Reinforcements have arrived!

The sunflowers have arrived!

It has been a long week since last we spoke, but as the title of this email suggests, it looks like more manageable times are on the way. I suppose the best place to start this weeks update would be last Wednesday, following the completion of last weeks hastily written (and embarrassingly unedited) email. As I stated last week, we have been looking for new people to work with us here on the farm. It's been clear for a little bit now that we would not survive July without more help. Last Wednesday made that crystal clear for us. You see, we try to reserve Wednesday evening as a quiet time, a time for light duty work followed by a proper meal and a long restorative shower, maybe even a few laughs around an impromptu bon fire before turning in for the night. However, this past Wednesday Helen returned from the market (around 4:30pm), stumbled into the house and collapsed on the couch. Aside from being briefly roused during a forced relocation to our bed, Helen slept straight through till Thursday morning. I stayed awake that night, at least until a more appropriate bed time. I stared out at nothing in particular and wondered how much longer we would hold out. In the past, in our only recently concluded "piss and vinegar years", the answer was always the same: we can hold out as long as we need to! That answer always arrived without hesitation, consideration or any other "ation" that might have prevented us from getting where we wanted to go, HERE. It felt good to struggle our way uphill toward our goal of one day owning a farm of our own. This year though, this year is different. Now we ARE here, but we spread ourselves paper thin for the past year and half to pull it off. So, when I asked myself that question this time, I had a very different, more measured answer: This isn't sustainable; we need help as soon as possible. When Helen awoke from her hibernation Thursday morning, we sat and discussed the situation. We resigned ourselves to finding more help as soon as possible and to press through the coming week by bearing in mind that our unsustainable situation was only temporary. Our morning meeting was abruptly concluded when Thursday came knocking at the door. He had his suitcase with him, as always, filled with a predictable slurry of tasks: weeding, cultivating, harvesting. Don't get me wrong, Thursday is welcome in our home, but rarely with enthusiasm, as he tends to overstay his welcome. The day passed over us. It felt regular, like executing a well choreographed routine, the kind that leaves you satisfied every time you perform it without error. Following that routine we checked our email in the afternoon and discovered new applicants had reached out to us! Some of them looking very promising! It felt like the desperation of being understaffed that had gripped us the week before was washing away: Help was on the way. We slept easy that night, ready to embrace our final grueling Friday routine before help arrived. However, it would not be routine.
Friday arrived, the big harvest day. Now, this part is kinda funny... in hindsight. If you read the email last week, you might remember me explaining how farmers dread July, how we sugarcoat problems that occur during all other months of the year by exclaiming "Well, at least this didn't happen in July!" In fact, I even called out the classic "Well, at least the truck didn't break down in July"! I shouldn't have said that

Not what you want to happen on harvest day

So, with 4 markets looming, one of them even occurring that same day, our primary market vehicle had to be taken out of service. An ominous grinding sound resonated through the rear wheel well... in July... on harvest day. Without all the tools and knowledge needed to remedy the problem in the time frame we had, we knew it would be an uphill Friday. I couldn't help but laugh to myself a little about the irony of having just mentioned this potential disaster the week before. It felt as if my big mouth had somehow created this test that we were now faced with. As I educated myself about the problem through a combination of internet research and calls to my mechanically minded brother-in-law, I couldn't help but think there must be some link between success in this repair and success in the working interviews which we had scheduled for the following week. Irrational as that was, it proved to be a powerful motivator: "Fix this truck Jim, and the interviews will go well". It was a tense time trying to complete the harvest while also repairing the truck. Thanks to help from family and friends, we pulled it off. Test passed (turned out to be broken pads on the shoe for the e-brake, in case you were wondering). We finished out Friday night gazing up at the moon, enjoying a cold beer. As the long weekend of markets rushed by us, I took comfort in the baseless fact that I had accepted as being the truth: we passed the test, the interviews will go well. Thankfully, that baseless link turned out to be rather base-ful. We already hired on one of the applicants and are looking forward to a more manageable week to come. Thanks to all of the Lake Divide Farm team for helping us get through Friday, and to friends and family for the tools and knowledge. We're finally HERE, and now, we're a little more sustainable.

Fresh from the field

Arugula
Beet Greens
Beets
Cabbage leaves 
Flowers
Personal Cabbage (pint sized and delicious)
Cucumbers
Swiss Chard
Kale
Mustard- Spicy like wasabi
Mizuna
Salad Mix
Kohlrabi- Like a juicy vegetable apple. Try it raw with a little salt
Napa cabbage
Scallions
Summer squash
Ginger transplants!

Awesome bee picture (just for fun)

Flowers are coming into their own

Official tomato teaser pic, they're almost here

Squash is in full swing!