Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Peaches and Dreams

Morning shot and then by late afternoon I decided I would have to take it home with me. Last year's bloom on this tree peony made me kind of write it off, not without love, but kind of an affectionate feel-sorry-for-you love, cause the bloom just wasn't quite up to par. BUT THIS YEAR. Whoa. What dreams are made of I tell you. Too bad we only have one of these plants. More more more. I'm thinking one day people could possibly reference me as 'that tree peony lady'. One day.
Our first dahlia decided to pop today as well. Same color scheme. It's as if they bloomed for each other. I feel left out of the equation.
Our strawberries are going crazy. Let us take a moment to ponder this one plant and all it's berries (moment) Add 2000 more plants (gasp) And many many many hours of crawling on all fours to pick them. Maybe knee pads are in order. And some breakdancing with the knee pads at the end of each aisle. YES.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

New news

I love it when a bride wants yellow. Such a rare treat! We had two weddings this past weekend with very different color themes---great for us, cause we may not have been able to cover both otherwise. It made for a crazy week, but now we can breathe deep. Gear up for strawberry season. We picked our first ones this Friday. We're not ready for this! Our CSA begins this week as well, which means from here on out it's as if we're caught in a vortex of all things farm---things speed up, and we feel like Ellen Burstyn cleaning house in Requiem for a Dream. Yikes.










In other news, our poppies are unimaginably happy---our best crop yet. I counted nineteen buds on one plant. Holy shnikies. I wish they had a better vase life, but I guess their ephemeral nature is in part what makes them so beautiful. We're thinking about doing a recreation of the scene from Wizard of Oz---one of the only video cassettes we had in the house growing up. That and some bad version of Tarzan. (No wonder I'm so weird) We want to make a documentary film of our farm and crazy lives next year. We've always wanted to do this, and I think next year we may be able to squeeze it into our schedule since our house will be done. We'll see. Also in the news, my man and our Durham Farmers' Market display made it into the New York Times dining and wine section. So awesome. The picture isn't really that great--Stuart looks like he's wiping his nose and the angle is a little weird. The foodies who wrote it also mistook our poppies for freakin' nasturtiums---seriously? Shouldn't all foodies know their edible flowers? But we'll forgive them this. We were pretty psyched about it all. I think now, on this lovely rainy day Sunday, I'm going to begin this new book.....so I can be an even bigger flower dork. Maybe I'll have time to finish it between now and October. maybe.

Monday, April 12, 2010

April 10th Market

yes, the blog has been lame lately, but so has getting our taxes done. procrastinate much? with ten million more exciting options, spending time after work on taxes is about as fun as pulling ticks off or squeezing huge grubs between our fingers. for hours.
the good news is that we have the sweetest red ranunculus on the farm right now. they're like little kisses of loveliness. irresistible in my book. we tried to have 'chocolate' and 'red' in at the same time, thinking that would be a pretty hot combo, but 'chocolate' is just a deep red. so we're doubled up in red ranunculus. ever tried to sell six buckets of red ranunculus on a Sat? I guess life could be worse. taxes could be due or something.







Sunday, April 11, 2010

Decking Begins

YES!!! We haven't done anything on our house in weeks, but this past week we were able to put some hours towards our decking and it looks GOOD. We read that it's really important to waterproof the decking before going down. both sides. We also got a steal of a deal on the wood, over half off, because it had some sticker marks on it that you can't even see now that it has been waterproofed. so hooray. thanks kgb for letting us borrow your decking gun, it rocks the house.


Sunday, April 4, 2010

Main Season Opening Market

Hours have changed from 10-12 to 8-12. We fumbled through the darkness from 5-6 am, shadowy silhouettes of boxes and buckets loaded, unloaded, coffee press and beautiful weather our morning saviors. Thank you Durham for loving local food and local flowers.