For food sovereignty

 Here’s this weeks’s Community Supported Agriculture [CSA] share:

• GREEN BELL PEPPER
• GREEN ONIONS
• BROCCOLI
• CUCUMBERs
• KALE
• SUMMER SQUASH, and
• FENNEL

Unfortunately, per the farm manager’s email, some of the past week's intense summer storms “tore our tomato hoop into sheds, knocked down one of our gates, and hailed on our van leaving five cracks in the windshield and pockmarks everywhere.” The email doesn’t mention any anticipated shortage of tomatoes, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some future boxes end up on the light side due to this summer’s drought, interrupted on occasion by intense thunderstorms and, rarely, gentle rain.

summer storm

Photo by J. Harrington

Later this afternoon, we’ll head off to pick up our CSA share box and drop off half of it with the Daughter Person et. al. It’s almost always a fun drive on lots of back roads that give us a chance to see what’s happening in the real world. Some of the bushes and trees are already beginning to turn color. Heat stress? At least we’re looking at a week plus of more reasonable temperatures and increased possibilities of showers. Now, if only the John Deere dealer can get the parts to fix our tractor, we may be able to check off some yard chores before snow flies.

We did bake another sourdough boule this week. This time using 20% Irish flour. It turned out tasty, crusty, and crumby, that is, with a nice crumb! That’s all for now.

In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden

By Matthea Harvey

Last night the apple trees shook and gave each lettuce a heart

Six hard red apples broke through the greenhouse glass and

Landed in the middle of those ever-so-slightly green leaves

That seem no mix of seeds and soil but of pastels and light and

Chalk x’s mark our oaks that are supposed to be cut down   

I’ve seen the neighbors frown when they look over the fence

And see our espalier pear trees bowing out of shape I did like that

They looked like candelabras against the wall but what’s the sense

In swooning over pruning I said as much to Mrs. Jones and I swear

She threw her cane at me and walked off down the street without

It has always puzzled me that people coo over bonsai trees when

You can squint your eyes and shrink anything without much of   

A struggle ensued with some starlings and the strawberry nets

So after untangling the two I took the nets off and watched birds

With red beaks fly by all morning at the window I reread your letter

About how the castles you flew over made crenellated shadows on   

The water in the rainbarrel has overflowed and made a small swamp

I think the potatoes might turn out slightly damp don’t worry

If there is no fog on the day you come home I will build a bonfire

So the smoke will make the cedars look the way you like them

To close I’m sorry there won’t be any salad and I love you

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Thanks for visiting. Come again when you can.
Please be kind to each other while you can.