Basket Contents : Beans, mesclun, tomatoes, carrots, cherry tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, shallots, garlic or ground cherries, sage
Recipe: Broccoli salad
This week we present a poem written by Eby, about why she farms. If anyone wants to translate it into French (or any other language, for that matter), we would love that!
Our Harvest Party!
We will hold our annual Harvest Party on SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 20th. We will start the day with a little bit of participatory work, followed by a potluck meal. Afterwards, we will play music together, so bring your instruments and your voices! We are organizing rides from Montreal, so please let us know if you need a lift. Please confirm your presence by email, if possible: eby@fermeauxchampsquichantent.com.
Participatory work day: 2pm-5pm
Potluck meal: 5pm
Music in the barn: 7pm
Kittens
And lastly, if you don’t already know, we have kittens to give away! We have about 7 kittens, from 3 different mamas, of which 4 are ready to find news homes right away! If you want one, just send us an email and we will bring one to your next basket drop off!
www.facebook.com/FermeAuxChampsQuiChantent
Why do I farm?
By Eby Heller
Why do I farm?
Planting onions, weeding carrots, harvesting beans.
These jobs of repetition, of soothing motions
Over and over.
My body moving beyond, or perhaps in spite of
my mind.
Why do I farm?
Responding to emails, explaining new vegetables,
packing special orders with a smile, knowing how they will be appreciated.
Remembering names, faces, cookie preferences.
This process of creating ties, connections.
Why do I farm?
The cozy dark winter times of dreaming in seed catalogues.
The visioning of the space, our home, this land, when it is all covered in snow.
(lets deepen the pond! Put berries there! A new cold room? Sweet corn for the baskets?)
Learning, sometimes so painfully, how to be a better colleague, listener, friend
To make life more beautiful with the two women who grace my life.
Why do I farm?
Planting tomatoes, cucumbers, melons.
Speeding up, becoming faster. No time for that detail, moving forward faster, faster. Must trellis NOW.
Must trellis LAST WEEK.
Plants taking over plans, leaving no room to breathe
July can barely contain itself.
Why do I farm?
Surrounded by beings, breathing, warming, eating.
The morning chicken parade, hens tumbling from the trailer door opens.
Timid and peaceful cow-boys, munching, watching,
unaware of their immense weight.
Warm, fuzzballs of kittens appearing as if from nowhere.
Hidden by watchful mothers until they can at least stumble like drunkards.
Why do I farm?
Watching the first tiny onion in February come poking up out of the potting soil, under high pressure lights in our sweet, damp basement.
Months later, planting it outside, one of thousands
barely visible lines of light green against the soil.
How can this turn into such a strong, robust staple of winter diet,
this tiny fragment of vegetation?
The miracle of annuals.
Why do I farm?
Watching, feeling
the process of reflection
Each step, each maneuver, reverberates back
Reminding me to be mindful.
Each thought flows into the next,
the seasons so dramatically different
but we struggle to find the perceptible changes from one to the next
the earth moving at a pace that barely recognizes our collective existence.