Market

I feel like this could be a "Thankful Anyway" post...Today was my last day doing harvesting and market by myself - my friend returns on Monday, and I'm taking the week off to be with my family! This experience so far has been challenging.  What I imagined was a peaceful job growing vegetables - a job with a lot of physical exertion, but not the anxiety and stress of some jobs I have had - where my kids could join me, helping or playing happily near by.  It was of course not all that.  I spent 17-plus hours at the garden this week, which felt like a lot.  I found myself cursing at hoses, tripping on twine, losing the hand-hoe, and chasing a run-away dog out of the garden, all while feeling really really behind.  The weeds took over this week while I was looking for straw to mulch the tomatoes, the basil really should have been harvested today but wasn't, and I'm not sure whether the last planting of cilantro is germinating the way it should have.  I went in feeling kind of on top of things on Tuesday and by Wednesday was a wreck and actually  had to have a good cry about it.

But...

I am thankful to have spent both the twilight and the dawn out under a stunning sky, harvesting beautiful greens.

I am thankful for the red-headed woodpecker who perched on the telephone pole and called and drilled and called and drilled all morning.

I am thankful to have had the customers I did this morning; the love is strong at market, and I got my good share today, low sales aside.  People here love food, love good food, love local food, and I feel honored to be selling something I harvested this morning for them to take home to put in their bodies.  Honored to be doing this next to someone who has been doing this organically since the seventies, and is involved in so many environmental missions around the county, he is somewhat of a hero.

I am thankful to share more of the market with my family; they came and stayed for a couple of hours today.  I asked Eliza what all she did at the market today and this is the list she gave me: I washed dishes for Constantin (who sells beef and cheese), spun wool with Margie (who sells wool and apple butter), helped you sell and make change and played tricks on Will (the worm man).  What she was forgetting is the huge half of a lower jaw bone of a baby bison she was given from the buffalo folk, the baby she played with, and the hugs she gave out.

I am, not insignificantly, very grateful to have this  income for our family.  

And then there is the market loot we came home with...are you ready?

Strawberries, broccoli, basil, garlic scapes, nettles, eggs, apples, baby carrots (the real kind, not the wittled ones from the store), arugula, mushroom/roasted garlic bread, leek/artichoke heart bread, and some crazy lovely bread (it was all about the amazing bread) with bacon it in.  I know, but hey, sometimes bacon is exactly what you need.  And cheese - Constantin sent his daughter over at the end of market with some cheese, for which we thanked her with a few bags of salad greens.  Cause we've got some of those...