Whew … It has been a challenging week on the farm getting through this heat wave. It was quite a task trying to keep everything watered, sorting out a broken cooler, and keeping up with farm work in such intense conditions. And we feel so thankful to be on the other side of it.
And all the while as we were responding to the heat wave, in the back of my mind I found myself grieving and wondering about the deeper impact of such weather patterns. As a farmer, I can’t help but wonder alongside many other farmers, what this means for the future of our work -- will extreme heat waves like this be the ‘new normal’? How can we adapt our practices to be resilient in the face of these types of events? How are farming and agricultural practices contributing to these problems?
As someone committed creation care here at A Rocha I wonder - what can we do better to make sure we are helping to be a part of the solution? And where can we continue to find hope in this process? We are so thankful to be tending to this small piece of land with intention and desire to care for our community whom we work alongside and feed. And to care for small and large parts of creation from soil to plants to the creatures like pollinators, birds and snakes that dwell in our fields. We are thankful to dwell in the tension of brokenness and beauty, heaviness and hope. And we trust and hope that we are not alone in this process striving to bring healing and hope to the land as we love God, others and our place through our actions.
So this week with my mind in deeper places, I want to thank you all for your support of our farm! Without you all we would not be able to tend this land, to grow this food to nourish each other, and we wouldn't be able to share this work with interns and volunteers and staff. It is a gift to share in this with you, our CSA community!
And at the end of this heavy week I have some light and gratitude to share. First off, the cooler was fixed! We were so thankful for the support, prayers and advice from many of you in response to our request for help! After much troubleshooting, our site manager Alain diagnosed the problem, we fixed it and it is back up and running! We all breathed a HUGE sigh of relief and gratitude for the ability to keep our produce fresh and cool through the summer!
And second, as Hannah and I walked the fields on Friday we were overwhelmed by how much is growing in the ground and waiting to get to your tables! We suffered some losses due to the heat as expected and imagine we will see some other losses later in the summer from this weeks heat, but are feeling so lucky and excited to have so much abundance to share in spite of that! And this week we’ve got some really fun new items coming your way like fennel, sugar snap peas, and lots more flowers! We are grateful for abundance in spite of the challenges, and we hope this week you can feel that abundance and hope with us as well.
Cheers!
Farmer Carly
