Week 2

As I write this, I’m enjoying a cup of mint tea and relishing in the fact that I’m getting pretty good at the whole lighting-a-gas-stove-without-burning-anything-down thing. Sally’s Place is treating me well, and I think I’m treating it well in return.

First and foremost, it’s important to point out that Sunday, June 19th was Grace Potter’s birthday. I’m extremely thankful that she was born. Now that that’s out of the way, week two on the farm was possibly even better than week one!

Culinary highlights of the week include fresh strawberry jam, shepherd’s pie with Italian sausage, fresh, crisp cucumbers, nachos with mango salsa, strawberry shortcake, quinoa with garden-fresh veggies, and rhubarb crisp. Are you drooling yet?

Monday morning, Mike and I harvested mixed greens, shallots, pac choi, and garlic scapes for the week’s CSA boxes. On Tuesday, when the boxes were all put together, they also boasted leaf lettuce, cilantro, oregano, thyme, pea shoots, rhubarb, small cartons of strawberries from Martins, mixed greens, scallions, and radishes. What a great package!

When we were out delivering the boxes, Mike stopped to pick up some raw, unpasteurized milk for his family. Not being the hugest milk fan, I’m used to drinking pasteurized skim at home and was surprised to see the pale yellow hue of this milk. I’m beginning to wonder what I’m missing out on and thinking that maybe I should reevaluate my opinion of milk. I’ll have to think about it.

I was pleased to find that one drop-off location is home to a huge three-year-old Great Dane named Jackie. She was very cute and had a very large head. Speaking of dogs, this seems like an opportune time to talk a little bit about Bernie (Mike and Maria’s dog). Bernie will only eat her dog food if there’s people food crumbled on top of it, and is especially partial to hand-grated cheese. Bernie also has a love for carrots, and after some close observation, I even saw her pick around the asparagus in her dish to only eat the carrots. In other news, Bernie is afraid of the front door and is possibly the cutest dog on the face of the earth.

After delivering the CSA boxes, we helped 11 “teenage” chicks move into their new home. They’ve graduated from a cardboard box in the living room to an “apartment” outside. The chick palace is comprised of a metal cage with a newly finished straw floor and a gorgeous cardboard warming room. Unfortunately, the place now looks more like a tenement. The chicks like to hang out on the roof and poop. They also enjoy smelling bad and walking through their food dish. Such charmers.

On Wednesday morning, I planted some lettuce while we waited for two SLU students and a summer term professor to arrive and to talk to Mike and Maria. They’re doing a homesteading class and asked a lot of the same questions that I asked when I first came out to the farm. It was interesting to hear the answer rehashed and expanded on.

 Later in the afternoon it was rainy, but I found it enjoyable to work in a slight drizzle. Mike and I went to Martin’s to pick 22 pounds of strawberries each—full five-gallon pails. Of course, the rain picked up significantly once we got out in the fields. I got completely soaked and enjoyed every minute of it.

I spent Thursday turning over a giant compost pile, reinforcing a wood shed, stacking a pile of wood, and slicing a 10-pound block of Monterrey Jack cheese into more manageable portions. Mike and Maria get a lot of their food from a bulk company called Regional Access. It’s perfect—they freeze the portions they don’t immediately need and then have them available for later use.

Friday was an easy, laid back day on the job. Mike and I made beer! A honey pale ale. I found the process very interesting—just malt, hops, yeast, honey, and lots of water. 90-95% of beer is water. While we were making it, we each had one of Mike’s homebrewed maple sap beers. We were only following the directions in the home-brewing book, which repeatedly instructed you to “Relax! Don’t worry! Have a homebrew! Make sure your beer is never far from hand!” Okay, if you insist.

Throughout the course of the week, I read Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel and Mark Boyle’s The Moneyless Man, which has prompted me to think about how crazy it is that we defecate into clean water while a good portion of the world doesn’t even have any to drink. Anyway…until next week!

This week I’m listening to: Bon Iver—Bon Iver and you should too.