ONION HARVEST.

Things on the farm have been a little chaotic, lately. If you have been wondering where we've been: Cher broke her leg (and is 7 months pregnant, by the way!) We had nearly 10 inches of rain, basically all at once. A giant tower of stacked soil block trays toppled over in the greenhouse. So, yes, I'm sure you are tired of hearing it, we are busy.But things are good! Cher is healing well, the weeds are insane but the food is still growing, the gardens are beginning to dry. We harvested onions a few days ago, and Further was complete trooper in the 95 degree heat. It was a somewhat sad harvest, as the recent deluge of rain was not kind to the onions, but we are glad to have them out! They are all laid out on woven wire fencing in the greenhouse, where they can hopefully dry out in the intense sun. After we get the potatoes dug, all of our "major" summer projects are finished....I'm already dreaming of the ease of the fall garden!- Hannah.

A THURSDAY IN THE LIFE.

 In continuation of our "Day in the Life" series, I give you Thursday, July 10.5 - 5:30 a.m.Morning chores. Feed the turkeys, the nineteen we have left that is, and walk through the garden. This is when I discover that the rabbits have eaten all but a few of the beans I was naively believing they were somehow not going to eat––you know, since it's summer and there's nothing but other things to consume. Needless to say, I curse a little. I have some holes in the fence to be fixed, but until then I plan to set a live trap and to give the rabbit a stern talking to when I catch it.5:30 - 7 a.m.Breakfast (rice with tomatoes and red lentil curry) and writing.7 - 7:45 a.m.I spend this time in our garden fixing tomato trellises and setting the live trap for the bunny. If I call it a bunny and not a rabbit, I have an easier time keeping my cool about the situation.7:45 - 8:45I call the Smiths who say they'll be ready in about an hour or so to harvest onions, so I take the opportunity to go get our truck from the mechanic. It runs like a dream––a dream with 200,000 miles on it.8:45 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.Get everything prepared in the greenhouse to hold and cure the onions. The Smiths join us and we harvest thousands of bulbs, place each in the greenhouse to cure, and cover the them to protect from the sun. We'd spent the day before at Salamander Springs Farm in Berea so we all had plenty to talk about and the conversation made the sweat-drenched job go fast, as conversation is wont to do.1:30 - 3:15Lunch (chicken livers with rice, corn and onions), and nap time. Listening to NPR I learn Garth Brooks is releasing a double album of new music and find myself embarrassingly excited about this.3:15-3:45 p.m.I always wake up to a fresh dose of clarity after naps. And that's when I remember I was going to do a "day in the life" today, and start to write down everything we did, and remember everything we'd done. Thus, all of the above activities, though true, have been assigned mildly arbitrary times. Do you feel duped? I would feel duped.3:45 p.m - 4:30 p.m.Spend about an hour mulching. We always mulch a lot but, but perhaps inspired by the farm we saw the day before where there is no bare soil anywhere, I rather enjoy it this time. Also discover we lost another turkey. From fifty-three, now down to eighteen. Sigh.4:30 - 7 p.m.Hannah and I join Cher in the garden to transplant or seed all of our winter squash and pumpkins––all 1400 row feet or so of it. Considering we'd been putting it off for a month, it feels good to get it done.7 - 7:40 p.m.Move the goats. They're looking good. I can finally leave them alone and they seem to keep eating. This keeps them fat and happy. And it keeps me sane. Symbiosis in action.7:40 - 10 p.m.Dinner and a movie. After returning "Happy People," we received "Micmacs," the latest from Jean Pierre Jeunet, director of "Amelie". What a great movie. I had some most excellent dreams after watching it––I even purchased a copy of Garth Brook's new record for Hannah in one of them. She was psyched... in the dream. In reality she told me we were not going to buy it because, well, we have several million other things we need a little more. And I suppose she has a good point, as women with babies in their bellies tend to have in these situations.10 p.m.Bed.- Jesse.

REAPING WHAT WE SOWED.

Apparently, that phrase has a literal meaning. A few months ago, the Smiths planted the most onions they've ever grown, and we all together planted the most potatoes. And this week––this ninety-five degree week––we harvested every bit of it.And as hard as it was––as hard as crawling on you hands and knees across rocky dirt while the sun beats down on your back for the better part of three days––it was also a lot of fun. Good conversations broke out among plenty of convivial moments of solidarity. Eric liked to pull a few potatoes out of the ground and with each group would say, "That's a meal. That's a meal. That's a meal. That's a meal." Cher calculated that, for just the Red La Soda alone, we got 1,275 lbs of potatoes out of one 100 lbs sack. And we planted two more varieties. How lucky we are to have such a generous source of creation as soil––if you're ever looking for wonder, the garden is a pretty excellent place to find it.- Jesse. Join our EMAIL LIST!

BUSYNESS AS USUAL.

These last few days have been pretty dirty, but pretty productive! Along with the potatoes, shelling peas and onions, we've had a chance to go ahead and transplant our broccoli, kale and chard. So now when you look down at our rows you can see the makings of a real life (and presently real busy) garden. There's much still to do, but it's nice to know that there's also much that's already been done. We're starting to feel caught up, which is not easy when it feels like April, or sometimes even June, outside... but we feel good! Having gotten those crucial things in the ground we can get back to concentrating on preparing the garden, starting soil blocks and taking care of our baby tomato plants.- Jesse.

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