sharing the surplus

Today we planted raspberries, and despite how exhausting it felt in the moment, I'm so glad we got those raspberries in the ground. I told Anna I hope Hendrix (Anna and Mike's son) has as profound an experience with these raspberries as I did growing up with my grandfather's raspberries. Picking and eating those juicy red fruits from his patch in Seattle was one of my favorite childhood memories. There is also a picture I remember quite vividly, my sister and I were sitting on Aunt Becky and Uncle Bruce's porch in Portland, a huge bowl of raspberries (or was it blueberries?) on our lap. Anna said, "Why don't more people in Nebraska grow raspberries?" I'm not sure why because they grow really well here, and are so delicious. Last summer I had a raspberry experience at my sister and brother-in-law's patch. They have a really small bush along their fence, but I couldn't believe how much it produced. Tim and I could barely pull ourselves away from it...

Farm finds of the day:

Two really strange looking fungi's... mushrooms. One was red and felt like ear cartilage, which at first glance was kind of disgusting (and equally awesome). The other looked like "dead human fingers coming up from the ground," by Anna's description. It was a bluish, purple, gray color with a white dot on the top of each "finger." Approximately two inches tall and a few centimeters only thick.

Anna's orange poppy's -- dark purple centers with streaks of pink, the outsides have these purple dots that look like eyeballs as the flower emerges from its casing. The way they pop open while we aren't looking... magic.

On Wednesday we found a tiny fluorescent yellow spider climbing up Anna's leg. It's entire body was the brightest yellow I've seen in nature. Who made these things?

We're going to harvest spinach, kale, and buttercrunch lettuce on Saturday for our CSA. Today we pulled out our entire patch of Arugula because it bolted -- bummer. Sometimes the weather gets a little funky and the plants do strange things. It went from swampy wet to hot heat and I think both the Arugula and Radishes got thrown off. We were hoping for both to grow a little bit more before they bolted, but there's no stopping a plant from doing what it wants. That is just fine. Our large Arugula harvest will be put to good use -- Arugula pesto -- I'm going to can and freeze some for winter.

My muscles are so sore tonight from raspberry planting on a rocky hill. After the farm I traveled back into the city for a gardening class at Hands to Harvest community garden. I was so hungry by that point I didn't know if I would make it... Luckily, a most delicious dinner was waiting. After a great turnout for building an herb spiral we went to Natalie's for grub.

Sharing the surplus... We feasted on pizza made from scratch, homemade sauce and crust, topped with spinach from the farm. It was magnificent. Before the pizza we had salad greens from Merideth and Kat's plot at the community garden. We harvested huge bunches of lettuce, kale, and radish greens, enough to feed five of us. Natalie cleaned and sorted the greens for the salad, Tim shared his cooking expertise, Brent enthusiastically helped (he had so much energy despite just returning from traveling and camping all over the U.S.), Rebecca and I enjoyed the breeze on the porch, the mosquitoes nibbled at my legs. Some of the leftover greens we gave to Brian and Gail's chickens and the rest went in the compost... one day it will be soil again.

The entire dinner was an example of the abundance we have. When we all pooled our resources and skills we created something really wonderful, and we had more than we needed. That's the thing -- I don't really believe in scarcity. Certainly there are times when specific resources run dry or are more difficult to access, but when I choose to live in closer community with others my cup is always full. I think it is possible to be more aware of nature's limits, and choose to limit ourselves so as not to overuse certain resources. Things need time to regenerate and restore. Somehow, I'm convinced that there is a lot more to go around, enough for everyone, it just involved thinking, acting, and living in closer proximity with one another.