Listen, the farm don’t stop!
This week on Hawkins Farm, we got whacked with heat! Whew! Do a spit take for me if you’re reading this, because that’s how it felt, but like, in slow motion. I don’t know about you, but my body doesn’t just go, “it’s hot, I should hydrate very consistently.” No, it just keeps slugging along, as if it were as cold as the last three weeks and there isn’t a very pressing reason to chug liquids every twenty minutes or so (sweat).
Seriously, it’s hot. So we’re bringing out the big guns, folks. That is, we’re bringing out the *alert alert* hydration bevvies. Woohoo! I’m talking about the cucumber, lemon, and whatever-else-you-have-laying-around-situation. Erin brought in the cucumber-apple-celery smoothie-ish drink for after the pack, which was inspired by my cucumber, apple, lemon, basil, and brown sugar juice mixture. Yep, it’s hot out here, but listen, the farm don’t stop, so you gotta get your hydration bevvie on.
Okay, so here’s what’s hot off the vine this week: Hawkins is spitting out its first round of peppers and cucumbers. Woohoo! It’s been a bit slow going, but the peppers are poppin’, and now there’s no stoppin’... them. Green bell peppers are available, and they change color first and ask permission later, so it's a three pepper mix-and-match in the carts for this pepper product! As many of you might have seen, there were plenty of greens to choose from while we were building the shares, with some lighter green and nearly purple peppers sprinkled in as well.
Did any of you see those scrunchy little peppers? You know, the ones that could be mistaken for a mandrake, or a grouchy grandpa? We all love that classic, bulky, bell shaped pepper, but the reality is that all of these peppers are growing out of one single fire-hydrant-sized pepper plant; so, it gets a little snug when ten peppers all decide it’s time to mature all at once. Don’t worry, we’re shooting for those sturdy, picture perfect peppers, but this being the first pepper week, we had to do a quick pass and free up all the scrunched up bells that had the privilege of perking up first.
It’s a similar story for the cucumbers, but rather than sharing one short stalk, the cukes were all crawling around on their lanky, long vines, doing their best to be inconspicuous; So our first pass was all about hunting them down. They were all scrunched up, but you really had to have your eyes peeled to see it. I guess someone had the bright idea to trellis them with some string, because I came in on Friday to a high tunnel decorated with brown string and raised cucumber vines. Now we’ll be able to walk around the perimeter of the high tunnel with our yellow buckets for a quick cucumber pass, which is helpful because, listen, the farm don’t stop.
Seriously, it doesn’t just suddenly stop around here! Not even when you’re trying to go on your annual Michigan vacation and you’re a Hawkins named Jeff and Zach. I heard the phrase, “keep on moving” many, many times this week because the number of things to do didn’t just get smaller on vacation week. To be a farmer is to just keep on rolling with it while it’s hot, and to keep on tending to all the things that continue to need you while it’s growin’ season. From my perspective, the eggplant, peppers, celery, tomatoes, cucumbers, and herbs don’t just decide to call it one day; plants just keep on growin’, so we keep an eye on them, picking things when they should be picked so that they will continue producing vegetables to be picked later on.
From farmer Zach’s perspective, all the carrots in a particular bed didn’t just stop growing while we were taking our time with the last bed, which means that he has to have some seeds in mind as we are all preparing to harvest, clear, and prep that bed for another planting. Or there’s Farmer Jeff, who has to account for all sorts of living things--and all the food they don’t just stop needing one day. Or all the babies that barn cats don’t just stop having, which leads to more kittens, which leads to more kittens… Thankfully there are vet friends to help out with the kittens, and the piglets that should have arrived as barrows but instead arrived as boars! Just to name one of the many fun tasks that get done after all the other tasks are done; because, you know, the farm don’t stop. Woohoo!
Hopefully RiverRidge has been tiding you over with their large selection of peppers for your share, because wow, ours took a little longer than expected! In addition to Hawkins peppers, RiverRidge has been holding it down with their cayenne, hot/heatless jalapeño, poblano, and sweet banana peppers. If you aren’t throwing one of those peppers in your share next week then…. You might not like peppers, and that’s perfectly okay! There are plenty of other things to choose from in the Harvie lineup these days.
There is one thing a farmer will stop for. I don’t care who it is, any farmer will let all the plates they are spinning fall over for a quick snack time. We had an excellent snack time at the pack on Thursday between Nellie’s coffee muffins and espresso cream cheese spread, Erin’s savory scones, Rodney and Regan’s momma’s blonde brownies, and my half-broken-into pack of Trader Joe’s cookies.
When you know that there will never be a good time to stop, you have to create a situation worth stopping for. But after that sixth pastry, you have to keep on moving.
-Alex
