By Ashley
There is a steady amount of death as well as visceral feeling of lack on any given day.
Here at the farm, for me at least, and I know of at least one other, it has been a hard week. We have lost lives of young and old animals alike and I have touched that death with my hands. I have heard with my own ears the bleets of an ewe who could not give birth to a live, healthy baby, the whispered cries of humans saying goodbye to their bestfriends, laughter at the remembered memories, and deep heavy sighs in an effort to move through the grief. We have spoken to each other the worry we have about the cold and wet weather that will push back when we can open our fields for summer crop and makes our grass grow oh so slowly.
This is not written to worry you or to strike fear into your heart, dear reader. But to remind everyone, including myself, that to be abundant all the time, to live in the illusion that nothing changes and life is forever, is just that: Illusion. Life would not be as strikingly beautiful without the shifts and changes death brings to us. We would not hold each other so securely and with grace without death. The grief of being a human and living amongst those who also grieve is, to me, one of the most fundamental human experiences. A foundational piece, if you will. It creates the experience of deeply enjoying a sip of tea, being satisfied at the end of the day of hard work or hard love. It creates the experiences that are once in a lifetime and the mundane beauty of day to day routines.
McCall Erickson writes:
“The hallmark of a human life is loss, it seems. And the body is a vessel for grief.
This is not an if, but a when. When is loss gonna hit?
And then it's how. How do you carry it? All that grief. And don't even ask why. Why is not a question that grief ever answers."
Upcoming Farm Events: Potluck Friday 3/10 at 5:30 pm
CSA barn hours:
Winter: 2:30-6 pm (starts the week after daylight savings in November)
Summer: 2:30-6:30 pm (starts the week after daylight savings in March)
Pick List:
Eggs
Red Norland, Yellow Finn, and Harvest Moon Potatoes
Cortland Yellow and Monastrell Red Onions
Rhonda Beets
Joan Rutabaga
Hablange Parsnips
Mars Celeriac
Purple Top Turnips
Bora King Daikon and Watermelon Radish
Storage #5 Green and Ruby King Red Cabbage
Treviso and Rubro
Dazzling Blue Kale
Prize Choi
Regiment Spinach
Spaghetti Winter Squash and Pie-Pita Pumpkin
Sonora wheat flour and wheat berries
Herbal Tea Blends, Ground Chiles, and Whole Dried Chile peppers (Please bring your own jars!)
Pick your own flowers and herbs
Saltonstall Olive Oil (Please bring your own jars!)
Cabbage Kuchen, from Laurel's Kitchen
Topping: 2 onions, 4 cups shredded cabbage, 2 T butter, 1 cup yogurt, 2 eggs beaten, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper, 1 T caraway seed.
Dough (Kuchen): 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 tsps baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 egg beaten, 1 cup milk, 2 T butter melted.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
To make topping , slice onions thinly and saute with cabbage in butter. Mix in other topping ingredients and set aside.
Stir flour, baking powder and salt lightly with a fork. Combine egg, milk and butter and stir briefly into dry ingredients.
Spread in greased 8 x 8 pan. Spread with topping and bake for 35 minutes.