Notes from the Field - Enough

There is a brief moment in the growing season when tomatoes share space with broccoli, leeks with melons, arugula with sweet red peppers, sweet corn with collard greens and potatoes. It is a time of great abundance and diversity in the harvest, the foundation of delicious meals, both quick and slow. The cooler mornings are so beautiful that even we, who barely notice good weather, can hardly stop remarking on it. Evenings on the farm are like picture postcards, with children chasing butterflies, turning cartwheels, and running through the fields while their parents move more slowly, harvesting. The long heat of the summer is behind us, the blazing leaves and stockpiling of autumn just ahead. We pause for a moment at the season's peak to take a breath and know that there is Enough.

Enough is subtly different than plenty. It is What We Need, Just the Right Amount, not a hoard or a dearth, not overflowing and not scraping the bottom of the barrel. It is a satisfied belly, not empty and not achingly full. It is a balancing point, one that often arrives on the farm right around the time of that cosmic moment of balance, the fall equinox. There is Enough sunlight, Enough dark, Enough katydids and cicadas singing their end of summer songs in the evening trees, Enough clouds in the sky and Enough food in the fields. It means we have what we can use, and maybe a little bit to share. Our cup is full, brimming, Enough.

Farming is a job in which, as Dan wisely pointed out last week, you have to enter each day prepared to learn the hard way. There are so many points in the life of each crop when things could go either way, to its completion or its loss. We have had losses this season, and many moments when it seemed that we would have more. At each of these turning points, there is always more we could do, always another weed to pull, always another choice that could make the difference between getting a crop and losing it. By the beginning of September, as the nights cool and the stars brighten and we wear warm sweatshirts in the mornings, most of these choices are behind us. This is why, when the season gets to this beautiful balancing point, we let out the collective breath we have been holding since April. We linger a little longer in the fields in the morning and the afternoon, don't feel the need to jog everywhere we go on the farm, let ourselves feel satisfaction with the kaleidoscope of colors and flavors that we harvest each day. We cook dinners again and enjoy the fruits of our labors. We love hearing what you are cooking and how you are sharing Enough with your loved ones.

The time of the seedpod, the "beauty of the bone", is just ahead. For now, the earth is still green and covered with an explosion of flowers and fruit. We can't rest on our laurels. There is still work to do, change to make, cover crop to plant, the harvest to bring in. It would be nice if it rained once in awhile. But we can, and we must, take the time to notice this moment of Enough, the alignment of need and supply, desire and fulfillment. Balance is rare indeed. Enough is Enough.

Enjoy the harvest, Amanda, for the farm staff