Hold Tight and Pretend It's a Plan

Every Friday we have an extra long meeting in Loudoun where we sit around (and keep our hands busy, cleaning onions or garlic or leeks) and talk.  We started doing this last year, I think, when I realized it was an opportunity that we shouldn't miss. I am not often in Loudoun with everyone at the beginning of the day -- they are able to do it all without me, which is great -- so this was a chance for all of us to get to know something about each other each week. Even though I always say anyone can come up with a question, they are either too sleepy or too shy or just not so interested, so I usually concoct a prompt while I am picking flowers before the meeting.  It needs to be something that everyone can answer with more than just a word, but not too complicated. Some examples:  talk about your relationship to money right now, tell us what you imagine for yourself in ten years, what is causing you the most anxiety about this farm today, what is your favorite go-to activ...

I was thinking of writing this one for the CSA newsletter but I am not sure it is appropriate, actually.  In general we try not to complain much in the newsletter. We are strong, optimistic, and successful in our story-telling, for the most part. So this one may need some work before it goes out into the world of customers. Long ago when I was an avid new Jew, spending a lot of time studying and learning what was really a new language (and I don't mean Hebrew), I went to a Shabbat workshop led by a wise and eloquent woman. Of course now I cannot remember the point of that session, but I do remember one question she asked -- "what in your life lets you know that God is there?"  This one kind of stumped me because I am not a God thinker. I had lived my life without that question, and had not felt anything missing.  But the answer I came up with was carrots.  Specifically, the act of pulling a carrot out of the ground.  Not knowing what was there, and finding a t...

Before I decode that phrase, let me set the scene here. It is the end of Friday (a long day full of big triumphs, even in the middle of August we can still have triumphant days), I have had a shower and there are three men in the kitchen cooking my dinner. Does it get any better than this? Jon just got back from a week of traveling around Croatia with Rebecca and he says it was a true vacation -- he didn't think about the farm at all. They had a great trip. Meanwhile, back at this ranch, we kept from breaking everything in his absence (very consciously) and there was only one flat tire for him to fix when he came home.  Anyway, he is cooking dinner with two international students who are staying with us and working on the farm and I am relaxing completely, now that he is home. So, this morning there were four of us picking flowers at dawn. It was peak humidity (people who get up early and go outside might know that the most murky time of day is right at the beginning, before th...

I don't know if anyone even recognizes that phrase anymore about being rode hard and put up wet, but it's a horse reference.  When you bring your horse in from a sweaty ride, you are supposed to cool the horse down, and make sure it is dry before letting it stand around in the stall. Back in the old days, people who relied on horses for everything would know they were pushing too hard if they had to stash a steaming horse.  The same applies to humans, of course. So yesterday was one of those classic days that I love to report on.  They don't happen that often -- usually things go according to plan and there isn't much to say about that. The plan yesterday had us all stretched pretty much to our usual limits on a Sunday: market truck rolls through for the second half of its load on its way to Dupont Circle at 6 AM, then I pick some basil for the Takoma Park load that gets loaded at 7 AM, Heinz arrives at about 7:30 with a van full of melons etc. that needs to be unload...