June-In The Thick Of It
MARKET SEASON IS UPON US
Farmers markets start this weekend!
Oakwood Farmers Market (22 Orchard Street) Saturday’s from 9-1
This Old Farmers Market (3930 Dayton Xenia Rd, Beavercreek) Sunday’s from 12-3
We are impressed by how both markets are being managed to address this ‘new normal’. With booths spaced out and vendors coached on safety protocol as well as the open air nature of market, you can expect a safe and enjoyable market experience.
We were able to get our online ordering system up and running over the past month…hopefully working out most kinks. We are going to continue to offer online ordering for pick up at either market (specify at checkout) which opens on Wednesday for the general public and a day earlier for our 2020 csa members at foxholefarm.com. You can also come and shop like usual at market. To keep everyone safe, we will only display one of each item on our tables for a visual, while stocking your bag from our bins behind the table.
IN SPITE OF COVID-19
In spite of Covid-19 we have connected more so than ever with Dayton. We are so grateful for everyone who has checked in on us, decided to trust us to grow for them, and sought out local food. Isn’t it so true that adversity brings us closer to one another? Our hearts are saddened by the fear that has been instilled in everyone around us…the uncertainty and the hurt that people are feeling during this time. But we feel bolstered by our work and in particular by getting out every Saturday in May to reconnect with some of you at our online order pick ups. We have been coming home to the farm on Saturday’s so extremely energized and motivated to get back out in the field and grow more. And can you imagine how much our fire would be fueled if we could see the smiles behind the masks ;) ?
And in spite of Covid-19, the ground is still growing lovely produce, the sheep are still grazing in the pasture, Jack is still waking me up in the night, we are still going to space…Whether it is this time 2020 or this time 2019 when the tornadoes hit, or any other time when life seems like it will never be the same, it is so helpful to be working directly with the earth. It offers me the constant reminder that life goes on and the world continues to spin. Despite these challenges that we face, we get to start each day with a sunrise…the chance to have a new start every 24 hours. And one day the sun will set on these days of Covid-19 running rampant, without a vaccine to combat it. We will wake up with the sun, looking back at what a mountain we have climbed. This too shall pass.
LIFE AND LOSS ON THE FARM
May is the month when everything bursts to life on the farm. We got that and more this year as our sheep began to lamb. Mother’s Day afternoon we were graced by the birth of the first lamb to be born at Foxhole…a cute ewe lamb with brown ears. Although small, she appeared vibrant. May named her Scarlett and we checked on her in between every chore, meal and nap. It was on an afternoon check up on her third day that we found her nearly unresponsive in a tuft of grass. After having bounded out to greet us earlier that morning, we were caught off-guard. We wrapped her in one of May’s old baby blankets and gave her electrolytes. We bottle fed her, and let her fall asleep after a full meal, with May stroking her back.
She rested in the warmth of our mudroom, wrapped in her blanket. Coming up on the next feeding time…when I checked on her next, she had passed. Our first lamb lost. Though in our other years raising sheep we have lost lambs, this one hurt. It beckoned me to remember that we are not in full control of any of this. This lifestyle and vocation never stops teaching me. It is breaking me in and reminding me of my place. I am a steward…I am a caretaker, not a creator nor a god. Loss is an inevitable part of life and it generates new life…a cycle and a circle that happens with or without my intervention.
And so I kept watch of the lamb’s mother ewe ( a first time mom)…making sure she dried off okay. She just moved on. She continues to graze, run with the flock at startling noises, and beds down at night when the sun sinks in the sky. So if she can move on…I can move on. And then…the morning of a big rain storm, another ewe lamb was born in the flock. What a beam of light. She is two weeks old now and strong as a little one can be. May has another little ovine friend…Lucy. And on we go.