WOW. Time sure goes by quickly! I haven't had time to update this blog for a couple weeks, so I'll try to catch y'all up on some of the fantastic occurrences at the farm.

Two weeks ago, Caitlin and I cut up hundreds of cucumbers and looked at recipes in preparation for our first attempt at PICKLING! We cut, sliced, and ate about three different kinds of cucs. Lori joined us in packing them into cute little Ball jars and we prepared some spices to flavor the simmering vinegar that we

poured over the soon to be pickles after they’re in the jars. I only scalded my hand a couple times while plopping each jar into the canner full of boiling water (that for some reason took FOREVER to boil) and every jar sealed! At the end of the slightly frantic and stressful process, we ended up with about 10 jars of varied types of pickles (well, they’re still cucumbers I guess, but in a few weeks, we’ll have PICKLES!!!!). After the first round sealed, we realized we forgot to put the dill in, but oh well.

Oh, I almost forgot! We also did a "quick pickle," of two kinds of beets.

When I had just "become a farmer," I thought I would be out in the field every day and that would be the majority of the work, but that's not exactly true. Along with growing vegetables comes even more work. Processing them.

There seems to be an abundance of tomatoes two to three times a week and instead of composting ones that can't be sold, (one's that have a ding here and there) we cut off the bad spots, and chop the rest of the tomato up to be turned into sauce. The sauce can either be frozen, or we put it on pizza or eat it with

eggplant, etc. So now, I am extremely spoiled because I eat so many tomatoes every day and have the best tomato sauce in the world. Buying that many heirloom tomatoes ever day would be extremely expensive and would destroy my apple and granola budget, so I NEED to start growing tomatoes as soon as possible when I get back to Colorado!!!!

In addition to bountiful tomatoes, we've begun harvesting eggplant (I planted some of these plants the first week I was here, so it's SUPER exciting.) There are four kinds of eggplants, and my favorites are actually not the purple ones I'm used to. The best ones are very skinny and bright green. The eggplant is my favorite one on the farm because its leaves are fuzzy and beautiful and the stem is sturdy and purple!

In the past couple weeks, I've learned how to tell if a watermelon is ripe, how to pick corn properly, (did you know that every one of the silks is attached to a kernel of corn!?!). I've watched my sweat drip onto the ground from my forehead while leaning down to pick peppers, I've gone to a potluck with friends where every dish was fresh from the garden, organic, and full of loooove. I've also been swarmed by fire ants (again) on my foot. But with my steaming rage (enhanced by the humidity,) I took the garden hoe and destroyed the anthill after jumping around the garden on one foot and trying to shake those poisonous suckers off. Yesterday we went to "The Farm," (http://www.thefarmcommunity.com/) which started as a commune in 1971. Two family friends and their three kids gave us a tour of the community and showed us the house they're building. It's completely sustainable with a greenhouse in the middle that provides energy for heating and cooling. So cool!

Every day I work with the plants, I feel like I'm getting to know them better, and it's so exciting to see the farm developing and growing. The work is very hard, but it is rewarding in several ways.

One: The outcome is a beautiful and delicious crop.

Two: I feel like I've gone to two or three Bikram Yoga classes every weekday.

Three: I'm experiencing real life farming with Alex, Lori, Hattie, Henry, Fritz, and lots of dogs, and it's super-duper fun.

Making a living and living happily

In the South, parents teach their kids about meditation. At least, Lori and Alex do. One afternoon, Hattie took it upon herself to find a way of calming down after sword fighting. She realized that not all of us had as much energy after picking hundreds of bean beetle larvae off of rows of string bean plants.We had gotten two harvests out of the beans, but before the third picking, they were swarmed by this pesky bug and we had to get rid of them.

After the long morning, Lori and I decided to make a beer run to the nearest store (about a 15 minute drive down a beautiful dirt road). On t

he way back, the air conditioner of her red pickup truck went out. Shortly after, some funky noises started up, so we costed down and puttered up the little hills to one of their Mennonite neighbors who was able to fix it up. But it was worth the drive.

WELL, that was Thursday

Yesterday, (星期五 in Chinese,) we harvested SO MUCH STUFF.

In the mornin' I picked bulb fennel and prepared the coolers for packing 'em up for the farmer's market. When Burt arrived, (he's the fellow who has a farm an hour away and he's also "interning" with Lori and Alex three days a wee

k,) we began harvesting potatoes and lemme tell you, that was hard work! The sun was hot, even though it wasn't even 10 when we started. Finding potatoes in the dirt is kind of like finding little chunks of gold (maybe. I've never found gold, now that I think of it. Maybe it's more like finding Easter eggs.) Except they aren't eggy. They're potatoey.

So anyway, we picked four varieties of potatoes to make "red, white and blue" baskets of 'taters to sell at the market for the Fourth of Jul

y holiday weekend.

We had two kinds of beets that were actually from the farm next-acre. And their colors were amazing!!! I love beets!

There were 31 CSA members in Memphis that we made bags for, and every member got squash, cucumbers, potatoes, fennel, tomatoes (heirloo

m and smaller cherry-ish tomatoes) shitake mushrooms, eggs, bread, (neighbors make this bread for us to take to the market and sell,) carrots, beans, and lots of basil and oregano! yummy.

That's Buffy.

After the week's work, we had even more work today! But, the farmer's market was a success. I ate a whole box of blackberries and got some cinnamon honey. Oh, and we sold lots of veggies. Making a living from selling organic food is hard, but it is such a happy way to live! Yay, Memphis!