Welcome to the Against the Grain Farm Stand where you can pre-order for pick up at either Watauga Country Farmer's Market or at the farm for Saturday, August 22nd. If you're reading this in an email, you'll see the items that we have to offer this week below. You can simply click on the yellow button "purchase from the farmstand" to reserve a box, make swaps and add extras to the base box that Harvie will put together for you. If you're reading this in the Harvie platform, navigate over to the "farm stand" to reserve your box.
The ordering period for Saturday pick-up closes at 8pm on Thursday, August 20th.
If you have any questions about your box or the farm stand process, please reach out to Holly directly by email at atgfarm@gmail.com or by phone at 828-406-4439. If you are having any difficulties placing your order or would like to confirm the contents of your box, please do not hesitate to reach out to Holly.
This week's newsletter contribution about the farm's "second Spring" comes from M Mueller...
The days are long and very warm; the sun shines out of the Lion, still rising high over head; the fruits are ripening into color: tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, peppers; and the weeds at the margins of the farm are tall as horses. These are the signs of “second spring,” a carefully planned annual push to plant out the Fall vegetables and greens of every type that must grow to height before the cool weather comes. These will feed us into the Autumn and part of the Winter, too.
Some of the crew have been with us since late February, so moving toward Autumn feels, on the one hand, like a sort of triumph, a final sprint to the finish line. But in the midst of this exultation we are called to prepare for yet another season: removing expired crops and field weeds, planting out the seedlings fresh from the greenhouse, moving row covers and rock bags into place. The turkey chicks are arriving in successive bunches, as we must get their mobile shelters into good shape. We slog along, slowly awakening to the fact that the year is far from over. And, honestly, we’re a bit tired.
But we knew we would be tired. Experience told us so, and that memory from many years of farming does not lessen the load, but it does open us to the knowledge that, contrary to the first Spring season of the year, the end of this “Spring” season will be met with festivals: the autumnal equinox leading to the harvest moon, on to Thanksgiving, the winter solstice and the holy nights of Winter. In Winter, all this hard work in the hot sun will stand ready in our spirits to warm us from within and give us the strength to do the deep internal work that the cold of Winter presents. The short days of Winter offer a yearly opportunity to go deep inside, deep as the roots can penetrate into the ground of our souls.
So, as you enjoy the fruits of high Summer, shining like the planets themselves, please know that these are the outer expression of our earlier labors in earlier days, and that the farm is working its way forward providing nourishment to share with you towards the coming Fall, hoping we’ll all have the courage and strength to enter the cold weather fully fortified in body and soul by the food we eat--the food that we grow on Against the Grain Far--the food we are now planting in the fields.
As always, much love and happy eating,
Holly, Andy and the crew at ATG
