July 31, 2004
A star is born
Ta-daa! Word on the street is that this photo of the Waverly, the back of our stand, and the general scene at our Wednesday Danville Market, will soon be published in the upcoming North Star Monthly.
July 30, 2004
In the field of opportunity
It's plowing time again.
Plowing up next year's field.
Love that Dummerston sandy loam. Thank you NRCS!!
July 29, 2004
Old Shaw Farm in Hollywood
A little bit of Old Shaw Farm in sunny Los Angeles. My beautiful baby sister Jessica modeling our hip t-shirts!
July 28, 2004
Uncle Pete
Uncle Pete stopped by this weekend.
He brought Babi, my grandmother.
Waverly had more fun than humanly possible!
July 27, 2004
Green salad bowl
Just sprouting.
Growing in the flat.
Ready to be transplanted.
Growing in the field.
Almost ready to be picked.
Perfect picking.
Too far gone.
July 26, 2004
Wavo on the move
It has been a big week around here for our favoite 10 month old.
She spoke her first real word. On Thursday morning, Maryellen and I were drinking coffee at the base of the bed while Waverly was still snoozing. Wavo started to wake up, and as she did, she reached out her arms and said, "Mama!" Clear as day, there was no doubt that she meant to call out for her mama.
And then this weekend, she started to crawl.
Up until now she had scooted, rolled, inched, spun, bounced, and shuffled around, but no flat out crawling. That changed this weekend, and I think from now on our lives will be changed as well.
July 25, 2004
Summer
On the left side, from front to back, melons, squash, turnips, red and green lettuce, broccoli. On the right side, in the back, tomatoes and behind them potatoes.
Tommi, who works on the farm, picking peas.
Peter goofing off harvesting beets.
July 22, 2004
Happy B-day to me
Ok, so this is a little late, but it was my birthday on Monday. I have completed 36 trips around the sun, and still going strong. I don't feel a day over 35 and a half.
Among numerous wonderful presents, and a great cake ala Maryellen, Waverly got me an awesome book.
These people rock. Support slightly crazy, small, local, organic farmers!!!!
July 21, 2004
It's happening already
I can barely bring myself to write this, but the days are getting shorter. Last night, Maryellen, Wavo, Tommi, and I finished the harvest for our Wednesday market around 8 o'clock, and the sun was significantly lower than just few weeks ago. Sigh.
Fortunately, the next few days are supposed to be warm, so summer isn't over yet.
July 19, 2004
Melons for breakfast
We are starting to just get the very first of our melons in. Not enough to go to market yet, but enough so that we can pluck a couple for the breakfast table. I wanted to get a nice picture of this one, but I couldn't help myself, and I ate it before I could find the camera.
July 15, 2004
And your hands don't get very dirty
This looks like it could be fun.
But the cynic in me suspects that you get punished for not using lots of pesticides, or for not going into massive amounts of debt to buy lots of new John Deere equipment.
July 11, 2004
Cavalry to the rescue
Ok, so this hasn't been the best week for me. First, I threw out my back. Nothing serious, but the Doc on Tuesday said no lifting or bending for a little while, which rules out most vegetable farming activities. Second, I got the flu with a high fever. Tuesday I was literally immobilized, and we skipped our Wednesay market.
But then word got out about our plight, and people from near and far showed up this weekend to help us out.
First, Tommi and Susannah, who work here, did their usual awesome jobs.
Then our friend Tom and his Mom and his children Ethan and Emma showed up on Friday and helped us pick peas for Saturday's market.
Our friends Cornelia and Josh came on Friday and also helped harvest peas, potatoes, beets, salad turnips, and lettuce. Here is Cornelia helping Maryellen with the peas.
Then my brother Geoff and his spouse Sheri and their two year old daughter Lois came up late Friday night. Maryellen and Geoff did the market on Saturday as I luxuriated in bed and ate bon-bons.
Lastly, on Sunday, my Gramma showed up and fixed us all a big Sunday dinner of roast pork and pies and all kinds of goodies. Here she is with a duck-wielding Wavo.
We also had lots of calls and well wishes and good vibes sent from all over the planet. I am actually feeling a lot better now -- the flu is just a few remaining stubborn sniffles, and the back feels like I should be working again soon.
Thank you everyone!!!
July 08, 2004
Coal Miner's Daughter?
No, just black beans for dinner.
Old times
This post is mostly for anyone who is familar with the geography of Peacham, or the lay out of our farm.
I found this picture, circa. 1927, on the internet via a link listed on our friend Jessamyn's blog. The link is to a University of Vermont project that documents landscape change in Vermont. It compares old photos of certain landscapes with the present view. It is pretty cool.
Anyway, in the above photo, you can see our farm about a third of the way in from the right, and a third or quarter of the way up from the bottom. You can see the side view of our huge barn, and where it connects to the house. And then you can see the hay field behind the barn extending up the hill to the right. Looks like lots of farming has happened here.
July 07, 2004
Technical difficulties
The farm has been out of commission for a few days. Peter's been real sick. Well, we've all been sick, but Peter got it the worst. He tried to work through it, but just got worse, so finally we decided to skip today's market (and yesterday's harvest), in an attempt to give Peter a chance to heal. Hopefully we'll be able to do this weekend's market. We joke sometimes that the farm is just one broken ankle away from disaster, and this has been a real warning that that's true. Peter seems much better this morning, especially compared to yesterday, so I think we'll be fine, but it's a good reminder of the importance of taking care of our health!!
