Week 13: August 28, 2023

Today I am in denial as Simon starts high school for the first time. The end of the summer always has me reflecting upon the passage of time and this is even more the case this year now that we have a freshman in the house. I am so, so grateful that I hired Simon to work with me on the farm this summer, not just because he had a good work ethic and I couldn’t have kept up with things without him, but because we got to spend so much one-on-one time together which seems to happen less often the older he becomes. I especially benefited from his sense of humor, his more relaxed approach to life, and his ability to put things into perspective whenever I started to get anxious that we were behind or that something wasn’t growing like I wanted it to. Our favorite times were on harvesting and packing days when we would see the fruits of our labor (literally!) all spread out before us, waiting to go into your boxes. I will miss him in the field and in the barn the next six weeks, but I’m also excited for him as he starts this new phase of his life. Thank you, Simon, for a great summer and for all of your hard work! You make your mom proud!

Week 12: August 21, 2023

Just when I thought that fall was here with its cooler temperatures, the hottest days of the summer arrive and prove me wrong. In my younger years, I reveled in the warmth of 90 degree days and I didn’t even mind so much when it topped 100. I remember happily wandering through the stone streets of Pompeii with nary a tree in sight during the Italian heat wave of 2007 when temps were well into the 100s while Erik huddled in the shade of a doorway and told me to come back for him later. Now my ideal temperature – especially for field work – is probably in the mid-60s. Is it my age or my profession which has changed me? Probably it’s a little of both.

Week 11: August 14, 2023

This week we are introducing a new section in the newsletter: the weekly haiku. Simon and I came up with the idea when we were contemplating what to do with the free time we had been granted once the rain started to fall last week. This is the first time we’ve actually had to wait to do some field work this entire summer, and we’re not used to putting things on hold like we must typically do about once a week during a normal precipitation year. The truth of the matter is that farmers love rainy days, not just because we get a break from watering, but because we get to do things like clean our houses and put the laundry away as these things usually take a back seat to farm work during the summer months. We are in that beautiful space right now where both our indoor and outdoor spaces are mostly all picked up. The car is even parked in the driveway to be washed by the rain right now. For a Type A person like myself, this feels amazing. (It really is the little things…)

Week 10: August 7, 2023

I hate to say it, folks, but I think fall is in the air. I just glanced out the window at the fog that is blanketing the production field and it looks decidedly wet down there. This is a change! Until now, I was working in the field on Monday mornings, saving the newsletter-writing until the afternoons when it was hot outside, but from now on I am guessing my computer time will happen in the mornings while I am waiting for the field to dry out. (It’s not a good idea to work when leaves are wet as fungal diseases can be more easily spread around then.)