Earth Dance, Week #24

Weekly Produce List
Earth Dance Newsletter, September 23, 2010
(includes a piece written by me!)

We start our day under sunny skies (the sun has just come up!) and temps in the 50s, and everything is dripping wet from dew. Genna and I follow Mark as he drives the John Deere over to where we will harvest lettuce. He loves to take a moment after he turns the tractor off to just breathe in the morning before we get started.

Harvesting the lettuce. The sun is just starting to reach over the farm and hit the trees in the background.

The lettuce heads grow in rows.

I think this lettuce is the 'bridal bouquet' of the farm!

Genna gives the lettuce its first rinse.

I give the lettuce its second rinse ...

... and then pose for the camera!

Skyler arrives and joins us.

Beautiful Genna with the beautiful lettuce!

Norm washes down the trailer, and we get our next set of instructions.

A tour bus arrives, and a group of young professionals from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service have come to tour the farm.

Norm leads the group on the tour, and they pass us as we harvest.  He addresses their questions about management and marketing of a CSA.

Some members will receive the head lettuce (pictured earlier), and some will receive these varied types of leaf lettuce.

Next, we harvest braising mix. Genna and I start at this end ...

... and Skyler starts at the far end.

The braising mix is rinsed and bagged.

Then, we head down to pick cucumbers.

Skyler, Genna and I wash cucumbers while Mark continues to bag the braising mix.

Earlier in the week, the interns harvested onions and stored them in the greenhouse.

We get to a break point at 11:45 and take lunch. While we eat, the chickens roam around us, scratching and making contented chicken noises. : )

These chickens were the 'baby chicks' whose weekly growth I documented this past spring in some of my very first posts on this blog.

One of them gets closer ...

... and then really gets curious about what I'm doing. : )

During our lunch break, I find Genna in one of her favorite places, in the hammock talking to her dad on her cell phone.

Thought I'd throw this picture in here, as this is the first time I've thought to take it. It's the bunkhouse, where the interns live throughout their stay here.

Okay, lunch is finished, and we're back to work. Here I am, placing cucumers into the member boxes.

Mark and Genna filling member boxes.

Earlier this morning, Norm had put the potatoes, onions, garlic and sweet dumpling squash (adorable!) into the boxes.  And now, Mark, Genna, Skyler and I continue through the afternoon, filling them with two different kinds of tomatoes, the different lettuces, braising mix, radishes and sage.

The Wow Factor of the day was that we finished at 4:00!  Just as we were loading the boxes into the cooler, Riley arrived for his after-school shift.  And, just about the same time, the sky opened up, and the rain came pouring down. Perfect timing!  There wasn't really much left to do, so Riley left just about as fast as he had shown up, and Mark really needed to get out of there, as he was going home to visit family.  (Since Mark will be gone for delivery day this week, Genna will be taking over his route and doing the Rochester deliveries tomorrow.)

Genna and I decided to don our rain gear and do one more task before we called it a day. We took the John Deere down to the field and harvested some edamame (eh-duh-MAH-may). Sorry, no picture, but they look like pea pods growing on tall stalks. We pulled the whole plants and brought them up to where Genna would be able to take the pods off the plants tomorrow, out of the rain.  (Not sure if this will be a member item ... or if Norm is growing it for his family.)

So, I was actually driving out the driveway today at 4:40 pm!  I drove through some torrential rains and saw some pretty crazy lightning on the way home, but did eventually get home safely.   : )

This Week's CSA Box:
Potatoes, Roma tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, braising mix, sweet dumpling squash, radishes, and sage.

Look at how adorable this little sweet dumpling squash is! I actually had never seen this variety of squash before.

And, this picture (next to a bottle water) is to show you how really little it is! : )