last day at the farm

Monday was the last day at the farm.  It was so sad!  I can’t tell you how much we have enjoyed having a CSA at Land’s Sake in Weston this summer.  I feel so much more in touch with what can be grown in New England successfully, with what produce are actually in season as the summer progresses, with the bounty that each crop brings (when there are a lot of beets, there are A LOT of beets). Now I see why women spent so much time canning and pickling and preserving fruits and vegetables once they were picked – there is no possible way anyone could eat all of that!

And right now I feel especially in touch with what the end of the summer means.  There was a time, not long ago, when the end of the summer meant that you couldn’t get a red pepper or a fresh tomato whenever you wanted one. People ate what was stored in the root cellar or what has been put up for winter now.  Of course, I don’t live in that time. Whenever I want whatever I want I just walk down the street to Roche Bros. grocery store and pick it up, even in the dead of winter.  But I think for the first time this summer I have caught a little glimpse of a  time gone by.

And Roxanne has grown so much by going to the farm.  In June, at our first CSA pick-ups, she would cry and whine about her feet being dirty and having to walk too far.  She never wanted to pick anything from the pick-your-own options, preferring to get back in the car and go back home as quickly as possible.  The last few pick-ups of the season she ran out of the car to hug the scarecrows and admire the pumpkins, she helped me put the tat soi and mustard greens in the bag, and asked if there were anymore edamame, or anything at all, left to pick.  She ate vegetables she normally totally rejects because she was eating them off the vine.

And she, and I, learned about vegetables we’d never hear of before, like garlic scapes and whatever this green thing she’s holding is – cauliflower?

And she and Stella ran around every Monday afternoon in such a beautiful, relaxing setting.  They climbed on the the tractors and watched a group of Brandeis students and their professor cider apples.  They saw the women farmers drive the tractor. 

So now we wait until mid-June when the first crops will be ready and we can go back.  I knew I would like having a CSA – the Iron Chef component of having to cook what was available immediately appealed to me.  I am so glad that I wasn’t the only one to enjoy it so much.