July: A Place to Be
The night of my mid-June birthday coincided with a big lettuce planting. Every ten or so days we transplant another rotation of our kaleidoscope salad mix. At this stage in the game we plant by hand...Rich dropping the babes while I follow behind to tuck them in. Five grand later and a year in the future I may be sitting on a tractor-mounted waterwheel transplanter, plugging plants into a ferris-wheel of sorts while Rich steers the tractor. But here and now, we factor in more labor and time to get the job done. With multiple days of rain incoming, we decided on putting the kids to bed post ice cream celebration, and then heading to the field: our place.
Rich had shallowly tilled the soil at just the right time, ideally moist while ideally dry. Cool tilth beneath me and nimbostratus above, gentle but telling of the rain to come. I tailed Rich, plugging the root balls of red and green baby lettuces into holes left by our infinite dibbler...a marking tool. Sometimes we chat during transplanting, and at other times while he dibbles the next two rows and I play catch up, I have time to retreat into my mind. These are times of quiet catharsis when I can digest all the life that's unfolded while farming and parenting and running the business. My birthday has become quite the reflective day as I am in touch with various characters from my past. Sweet folks from throughout my life come out of the woodwork to wish me well, referring me back to previous chapters. And so, as gentle rain started to fall during our last row, and the sorbet colors of sunset were overcome by clouds, I felt a pang of euphoria.
I am where I desire to be. The paths we took to get here and the uphill climb we made to carve this life out for ourselves have culminated in an existence on the farm surrounded by an abundance of life which keeps us company (and busy). In an unstable world and climate, we have created something that gives us a place to be and a very tangible purpose. A simple life and more importantly, a stable one.
The troubled world spins on and despite the greedy pig wars waged on it, good persists and people persist. Likewise, the climactic conditions prove more and more challenging and yet we have seen for ourselves on this little patch of land that regenerating the soil and encouraging perennial life allows for the earth to absorb the shocking rains and heat waves alike. More produce than ever comes out of the ground that is fed and rested too, in spite of extreme weather events. This is a message of hope. Ground given a chance to thrive, will. And it's the same with people. There may be hard times and big work to get there.
While we are all doing our respective work, I hope you find solace in your place. Maybe it's a gentle rain pitter-pattering around you on a newly planted field, doing what you do with your love. Maybe it's winding down your evening routine and reposing in your choice nook. Everyone has a place :).
Updates from the Farm:
-Capacity: We have been harvesting an incredible amount of produce. So much so that we are building a second walk-in cooler for storage. We aren't too far away from a huge potato harvest and so the clock is ticking. This is a big growth year, and growth calls for more storage space, our second tractor we purchased last month, more containers to store the produce in, and of course more organization in the field to keep it all straight. Phew! All good things, but this season is a bit wild as we are outfitting the farm as we go. Perhaps 2026 all will be in place so that we can just farm and not be building or purchasing so much! We are hoping to complete the cooler in July sometime.
-Oakwood Farmers Market: The market has been incredible this year. Rich and I have been behind the booth to get everyone served in as timely a way as possible. The kids joined us last week for market...their first time staying the duration of market. They enjoyed the scene. Every Saturday 9-noon you can find us there.
-No Bread: Rich is so busy between farming and conceptualizing and building that he has not been able to bake sourdough for the market. Subject to change but for the next few weeks, it's unlikely that you'll see it on our market table.
-Converting our bed system: For those of you who are curious....we brougth in a cultivating tractor so that we could convert our bed systems in the field to permanent beds with living pathways in between them. Not only is this a bucolic way to keep the field, but it allows perennial life to exist in between beds, rather than bare soil. It's lovely for little garden fairies (May and Jack) to run around in barefoot as well. This also holds moisture and absorbs water when we get heavy rains. It's the system we have been gunning for and now we have the proper tools to install and maintain it. Rich and I will be working on this during the season and next spring as well. Needless to say we are slammed on the farm. Here are the first few beds we've made:
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