Lake Divide Farm
  • Home
  • Our Story and Our Mission
  • What We Offer
  • Farmers' Markets
  • Market CSA Membership
  • Work or Volunteer with us!
  • Farm News
    • Sign-up for our mailing list!
  • Recipes
  • Contact us
  • Social Justice and Staying Active

Reinforcements have arrived!

7/12/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
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
Picture
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!
Picture
Awesome bee picture (just for fun)
Picture
Flowers are coming into their own
Picture
Official tomato teaser pic, they're almost here
Picture
Squash is in full swing!
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Farm News

    Read on for detailed tales from the farm! We try to share weekly and with sincerity to give our followers a window into sustainable food production and life on the farm.

    Visit our 
    Facebook page for more frequent photos and posts.

    Or sign-up to have Lake Divide Farm news delivered straight to your inbox!

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.