvests and variety. As often as we can, we will have both Rich and myself behind the booth to serve you all. 2025 we will try our best to make that a weekly ritual. Just getting ducks in a row with child care. Oakwood Market runs through October 19th...and as you know we will continue to offer online ordering with Saturday pick ups in the market lot through the winter.
-Two More Hoop Houses: The wheels are in motion and we will look forward to installing two additional hoop houses come late October. This will allow us to offer more produce for more of the year. Stay tuned :).
Ultimately, we are growing into the space as we can and as our family is able to :). Other than that, we are just keeping up with high harvest season and taking on another school year with the kids starting in mid-August.
Thank you for reading :).
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