Winter sets in.

 Feels like winter around here, winter with two little ones and a farm to run.  Short days going by in a blind fury like I'm caught in a blizzard of time and so much action out of my control.  Everything I want to do stays just out of reach, a peripheral sighting of sanity just at the edge of my vision.  It's amazing the strength it takes to breathe deep these days and remain calm.  I'm trying my best.
Despite my mothering mania and perpetual lack of sleep, our farm is doing well.  We are in the midst of deciding how we want next year to go.  How much we want to plant, how we want to change things.  I'm so, SO happy we got a perennial section in, even if it all dies.  That was our fall feat this year, especially with the ridiculously wet season we have had.  We had a record rainfall yesterday in our area.  All the fields around here looked like ponds, including ours.  We made it into the December edition of Our State Magazine.  Awesome picture of our booth, makes us proud.  And we even got to go for a pleasure walk at Ayr Mount with the family.  Love that place.

We Live!!!!

 That's right everyone, we live.   Just been a little busy having a new baby, Maeve Ellery Bain White, born September 1st, 7 lb. 6 oz., two weeks early and just a day after her big sister Ruth's birthday.  Crazy times in the White household!!!!!  I was having contractions on Ruth's birthday but Maeve held out for her own day.  The garden has been super steady and beautiful, thanks to our amazing crew.  We actually need to give a shout out to Emily for these beautiful pics as once again our camera has died to overheating one day in a hot truck.  Thanks Emily, great eye!!!!  We have the nicest carrot section we've ever had.....in some sections in our new field we are leasing the soil is deep and loamy, like a freshly baked cake.  It's hard for me not to take mouthfuls and go swimming in it, but instead we sowed carrot seed and a little magic and VOILA, carrots so sweet and so bountiful it feels like were dreaming as we walk through the patch.  Okay, I have so much more to share, but as I'm writing one handed and nursing time is almost up and the grocery store trip beckons, I'll leave you for now.  Hopefully to return soon!

Let's Dance

This has been a wet season.  Dramatically wet.  Rain everyday for a over a month.  It's easy to make an analogy to dancing when it comes to how we work with the weather, but this year the dance has been taken over by a solo-performing-rain-making fool that just likes to watch himself parade around the dance floor and not care for a partner.  It's finally dried out enough for us to do some tractor work, possibly enough for us to plant some poor rootbound plants that have been camping out on the start table for a month too long.  We've moved on with the attitude of better luck this fall and winter.  The good news is that we picked an almost 3 1/2 lb tomato!  We made a crew lunch with it, bacon sandwiches with huge thick slices of the beast.  The sandwich will not be forgotten anytime soon it was so good!  

  As for the pregnant flower lady.....things are alright I suppose.  My belly is tight and this baby moves around 2-3 times as much as Ruth did.  I'm ready to hold the baby in my arms instead of my belly, but I have 8 more weeks to lug it around and deal with rough back pain.  I'm trying to propagate dahlias so I can have an amazing flower display in early winter, but it's proving harder than I thought.  Wish me luck, I could use it!

Garden Fresh.

 So we contributed to a cookbook sometime last year and got a nice surprise in the mail a few weeks ago!  It is a really beautiful cookbook, well-done, with lots of great recipes.  Thank you Martha Holmberg for putting this together!  We sent in the radish/sugar snap pea recipe.  So healthy of us.  But of course I jump to the dessert section first and get fast to work....a strawberry cake first and then the cocoa beet cake which I just have to say is WOW.  WHOA.  So good.  Ridiculously good.  I feel a little more domestic this pregnancy; been spending more time in the kitchen.  I have been washing dishes (!)(what?!) and vacuuming.  Making full sours (don't worry, I just discovered what that meant a few weeks ago) and canned pickles and for this weekend am planning sweet and sour pickles and some more full sours and canned dills.  No, I'm not craving pickles all the time we just have a gangbuster crop of cucumbers this year.  Cucumbers and beets.

 But it's definitely not all gangbusters this season.  We've lost quite a bit from the garden with all this rain.  Luckily all the wet has kept the temperatures cooler, which makes it feel a little more alright.  And maybe we were due for a more challenging weather year to keep us on our toes.  Helps us be better planners, make wiser decisions.  So much of farming well is about planning.  Definitely a skill to hone.    

Rolling into June

We did it.  Got through May.  I got through the two wedding weekend smoother than imagined.  Another wedding coming up this weekend that should be very nice.  We have a big order of woody cut liners here from Spring Meadows waiting for some love.  A big order of perennials for cutting from North Creek (wow, what an awesome company).  Get me out of this annual cut rat race!  We have no idea where we are putting them.....(should I have admitted that?)...but sometimes it's all about the dive in with farming.  Also this year, peonies and blueberries.  I know, they have been on the list for years, but this is their time!  Our time!  Any time we have before second baby!  AAAGGGHHH!

Our produce is really starting to roll in with lots of delicious eating and amazement at what comes out of such a small space.  With a hell of a lot of effort and love.  It is time to start putting some food up---this is the week for strawberry jam (did I mention on the blog this is our worst berry season ever with all the rain?  Horrible, horrible.  Peak week we picked a measly 10-15 flats.  Disgusting.  Next year we are cutting back by half.)  And also the beginning of cucumber pickling.  Beet pickling.  And I'm so ready to eat that first tomato.  Patience, patience!