Jenny-Jack Sun Farm "good food news"

Transcription

1 Jenny-Jack Sun Farm "good food news". This morning the farm looked especially inviting, like a photographed far off place meant to attract the soul seeking solace. A diffused, soft light blanketed everything and sound limited itself to irregular chimes of chirps, scurries, clucks, and mind-easing wild movements. These rural recordings of nature tend to ease us into the work day before the obnoxious two cycle engines hideously hum and the tractor roars and the high humidity insensitively grabs us by the throat and squeezes until sweat pours like a waterfall. In the middle of the pasture between plots of summer food sit neatly rolled round bales of hay cut and tightly baled over the holiday weekend. They add a scattered, bucolic backdrop to trellised rows of cucumbers, legumes, tomatoes, and peppers running in ordered, unnatural lines. Dew drops form surreptitiously on the broad, rich-colored okra leaves and fall unhurried like early oughta be. The filtered light pushes calmly through the high tunnel plastic casting a radiant luminescence on the leftover decaying crop from long ago spring. Just before the mercurial grind of a farm day begins, before our bodies become tools, before the sun speaks in bold, we are granted the gift of an early morning farm scape as gracious as a prayer. May moments as perfect as mornings, in spite of the violence surrounding our existence, encourage us to unwrap the beauty overflowing in every corner of the world, and in spite of ourselves, find peace and joy in the good work we have been called to perform. I hope you enjoy a few more pictures than usual. It was hard to narrow it down this week so I included all of them. Come see us this week at a market! What s available at On-Farm Market Tomatoes!: small red slicers, Juliet salad tomatoes, Sungold cherry, Big sandwich slicing tomatoes, Summer Crisp Lettuce, Asian greens, Okra, Colorful sweet peppers, Anaheim Chili Peppers (mild heat), Poblano Peppers, Onions, Garlic, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Blueberries, Blackberries, Eggplant, Zinnias, Eggs, Honey, Stone Ground Grits, Bulger Creek Goat Cheese and Soap, White Oak Pastures Ground Beef and Roasts, Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, and Jenny and Shannon s fermented crisp Dill pickles. Organic fertilizers, pesticides, and compost are also for sale at our market! Sue B s fresh baked sourdough breads, Cane Syrup, and granola bars will be at market tomorrow.

2 FDR Farmers Market in Pine Mountain Running each Saturday morning from 10:00-12:30 now through Labor Day is Pine Mountain s very own food-focused farmers market. Local vendors selling canned goods, cheese, fruit, veggies, and baked goods are set up across from the Liberty Bell Pool in the comfort of big shade trees. We ll be there along with several other local farmers, gardeners, and cherished food producers. Come with an empty stomach and a full wallet! Pictures of the Week Jenny and good friend Melissa are posing for a picture at Saturdays Pine Mountain FDR farmers Market. Jenny sells our produce and flowers starting at 10:00 a.m every Saturday morning. The market concerns itself only with food and each vendor must grow or produce the items sold. Maybe you should make this market part of your Saturday morning routine. It s a great way to support local business, local food, and our very own beautiful state park.

3 A cobweb s view of our climate-controlled tomato stash room. Most of these acidic beauties were harvested yesterday, the first abundant mater harvest of the year. There is over 400 pounds of red slicers stacked on the left and close to 200 pounds of cherries, salad tomatoes, small slicers, and blemished on the right. This room is kept at a cool degrees so as to slow ripening and retain peak flavor. By the end of the week, we ll have harvested well over 1000 lbs, and the plants are just getting going!

4 The soft, quiet light soundtracks an early morning summer lettuce harvest. In between long rows of itchy okra we planted shade-covered lettuce, zinnias (below), and Asian greens (below). Rahul is cutting lettuce heads and then separating the leaves for bags of salad going to on farm CSA members.

5 Mitch and Rahul showcasing a striped Armenian cucumber from a very productive cucumber harvest. Don t worry, Rahul s slobbery cucumber was given to a pig. Our produce may be found at the Market on Broadway in Columbus from 9-12 on Saturdays, our On Farm Market Wednesdays from 9-12, and the FDR Market in Pine Mountain through the summer on Saturdays 10:00-12:30. We have a 125 member CSA with drop-off locations in Lagrange, Columbus, and On-farm. You can also find our produce on the menu of Food Blossoms Catering out of Hamilton. Take good care, Chris and Jenny