Time is a Funny Thing

Time is a funny thing

Day by day tasks are completed, work is accomplished, and summer moves on.  Time wont stop and wait for us to catch up so we are swept ever forward toward the coming season.  In between the constant tomato picking – those cherry tomatoes in particular take a lot of time –  we finally got the last of the potatoes dug.  And hopefully by the end of the week will have all the carrots out of the ground.  The last of the beds for our warm season crops have been shaped.   On Monday we transplanted watermelon and Juliet tomatoes, with space left for zucchini, squash, pole beans, and the final planting of eggplant.   We are also getting beds ready for our fall, cool season crops.  In early August we will seed carrots that will be ready in October.  Then soon after the carrots we will be planting arugula, kale, broccoli, cabbage and more.

With one foot in summer, one foot in fall, and one foot in 2027, (wait, that’s one foot too many!) I suppose I am thinking about time today, and the unique way farming has influenced how I experience the passage of time.  Our work is constantly changing with the seasons.  Everything here is cyclical.   Every year is different, but it all follows the same patterns.  We exist within the turning of the seasons, rather than simply observing them.  It directly impacts our day to day, week to week, month to month.

Because of the time it takes crops to grow or seasons to turn, events have delayed effects.  Back in March it was incredibly dry.  Usually a reliably wet time of year, there was no rain for weeks after we planted the potatoes.   As a result, many of the potatoes did not sprout.  Now it is four months later, and we have harvested the potatoes.  While they are wonderful and delicious, we didn’t get nearly as many pounds of potatoes as we should have.  And all through April and May and June while the potatoes were growing, there was nothing I could do to fix that fact that it was dry back in March.  But next March, I’ll get to plant potatoes again.  We always get to try again, which is a beautiful thing.

Small Shares

• carrots
• potatoes
• okra or eggplant
• cherry tomato
• slicing tomato

Full Shares

• carrots
• potatoes
• eggplant
• squash or zucchini
• red onion
• cherry tomato
• juliet plum tomato