I wasn't sure if I should put this in an email or tell you about it in this week's Farm Happening. It is perhaps, personally, one of the most magical moments I have experienced. Ever. I pray my account will do it justice.
Before we get into that we need to back up a bit a few years.. about nine I believe it is now, when yours truly was out on a cruise with his dogs looking for a cool place to take them for a run. I was on Earl of Armstrong when I drove past a brand new, just starting community garden. I had long wanted to rent a garden plot but I understood that they were almost impossible to get. I slammed on the brakes (a maneuver that Smokey and Houston always appreciated as they struggled to regain their footing) and in less than two hours I was standing proudly in front of my very own 50' x 20 garden plot. Wow. How cool is that?!
As time passed, and the urgent burden of planting behind us, the gardeners started to lift their heads and wonder around among the other plots to see how things were being done and with the ill-concealed pride that their way was best. To my surprise I found that there were people from all over the world there doing their thing in the soil. What was really neat was when you asked someone why they planted something is a certain way, no matter from where in the world they came from they always answered the question in the same way. "Oh, that was how my father taught me" or "oh, that was how my Mother or Grandmother taught me" Facinating. Food...and the knowledge of growing it is something so special that for those who cherish it, it is knowledge that is carefully passed on to their closest loved ones...like a legacy.
When I started this farm, it was so important to me that it serves to connect people with how their food is grown. For some, that means planting the seeds themselves. This is our third year and I am very pleased to report a healthy and happy gardening community. I am also very pleased to tell you, that like the community garden on Earl of Armstrong, there are people are truly from all over the world here. They grow to feed their families, to connect with their memories and to strengthen their communities. As special as that can be....nothing prepared me for what I am about to share as it is beyond any hope or expectation I could possibly anticipate.
So this year, some ladies from the continent of Africa approached asking to rent a plot. Communication was a bit tricky as their accents are intense but what I got that they wanted a fair amount of land to grow on. There were a number of them and they each rented the maximum for what I will allow/person. Curious, I had to ask what they were planning to grow on so much garden space. Their faces..beautiful, natural, uninhibited lit up with delight and almost in unison shouted out, "CORN!"
Corn? ... really? just corn?
Their huge bodies shook with laughter and smiles even bigger, swaying as they called out "WE LOVE OUR CORN!!!"
Ok then... and so it went. It was not long before I saw there were a lot of people associated with this group. This isn't uncommon among those when english is a second language. The 'group' sends a front to negotiate and typically this is the person who organizes the group as well. They came with their hoes and their seed and they hit the soil with determination while working in a line. They did sections ..as they explained it was their way of ensuring that the corn would mature at different times rather than come all at once. Facinating. They dutifully hoed and they watered and the corn seed which also originated from home and as such it began to grow and grow. It towers in the back now .. a huge enormous crop.
So a group of them came out over the weekend. They are a bit shy, so aside from the children skipping ahead, they are quiet in procession making their way to their plots. It was a larger group and as always they immediately went about their work. My attention returned to another gardener that I was casually talking to when it happened.
A lone voice called out in song and made it's way through the air.
Then almost immediately, a chorus replied in rhythm.
The hair on my arms stood up and my heart beat but my body froze.
Clearly a harvest/work song, they sang and moved in rhythm repeating the same pattern of a caller and chorus going back and forth.
There were not too many other gardeners there but none of us dared move or speak less we break the spell and our singers stop.
Happily our African members worked and sang for a good half hour before the spirit of song broke into talk among themselves.
A true priviledge and a blessing to witness :-)
Alright... there is a ton of other stuff. Very, very short handed this week. A mixture of holidays that people set up and a few people returning to the pre-covid life. So this is going to be a bit complicated. Also, just to add to the fun, the weather is dropping to some very unseasonable cold at night. Not sure what that will mean for us...but I am asking that you all play nice this week (as you almost always do) as there are some additional challenges. We have no admin person (other than myself) so replies might be a bit on the laggy side.
In terms of veggies. Very exciting. We are adding Tomatoes to the line up. This is a whole email onto itself. They are going to be picked on the green side of the spectrum. This is called the breaker stage. I am going to bag the tomatoes in a paper bag. I am going to encourage you to keep them on the counter of your kitchen IN the CLOSED paper bag if the ones you got were not ripe. They will ripen much faster this way. If you have an apple you would like to throw into the bag that is also something that really helps. I have done some trials very successfully. This is going to allow us to increase the volume of our yield for all of us to enjoy and it will also allow us to spread out the harvest over a longer time. IF by chance you do get the odd tomato that fails to ripen, there are a ton of green tomatoe recipies that are simply delicious.
This is the longest Farm Happening ever. Sorry about that.
Enjoy the share and thank you again for being a part of our season :-)
~Michael
