It can be difficult when you’re a working mother to find time to do the things you love. In fact, I have mostly learned to see my work as my “me-time” because it is the time that I have where I’m not directly helping my children. Woven into my work life is also where I get ‘steps’, work-out time, social hour, fresh air, sunshine and sometime even un-interrupted thought time. With three children and the myriad of activities they’re involved in, a 400 member CSA Farm, livestock hobbies, and food-preserving hobbies, there is no time left. Not even time to nurture some of the friendships and relationships that I value the most.
I had lunch with an old friend after farmer’s market last Saturday and she insightfully offered that there is simply not enough time in a day to do all of the things that everyone says we ‘should’ do. We ‘should’ get enough sleep, cook all of our meals from scratch, do yoga, go on dates with our husbands, work full time, be at all of our kid’s soccer games and recitals. We ‘should’ read books, take time to relax, stretch, walk the dog, train the dog, and the list goes on and on and on. And if you’re like me, you think you also need to raise your own vegetables, can and freeze and dry your own vegetables, milk your own sheep, raise your own beef and chicken and have beautiful flower gardens.
Let me tell ya folks, I’m really trying to do it all out here! But the reality is that I’m a messy, imperfect, human like the rest of us not even living up to my own expectations.
But I wanted to tell you about a small life hack that brings me joy. I found a way to weave girlfriend time, friendship and farming into one night every other week. You may have heard me talk about our worker share program where people from the community come out and work a 3.5 hour shift in exchange for a CSA share. Well, by the grace of all things bright and beautiful, I have a small group of women and friends who join me in the garden every other Wednesday night.
These women work our only ‘evening shift’. They arrive at 4pm. The crew goes home at 5pm and the we have an extra 2.5 hours with no crew, no kids, and no husbands. It’s just me and five other women my age who are also at a similar life stage raising children about the same ages as our children. We’re all moms. We’re all in our 40’s. We all value time spent gardening and moving our bodies and being together. It’s actually a small miracle that we even pull it off. These women are just as busy as I am. I think it only works because we all get to tell our families that we’re ‘working’. It’s a justifiable excuse to leave home, not have to make dinner and spend time with the girls. Yes, they get to take their CSA box home with them, but I know that’s not why they come.
For me it’s a precious 3.5 hours that I look forward to every other Wednesday night. It’s a few hours of my life where time seems to slow down or speed up or I can’t tell which. We talk about our kids, our travels, our youth, our struggles, our worries, our jobs or whatever we fee like we need to say. It’s a judgement-free space. Something about working in the garden at the twilight hour in the presence of women feels magical. We even have a beer together for the last hour of the shift. The beer has a transformative effect and we giggle a little louder and even swear a little.
For anyone who has ever lived on a farm, grown up on or a farm or heard stories from aunts, uncles or grandparents who have lived on farms, they know that farms are never-ending work. Creating a work-life balance is extremely difficult. And for this reason I cherish even more the times when work does not feel like work at all. I cherish friends who are willing to come to this farm to be with me in the garden and to laugh and share life stories and just be alive together. It’s truly a nourishing and healing part of my life.
Above: Check out our amazing Thursday Crew! This crew of helpers did a lot of the tedious jobs this summer like picking the spinach in this week’s box, picking the green beans this summer, tomatoes and helping knock out some of our biggest harvest like the winter squash, garlic, onions, and so much more! Hooray for the amazing Thursday crew!
What’s in the Box?
Brussels Sprouts- 1 full stalk of Brussels sprouts. We left the work of snapping the sprouts off of the stalk to you. Snap them off the stalk and store them in a plastic bag in the fridge until you get a chance to gobble them up.
Kohlrabi- One purple or white kohlrabo. Most folks got a purple one. Also called a ground apple. Do you remember these from the Spring/early summer? Kohlrabi grow best in the cooler months of the year.
Acorn Squash- One acorn squash per member. Will store just fine on your countertop. Do not refrigerate.
Sweet Potatoes- 2.5 lbs per member. Do not refrigerate. Stores best at 55-65 degree storage.
Cauliflower and Broccoli– Either 3 Cauliflowers and a broccoli or two cauliflowers and 2 broccolis. Wowzers! We had no idea that three successions of broccoli and cauliflower would all decide to come on at the same time! That’s good news for the week 18 CSA Members! Prefers to be kept very cold!
Spinach– .25lbs per member. For whatever reason, the fall planting of spinach didn’t do quite as well as we had hoped. But we picked the patch clean and divided the harvest up amongst you all!
Leek– We went through the patch and pulled one large Leek per member. Leeks are in the same family as onions and garlic. Leeks take a very long time to grow which is why we harvest them in the fall. They are a lovely addition to fall soups!
Parsnip- 1lb per member. Parsnips will keep until spring if you wanted to keep them that long. They store terrifically well in a plastic bag in the fridge. But don’t store them, eat them!
Peppers- 3-9 peppers to fill the box. We nearly picked the patch clean because our first frost is expected tonight! The boxes were very full already by the time they reached the end of the packing line. If there was room in the box, we added as many peppers that would fit. If there wasn’t much room, they box only got a few. They range from green to yellow, to red and orange this week!
Cilantro- Yahoo! More cilantro!
Next Week’s Best Guess: Brussels Sprouts, sweet potatoes, leek, parsnip, rutabaga, cauliflower/broccoli, kohlrabi, cilantro, sweet peppers, diakon radish or beauty heart radish, spinach, acorn squash, garlic
Cauliflower and Broccoli Casserole with Bacon
Roasted Squash and Parsnip Soup
Smashed Brussels Sprouts Recipe
