"This is why we do it all again every year. It’s the visible daily growth, the marvelous and unaccountable accumulation of biomass that makes for the hallelujah of a July garden. Barbara Kingsolver – Animal, Vegetable, Miracle:A Year of Food Life
This summer we purchased a share in a community sustainable agriculture farm. Through a friend who knows the farmers we plopped down some cash,’seed money’, excuse the pun, to be a part of group of people who receive fresh, organic vegetables on a weekly basis. Every Thursday evening we drive into a parking lot, pull up to a little blue station wagon that is loaded with coolers. Out of the back of the car, a friendly face calls out our names and we step forward to receive a bag of surprises. I have often wondered what passers-by think as they see us. What are those people doing? Is it legal?
Farming is tricky business. You plant and so many variables play into what you
harvest…..sun,rain,heat,wind,storms,drought. It is a wonderful metaphor for so much of life. Since late May we have received mostly bags of leafy vegetables….spinach,dill and other herbs, lamb’s ear, clover,greens, and lots and lots of lettuce. While we tend to eat lots of salads, it is almost impossible to get through all the lettuce in one week and then, alas, more lettuce! The bounty can be staggering.
Last night, however, as I held my hand out with humility, I noticed the weight of the bag….heavy. Green leafiness protruded from the bag but there had to be something else with all that weight. I could hardly wait to get home to see what was inside. As I unloaded the bag onto the kitchen table, pushing aside still more lettuce, I found a gleaming white onion,a clump of brilliant red onions, bright red beets still fresh with earth, tiny, perfect cherry tomatoes and fragrant basil. The heaviest vegetables had, of course, fallen to the bottom of the bag…..zucchini…… both yellow and green. Knowing the prolific nature of this versatile squash, my mind projected ahead to what the next weeks will bring.
This collaboration with the farmers and others is about so much more than receiving the vegetables each week. It is about knowing the people who grow the food we put on the table and being thankful for their work.. It is about knowing that the lettuce I love did not take thousands of gallons of fossil fuel to get to our table. It is about the conversation and camaraderie that happens in the parking lot. And it is about the surprise, about receiving the offering of what the earth,through the labor and love of those who plannted and harvested, had to offer this week, in this season.
And so as July continues to unfold, I know there will be more and more zucchini and we will be challenged and blessed with finding new and different ways to prepare it. Barring a drastic shift in the weather, the bounty will continue to grow because that is the nature of July in Minnesota. Well into August we will continue to drive into the parking lot and be handed our bag of nutritious surprises. And then it will begin to trickle off once again just as it began and it will be time to put on warmer clothes, prepare our houses for winter, and close our doors to the bounty we have known.
The good news is that behind those closed doors, people will be poring over seed catalogues, planning for next summer, next July…..and more lettuce.
"For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven….a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what it planted." Ecclesiastes 3
Enjoy this beautiful weekend……………..