When you’re cooking dinner or washing your lettuce leaves or chopping your kohlrabi or slicing your cucumbers do you imagine the farm? Do you think of the crew and their many helping hands and many smiling faces working in friendship and community? Imagine their laughter under their straw hats, their sun-darkened hands, their workboots and their line of water bottles at the end of the bed.
Perhaps the next best thing that this farm produces other than vegetables is a community of people who come together under a common belief in the value of participating in ones food system. This belief brings together perhaps the best kind of people sharing virtues that I have found to be of extraordinary quality.
First, they come dressed in their peasant clothing. Their paint-stained button-up rags. Their thrift-store, garage-sale, comfy besties. They come in their most worn pair of jeans and oldest pair of tennis shoes reserved only for gritty jobs like yard and farm work. Not dressed to impress-except for that I am. An un-decorated soul is more easily seen in it’s raw nature.
Secondly, I believe it takes a kind of humility that I find extremely admirable to work on the farm. Nothing is more unpretentious than spending an afternoon on your hands and knees, pulling weeds, picking peas or cleaning kale plants. It’s monk-like work. We’re building designs in the sand here. Vegetables are ephemeral and fleeting. We’re not building stone monuments or rock walls here. Nothing that lasts to impress future audiences. Just meek little basil leaves that will wilt away in the sunlight in a matter of minutes if left unguarded. In a world where there are endless ways to invest ones time-jobs to have, hobbies to take up, places to see and experience, I am endlessly thankful for those who choose to spend their precious time and space in their lives on this farm. Perhaps they are coming for more than just vegetables?
What is it then that brings one to the farm? I believe that working in close relationship to the earth, and in the presence of other people in close relationship to the earth, fosters a kind of spiritual connection to something larger than human intelligence. To go off the deep end for a moment on you- the smell of the soil is breathed into our lungs when we work. Our microbiomes are bathed in a cloud of organic topsoil that gets under our nails, under our hair and into our scalps, the lining of our nostrils and the bottom of our boots and lands on our sweaty brows. There begins a kind of communication and connection between earth and fungus and human. What tiny beings are their with us teaching us and helping us to listen? The grounding effect of touching and handling plants whose roots are deeper in the soil than we ever go. I like to imagine a connection to the brave plants that stand naked under the starlight all the night long with their full beings faced upwards in warship to the sunlight all day long.
In return for this servitude, we are fed. We are fed whole, unadulterated, juicy fruits. We are fed alkalizing, free-radical-removing, heavy-metal eradicating, cancer-fighting greens. We are fed the freshest and highest quality foods available on the planet. Except, it doesn’t feel like servitude, when viewed through the lens of gratitude and appreciation. We are fed more than just vegetables. We are fed an enriched kind of community only experienced when shared in a field of garlic. We are fed a soulful helping of purpose-driven experiences. Not just our bellies are filled, but our minds and spirits and hearts. It’s a feeling of fullness and satisfaction that lasts longer than hours. To say that I am thankful for the helpers who come here is an understatement. It’s an inadequate expression, but the best available in the language I know how to speak. I am grateful to be doing this work alongside some of the highest quality people I have had the privilege to know.
What’s in the Box?
Green Cabbage- Yes, this is the third week of cabbage in a row. We debated on wether or not we should give cabbage three weeks in a row, but these cabbages needed to come out of the field. We’re hoping that you can find a good use them or they’re store in your fridge for a bit until you have a chance to use them up! Egg rolls! Unstuffed Cabbage Rolls! Coleslaw!
Carrots- 1lb bags of fresh carrots! Finally they’re here! Super sweet!
Zucchini and Summer Squash- 3-4 squash per member. Stores best at 50 degree storage.
Cucumbers- 2-3 per member. Stores best at 50 degree storage.
Lacinato Kale- Lacinato kale is a favorite at our house-easy to incorporate into salads, quiches, and a variety of side dishes. Stores best in a plastic bag in the fridge.
Green Onions- Because cooking is always better with onions.
Garlic- Asian tempest variety that is a bit spicier than some varieties of garlic. A nice transition out of garlic scapes into the real deal. The outer wrapper of the cloves will be a bit thicker than fully cured garlic, but once you get into it you’ll be able to tell which is the garlic clove and which is the fresh wrappers around the cloves. Does not need to be refrigerated. Garlic can sit on your counter and continue to cure at room temperature, although it does not need to be cured for you to eat it up!
Cauilflower- Beautiful Spring Cauliflower. Cauliflower loves to be kept cold to stay fresh. We leave some of the outer wrappers on them to protect them during transport.
Broccoli- Loves to be kept cold to stay fresh. Did you know that your broccoli and cauliflower leaves are also edible like kale? Just in case you’re looking to eeek out all nutritional value from your box!
Basil- Fresh basil prefers to be kept like cut flowers in a small cup of water. Basil will turn black in the fridge.
Next Week’s Best Guess: Zucchini and Summer Squash, cucumbers, green onions, garlic, celery, carrots, broccoli, Romanesco or cauliflower, lettuce, dill blossoms 
Recipes
Cabbage, Sausage and Rice Skillit
Cheesey Stuffed Shells with Kale Pesto
Fluffy, Whole Wheat, Zucchini Break Pancakes
