monday's mulling: the farm report {august 14, 2023}

Here it is, over halfway through summer, and life at the farm, just like any place, goes through its cycles. 

We've gone through strawberry season but people still ask if we have strawberries. Blueberries and blackberries are slowing down. All the berries have been so delicious and juicy in their seasons. I bought a pint of blackberries and ate a good portion of them on the drive home.

The two rows of zinnias that are planted just for the little kids are always popular. Imagine being a young child again and getting to choose your own flower...what color, big or small, can I have two?, watching a bee or butterfly gather pollen on the blooms, and finally the excitement of showing your parent your very own flower! One little boy was shopping with his grandma and even though his favorite color was red, he chose a pink one for his grandma because pink is her favorite color. "Grandma, Grandma, look at the flower I picked for you!" Grandma was equally delighted. The farm market has been in business for 54 years. Today's customers who got a flower when they were little are now bringing their children to pick a flower.

A lot of swallowtails are feeding on the zinnias right now. Soon we will see more monarchs as they migrate south.

As with any outdoor venue, we get our share of insects flying around and checking on the produce. The bees are starting to burrow into the peaches for the delicious, sweet juice. One of the younger workers was delighted to see an inchworm on a cantaloupe. She named him Fernando.

Fernando's namer is starting her junior year in high school. Talk about a 16-year old who has it together. She is proficient in playing five instruments, is in the marching band, scored at 32 on her ACT, and is such a delight to be around. She is excited about her ACT score because 1. she scored higher than her boyfriend and 2. it means that she gets a preferred parking spot in the high school lot.

Another cool young person who works at the farm is a mechanical engineering major who, with a group of other engineering majors, designed an airplane to fly in the Red Bull Flugtag competition. His girlfriend was the pilot who steered the flying machine off the platform and into the Ohio River. He and his girlfriend are planning to move to Columbus when they graduate.

After a delayed start and the customers asking daily, "When are you going to get sweet corn?" it finally came in. One sweet older man comes in a couple times a week to get his usual 4-5 ears at a time. He shared with me that he is going to eat an ear of corn or two every day until the end of August. He has cancer, the non-invasive treatment didn't work and he has to have surgery to have a permanent colostomy put in. After that surgery he wont' be able to eat corn so until that day, he will eat and savor every precious bite. Carpe diem.

We have the option of calculating purchases in various ways. There's an iPad to calculate and it also takes the credit card purchases. We have calculators. We have pencil and paper. Me, being one of the senior members, prefers the old school way of adding on paper. The younger kids look at this skill as if it is foreign. Generational  differences. Neither one is better than the other.

One day one of my totals came to $11.11. The customer mentioned that eleven-eleven is a lucky number. That took me back to a memory from walking in New York City a few years ago. I stopped to look at a clock in a window and it was 11:11. A woman passing by told me that 11:11 is a magic number. Connections from a 10-acre farm to the largest city in the US.

And finally, what would farm life be without a litter of puppies? Steph wanted her dog to have puppies this winter or spring but her male dog couldn't wait that long and now she has 7 puppies almost a week old. The miracle of life.