“O Thou who art at home deep in my heart, enable me to join you deep in my heart.”
The Talmud
The deep red tablecloth covered the dining room table, three bouquets of flowers from the garden and several bottles of wine encircled the burning candle at the center and real cloth napkins from Quatemala sat next to the dinner plates. No, this is not a description of the banquet in paradise beyond the pearly gates, but it was to honor our ‘goddess of wisdom’ Sophia and our ‘champion archangel’ Gabriel as they finished their summer internship and marched off back to St. Olaf college. Kimberly and I prepared goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon to start, stir fry with tons of garden veggies and rice for the main course, and then a flourless chocolate cake that was all Kimberly and was so to die for. It felt right and good to stop for a moment, linger there with intention, and allow the reality of blessing to soak in.
Sophia and Gabriel are some of the most decent, hardworking and enjoyable young persons I have ever had the privilege to work along side and their boundless energy, strong backs and joyful hearts will surely be missed here at Earth Dance farm. Evan is a new dude from Minneapolis who has joined Kimberly and Benjamin to round out our fall crew for the remainder of the season. By this time, most of our planting is complete, the weeds seriously slow their growth and irrigation is seldom needed. We spend most of our time harvesting, weeding the crops for the fall, and begin to clean the fields from drip line, trellising, black plastic and electric fence.
I realize that most of you are also transitioning back into the school season as we approach the Labor Day holiday that symbolically marks the end of the summer season. Be assured that boxes full of happy food will continue on for 8 more weeks.
Farmer notes
- There is no irrigation needed these days
- Hours of sun per day is noticeable diminishing
- The last of the second sweet corn – one more planting to go
- Paste tomatoes are great cut up in salads, baked with olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and garlic, or to make salsa
- Not a great year for slicing tomatoes – too much rain early on resulting in early onset blight and then a cool summer
- Green beans are fantabulous this season
- Last bunch of Genovese basil for the year – make some pesto, pasta or salsa
- Let me know how you like these golden beets
- Potatoes are a multi-use baking potato called Cascade
- Bell peppers and eggplant are still trying to make an entrance into the boxes
- Carrots and fennel are up for next week
- Soon the summer squash will be replaced by the winter squash
- Wash all of the produce before eating it
