White rock hen debuts her baby chicks much to our surprise in mid-July at We Grow LLC
LIFE’S SURPRISES
As our returning members are aware, garlic is an important crop for our farm for several reasons. We sell a lot of garlic at our market stand which equals income, we include it in our CSA shares as much as possible which means more tasteful meals for you, and it is a staple in our kitchen (and medicine chest) year-round. We have been pulling samples of each of the seven varieties we have on the farm this season to see which is going to be included in your shares in what order. So there will be a menagerie of garlic varieties without labels this first week. After this, we will have your garlic more organized with better details.
Things happen every day that we don’t necessarily plan. Of course, it seems like we always have a machine breakdown when we are trying to get chores done early. Or Tuesday, when we were on cloud nine after a great afternoon at market to find our pigs have been visiting the neighbors and are no where to be seen. But then there is the other side of the coin. Like finding out those stinky caterpillars that have been mowing down our fennel and parsley – those caterpillars that the kids have been harboring in a glass jar in their bedroom – are actually beautiful swallow tail butterflies. Or when Gus was doing his evening chores last night and came running into the house to exclaim that the big white hen hatched out some eggs. The whole family joined Gus in his excitement and marched outside to see it with our own eyes. She is now getting a chance that every hen only dreams of. What an awesome, adorable surprise!
It’s easy on a farm, or in any situation, to get caught up in all the unplanned misfortune because we work so hard all the time, but the reality is, there are far more great surprises that we probably realize. We just need to take a second to look around and find them. Dwell on those events, the ones we need to reflect on when we try to figure out why we do what we do.
With garlic on our breath and our hands,
Eric & Rebecca