Notes from the Field: Pictures of Summer

From my nine seasons on this wonderful farm I have lots of photographs. I have been here so long that I have pictures that are actually printed out on paper! (That's how we used to do it.) I have lots of photos of the initial days of spring, onions and tiny brassicas germinating in the greenhouse, picture perfect lettuce starts, the orderly beauty of the first tractor work of the season, cutting furrows directly into winter, exposing the promise inherent in freshly tilled soil. I have photos of favas beans emerging, freshly flame weeded carrots popping up in perfect, clean rows and beautiful cucurbit plantings domed in deep green lines with gaudy yellow flowers showing beneath their foliage. 

But my photos chronologically usually end right about now and usually pick up again sometime in mid-October, when the light starts to slant away and the beginning of the end appears on the horizon. I have lots of photos in May and June, lots in October and November, and a tiny handful of July and August.

This is because now is 'go time' for your farmers, even for part time farmers like me. For the next two-three months we are flat out: greenhouse seeding, transplanting, weeding and cultivating, making beds so we can keep planting, watering (watering!!!) and harvesting, harvesting, harvesting. Picking, washing and packing the beautiful bounty of our work, to fill the CSA barn for distributions and to provide for many in need in our communities.

It is a wonderful time of year, and yet it's difficult for me to stop and snap a few pictures, unrelated to pictures of broken things that need to be fixed (what is that part number...?) or pictures of unfamiliar insects or plant disease (whoa, what is that?).

The season is chugging along here, nearly July and hard to believe. Our wonderful seasonal crews are getting tan and trained and faster and better at all of the things that we're throwing at them. It's a joy to see so many people back at the farm after the months of solitary work, adding staff through the spring and then finally an explosion of people as the first shares of the season hits the stand. This year

has been particularly enjoyable for me so far. I credit our staff and a healthy dose of sunshine, and a great thanks for the wonderful people in my life. We are all nose down right now, and will be for the next several months, and we will be tired and sore and sunburned. But this job makes it easy to feel like it's worth it and I'm hoping that this is the year that I get a few mid-summer shots, tomatoes ripening, cukes and squash, melons vining out, chilis...you get the picture.

Enjoy the harvest,

For all of the crew,

Dan