The pace of harvesting has been picking up the past few weeks here at Sandhill Farm. The garden crew has been busy hauling in potatoes, carrots, onions, greens, cucumbers, bulb fennel, cabbage, green beans, the first ripe tomatoes and, yes, GIANT ZUCCHINI!!
Some of you probably saw the picture in a recent Memphis Democrat of my husband Michael with the six pound plus squash he picked. Many of the other ones from the same bed haven't been much smaller. We have been eating zukes every which way but in upside down zucchini cake, processing them into grated squash to freeze for later use and selling the rest at the farmers' markets.
I had to chuckle at Cob's comment in his Dancing Rabbit column about not having enough car seats to use for anonymous donations of the rampant vegetable. A close friend of mine played a practical joke on me during our college years, leaving a huge zucchini from her grandma's garden wrapped in a baby blanket in a basket on my front porch with a note pinned to it asking me to adopt "Baby Luigi".
Stan, Apple and Tony brought in our wheat and spelt harvests recently and there has been lots of field work to moved along, too. Folks have put in time weeding sorghum as well as field corn and the sweet corn patch. There has also been plenty of hours spent on the tractors in between the rains mowing, discing and planting.
Food processing is keeping us busy with the increasing amount of raw materials to work with. Batches of frozen greens, canned carrots, pickled beets and grape-leaf cucumber pickles have moved through the processing kitchen in recent days. There are also cucumbers and other vegetables fermenting in crocks and gallon jars in various corners and in the cooler.
We have had lots of company the past three weeks. Dana, who was our first 2009 visitor in March, returned to spend another week with us. She lives in Rock Island, Illinois where she has been working with special needs children as a teacher's assistant. Dana enjoyed getting the chance to see the farm in another season while she was here.
Hannah's friend Mark from Kirksville biked over last week and spent the night with us. He had been here previously for our 2008 May Day party. Jennifer, whom Gigi, Keren and Hannah have gotten to be friends with at the farmers' markets, brought her two younger sisters with her for an evening's visit and supper. She is getting ready to move to Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend graduate school so it was nice to be able to host her before she leaves.
Old friends Glenn and Dan from Madison, Wisconsin arrived on our doorstep last Wednesday and were with us until Friday morning. It was too short a visit and we hope they will come again soon. Last night (Saturday) Debbie and Jessie from Twin Oaks came in on Amtrak to spend a couple of weeks at Sandhill Farm doing a labor exchange. Debbie was one of our interns in 2005 and was also here for the sorghum harvest in 2007. This is Jessie's first visit with us. They are friends with Apple, Emily and Owen (a work-exchanger at Dancing Rabbit this season) since they all lived at Twin Oaks together. Owen is going to spend some time here helping out while Debbie and Jessie are in the neighborhood.
Our crew has been doing some traveling.Tony was away part of last week for a trip to DeSoto. Tony goes home on a regular basis to help with the garden and any maintenance work that needs to be done. Keren and Hannah took a few days off a couple of weeks ago to go to St. Louis,Columbia and Kansas City. They had a good time seeing friends and Hannah's family and also attending some concerts.
Apple and Emily went on a backpacking trip starting July 17th at Cedar Creek, which is located near the Missouri River in the Columbia area. Although they said some of the trails could have been better marked, they did have a good time and enjoyed the camping out.
Laird was also been on the road recently, doing some work in Michigan. Now that he is back he is busy with food processing and is also helping Ma'ikwe with the construction of her new house at Dancing Rabbit.
Gigi and Renay are on a train this weekend to New York to visit Gigi's family. They plan to spend a week with her sister Monique in Albany and then go down to the New York City area to see her father and brother. Stan is out again for a ten day farm inspection trip. Ali is visiting her family in North Carolina and will bring her parents and sister with her when she returns in a few days.
We hosted the monthly CCSC potluck supper on July 26th. Local friends joined us for some great food featuring the bounty of everyone's gardens and farms. Sandhill contributed some of our home-grown turkeys for the meal.
The occasion of the old European harvest festival Lammas Day gave us an excuse to celebrate our abundance. We invited our community friends to stay for a bonfire and socializing last Thursday after our weekly potluck. Hannah and Keren made some lucious mint chocolate ice cream, peach ice cream and peach sorbet for everyone to enjoy. Glenn brought his luminarias with him from Madison and hung them in our apple trees around the Dharma pond. The effect, after the candles inside them were lit at dusk, was really beautiful with all the lights reflected in the pond. Combined with comfortable weather and good company, it was a really nice get-together.