It's the simple things....

Sundays = time = good food from the farm!

Sweetness

July 7th, July 14th markets

We had our two best markets of the season this year back to back, the first two Saturdays in July.  We probably would've set an all time record if our melons would've come in for the Sat. before the 4th, but that's alright.  We're pleased to say the least!  We even brought in some amazing corn, which we have only done one time before.  It doesn't make us any money but we grow it for CSA, but it ripened on the wrong freakin' day.  C'mon corn!  We have a farm dinner this Thursday at Foster's Market in Chapel Hill which we're excited about.  They have 75 people signed up to come!  Holy cow!  Their fullest one to date!  Foster's market---awesome.  Also, the Federal in Durham has been getting a truckload of stuff from us so we need to stop in there and support some of that goodness as well.  You too if you live in Durham!  

 It's been weird not going to market so much this season.  It's such a huge part of our business and definitely a social lifeline for a farm recluse.  To not be there from start to finish and experience all the quirky, meaningful, and some just plain weird interactions, see all the other displays, talk about the weather and Ruth to all the other vendors.  I'm still adjusting to my absence.  I'll be there full time for winter though as soon as the flowers begin.  We're going all out with flowers this winter cause I have time for it.  (Or should I say in my mind I have time for it.)  It's going to be something spectacular.

Climbing the mountain.

This year has been a very challenging one for us.  Especially for me.  I've been feeling very small lately, as if I'm at the base of a massive mountain I have to climb whether I want to or not.  And it is full of wicked, endless switchbacks.  Like I'm stuck in some kind of mold I've created for myself.  Maybe I should look at it as if I'm in a cocoon and will at some point come out all transformed and shit into whatever happens to be my destiny.  But I don't think it works like that.  I have to play a hand in this one.  

We had melon mania this past week.  We tossed a lot of melons that didn't make the cut back behind the prep area in the woods near our shittake set-up.  Yesterday I was feeling tired and down and out and I went to water a rhododendron back in the area where we tossed the melons and it was like walking into some other dimension of reality.  There were loads and loads of swallowtails on the old melons, slowly, silently and ever so gracefully opening and closing their iridescent wings while sipping the nectar.  They were stunningly beautiful.  Seeing them was as much a reprieve from my own oppression as that sweet juice was for them in the oppressive heat.  I guess I need to make all moments like that one somehow, someway.  

Progression with Tomato