Saturday, December 30, 2006

Ladybug Letter




A wonderful CSA in California, with a cool and emblematic story, Mariquita Farm in Watsonville, they have a great website (especially for compare and contrast to New Englandy seasonal capabilities - only so much remay can be utilized to get that arugula popping, certainly)

And, aren't charts great? I like Mariquita's for the seeming absurdity of artichokes in April ?! and cucumbers in November...

well, something to look forward to, what with 60 degress in Vermont in December...

PS. to everyone - STOP IDLING OUTSIDE THE BAGEL SHOP! JUST TURN THE DAMN THING OFF!

But, the above spoken with much love,
Rachel

Backbeat in the Saddle, Already??




And it's not even 2007 yet! I must say I think I am recovering much more quickly than I expected from the tizzy of Open Heart Farm Season 2006.

Although a friend of ours waxed long wonderful and woozy (at a Holiday Party) about how she liked to look at seed catalogs in the bathtub on cold winter days - I couldn't go that far, not even with the Baker Creek or Turtle Tree, and not just because we don't have a bathtub.

BUT! Winter continues to be welcome, the Solstice did seem to be a turning of something and not necessarily a point but a point of view? and farmer me is not weary but merely undone, holing up a bit yes but for a building back of up something involving dipping back into the revolution as is appropriate...we're all willing waiting and wanting to see how it goes...

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

dad in bloggosphere

this is a shot of the bloggosphere and those are people's avatars - no, actually it is the tunnel of detroits airport, which I once ran through at my personal best mile time to make a flight, and on the way back dilly -dallied as long as I could cause I had a three hour lay-over.
But my Dad really does have a blog, http://freestatefoundation.blogspot.com/
which I will just say in the periodic way I mention blogs that it is out there. I was surprised how much it looked like the Open Heart blog. He does seem to use the linking option a great deal more than I. but as you can see from the address it is essentially a blogspot blog.

On the way to said blog I found freestate org which I was convinced would be my dads site since it had the maryland flag, which is a coat of arms (I think they're still in service to the queen in that state), but it was some other more militaristic think tank, one that wouldn't maybe buy my dad's slogan "because ideas matter" cause they are gonna protect that thing with a hell of a lot more than ideas. Strangely, freestate.org had a job opening in Vergennes, Vermont (not going to ask why in a state so far flung from maryland) . . . perhaps its not to late for me to get in on this Homeland Security thing.

Saturday, December 16, 2006

you know you like pictures of squash when . . . .



you have to name the file squash9.jpg, which is what I had to do for this basket of what remains of the openheart farm squash. It's nice for us to have somethings left in the new year to eat, both to eat and to not have to buy. My silver lining in the weather (doesn't everyone have one?) is going down to the field today and probably fining more broccolis and cauliflowers that have had the time and temp to grow, along with still living mustard and kale probably. If we were to plan based on this weather we could have set up an acre of greens that could just sit there and live and wed go out and cut them twice a week, tho as stated in earlier posts, that might not be enough to live on, because you also need people to buy it.

I am currently working at TDBanknorth, expose to follow, I'm still processing the vast amounts of raw data that flow through my tiny little section of what is the Wire Room (wires seem a theme about now, the Who's Endless Wire album - isn't that evidence enough?) - there is certainly data to cull for NPRish stories of money moving to China and even light industrial esque rooms of women (all besides myself) semi-toiling, here mostly mental non-rest guilt over taking breaks, um, but I said that was to follow. Because also today Rachel and I plan to sort the books of Open Heart at least to the extent where we can see what really worked for us monetarily and not. Other intervale farmers have really encouraged us to do this. I will admit I feel (out of laziness - I can hardly believe that!) that I have some basic senses of what did the best. Our plan pre looking is to stream line quite a bit into tomatoes and CSA. Now that I say it a bit like Maggies Tomatoe Patch, which might not be the best omen, it died, but that isn't failure now is it. the only thing that would potentially surprise us I think (hence guessing away some of the surprise) is that greens made us more money than we think at healthy living. They could well tally low, though I think the lettuce and other stuff was a boon at farmers markets.

All this thought is revving up for the next step which is seed picking, which is also likely when the blogging will start to pick up, after all its 100% possibilities then.

For now I'm definitely enjoying Rachel's and my winter Projects, some of which include starting to read Rememberance of things past, shooting an ethnography of traveling, making flyers, working on the next distribution of Chocolate Feathers . . . got your curiosity up?