Let me call you sweetheart (cabbage),
Love was in the air at Hawkins Farm this week. Like, the real kind of love, the one that’s hard but worth it, where the last leg of July is nearing and we’re only half way through the farm season. There is much to do, our bodies are tired, the harvest days are getting longer and hotter, and the heat is still rising with each passing day. Woohoo!
Yep, it’s getting steamy over here, and just like a bad relationship, you might be tempted to give the farm all you’ve got, potentially losing yourself along the way. When there are many tasks on the task board, it can be tempting to push through with the glaring sun wearing you down with its slow burn. You could have a long, productive day out here where you knock one task after another out, but if you weren’t taking care of yourself along the way, you could risk some serious after-effects that will put you straight out of commission.
So, like in a healthy relationship we definitely take care of ourselves. Big, floppy hats are a must. We focus on true hydration, adding sweet, citrus-centered beverages (and a pinch of salt!) to our big water bottles, lugging them around with us to every task. I carry my big gallon jug around with me proudly. It’s my pride and joy! It has a nice sturdy handle for carrying. My jug is black, with a thick, silver layer along its belly (for insulation?), a pink mouth to sip out of, and a large blue “Hobnobben Film Festival” sticker slapped right on its center.
Fun fact! I found this water jug on the side of the road while walking around Fort Wayne one day. It turns out that this jug belonged to our very own pizza slingin’ sunshine, Katie Jo, who had given it away at a yardsale. It’s like something out of ABCs “Lost” that you can’t explain with words. Kismet. Destiny.
I was never a sunscreen person, but I am now. I might need to start adding a second layer here soon after Erin and I described similar symptoms of sunstroke to each other after Tuesday’s harvest. That day should have had an extra shade break, but we all got caught up in an unexpectedly long cabbage harvest.
We could barely go three feet before we filled up a bin! It was a lot of hunching over in the sun, snipping and peeling red and green cabbage free from their roots. Only twelve to fifteen per bin! Michael got the record fifteen count. We had already spent some time in our typical lettuce harvest, and gotten into our first two rows of potatoes that day, so we were already feeling all the leaning. Woohoo! Let me tell you, harvesting means leaning over, switching knees, and patience.
But boy oh boy, the sweetheart cabbage have gotten so big and beautiful that no one in their right mind should be able to stand it. Get one in your share and prove me wrong. I stopped by CSA member Heather's spot on the Thursday delivery day and she preached the good word about all things cabbage. My take away? She told me to quarter a cabbage and slap it on the grill with salt and pepper. I don’t personally have a grill, so I had a good time searing mine with a bit of lemon juice. A big hunk of cabbage is what you need in your life this time of year, decorated with whatever else you find in your share. Pictured are some ground beef, breakfast sausage meatballs (with rhubarb, green onion and garlic stuffed inside), roasted carrots, cilantro, some sort of carrot top mayonnaise and… Cabbage! Woohoo!
Love like the lady bug, infatuated by their beloved aphid. There’s the “hard work will pay off” love of course, but there’s still room for the “loving well paid off and now we’re seeing the fruit of our labors” kind of love. A great example of this is the flower situation on the farm. Farmer Jeff and Farmer Zach have been lovin’ on the soil for decades now, and the colors around the farm tell you they’ve been doing something right. Yellow and orange calendula, blue bachelor's buttons, yellow and green chamomile, purple coneflower, asters, gloriosa daisies, queen of the prairie, and tickseed coreopsis are all flying high, as well as our flowering cilantro and dill interspersed throughout the farm.
We love flowers because they attract itty bitty beneficial bugs that keep the farm free of not so friendly predator pests, just by growing up and looking pretty. Imagine that!
-Alex
