Tuesday = farm day. The best weather yet. 80 degrees, sunny, a cool breeze. Glorious.
When 24 and I arrived....after the 20 minute car trip which found us enjoying every beautiful minute ... we found that half the work had been done. Two additional rotating volunteers and a regular who came early had already harvested the lettuces and prepped the boxes.
We just had to wash and sort and weigh and label and place the correct items in the correct boxes.
This sounds easy. Now. The number of boxes total is 25, half of which are full-share, half are half-share. Which is exactly what it sounds like. Half-share boxes are half of the content. This process takes hours. Each item is weighed in ounces and divided into per share or per box ounces and bagged. Lettuces (7 or 8 varieties mixed in together) asparagus, rhubarb, two herbs, kale, chard, radishes, braising mix, arugula and a beet.
Four hours later (which was a record, I might add) we were ready for one more task before heading home. Out to the high tunnel we hiked. The high tunnel is exactly like a greenhouse...a half tunnel shrouded in filmy plastic...but with other benefits like sides that open. Basically, it's a protected area to work and grow in that gives growers more days in the season.
This is where it gets interesting. One of the growers showed us the wheat bits that she'd planted that had been decimated by turkeys. Not a happy grower! But on a positive note, we checked out the baby onion shoots in the ground, and then entered the tunnel to gander at the tomatoes. Each tomato plant was fastened to a nylon cord by rings that clamped, gently, around the tomato to keep it growing the direction the farmer wanted it to grow. Six rows of tomato plants, all of them healthy and happy, so happy and healthy that many even needed another clip to keep them in line. We grabbed handfuls of clips (some of us were more creative in ways to carry lots of clips and others just had to borrow from the clever ones....) and then set out to subdue unruly vines. And there was another task that we needed to do at the same time. Each plant that had bright yellow blossoms also needed a good shaking. Apparently, breeze is important to plants as well as sun and water. In the high tunnel the plants don't get enough wind. They are not able to release the pollen without a little help. So, you have to give them a good, gentle, shake to get the pollinating process going. So we shook and clipped our way through the tomato house. I spied a tiny green tomato start, too. Yum. Just a few more weeks til tomatoes start showing up.
We also met a man who has been an organic farmer for thirty years. Thirty years? Whew. I didn't even pay attention to the word until a handful of years ago. Who knew?
Oh, and we also found out that a very common weed, one detested/hated/reviled by farmers and lawn guys everywhere, is delicious. Lambs Quarters. Seriously. I "harvested" some and brought them home. Rob, the patient trooper, tasted a leaf. He didn't agree with my assessment. Oh well. More for me.
Another box of delicious veggies, some oregano and cilantro, and a bonus batch of rhubarb. Yum. A little rocking and rolling or shaking and clipping adventure....a good day all around.
Continued thoughts on little changes that shape our tomorrows....
3.
Take a deep look at yourself, who you are, who you want to be.
If you remain exactly where you are right now, how do you feel about being in that place in five years, ten years, twenty years?
Reality says that very few become Sports Illustrated swimsuit models. Most of us won't win a Nobel Peace Prize. Many of us will not achieve 100 percent emotional, spiritual and physical health. But could we become healthier versions of who we are right now? With an attitude tweak, or a different way of looking at a situation, or an alternate way of thinking about life? Or simply doing a few things a little differently?
Do you feel stuck in and detest a particular rut? Do you regret a bad habit? Do you wish you had done something ten years ago and have decided you are too late to make a change now?
Steer out of the rut, find a different path. Find out how you can begin to tweak that habit into eventual oblivion. Sometimes it's so hard to take that first step. And chances are very good you'll trip up and slide back into a habit you hate every once in awhile. But if you don't try no one else is going to do that work for you. They can't. For starters, stop thinking that you can't change. There is so much evidence that you can change. It's all over the place. When you think "I can't" change it to "I won't" and then own it. It's one thing to choose not to, it's another to be a victim who in unable to choose.
In ten years, how do you want to feel about the choices you make today? Regret? Disappointment? A sense of accomplishment? A bit of self-respect?
1.
Change the way you think. Just like I mentioned insanity being the (summed up and in my words) inability to understand cause and effect. The realization that I don’t like the way I feel when I don’t take care of myself forced me to choose to change the way I think. The little ugly negative thoughts, the excuses, the whining, other’s perceptions…those have had to change one thought at a time.
The truth is that I do have some control. I can’t change my genes or family disease tree but I can make it really challenging for the family disease tree to fully root in the soil of my life.
With a change in thinking comes change in action. What I believe I will act on. I didn’t like Brussel Sprouts or the idea of rabbit food at every meal. But, I was a vegetable bigot.
Vegetables taste really good when you give them a shot. I ate spinach leaves, cranberries and slivered almonds without dressing the other day. I didn’t know what was in the dressing so I passed. And I once thought a salad without a mound of dressing, cheese and croutons was a waste of stomach space. Nope. It was good. Really.
2.
Make the changes in thinking leak over into the choices you make. This vs. this? That’s a choice. Choose the healthiest one and pretty soon, little choices at a time you are going to have a life that becomes more of what you wished for vs one that you are stuck with. Do you have extra time on your hands? Do you have options? You could use it to walk. You could use it to pray. Or read your Bible or take a class, or learn the hobby you’ve always wanted to learn.
To be continued....after the long and going-to-be-beautiful-in-these-parts weekend.
It’s overwhelming to think about all that you SHOULD do and the changes you should make to become healthier. And then when some crazy person starts blogging about their own journey and throwing out an alphabet soup of bizarre words, foods and techniques, it can be even more overwhelming.
Almost four years ago we decided to start this journey toward better health. In four years we’ve learned a lot. And looking at what’s out there, we have a long, long way to go down the learning path. Some of what we found is contradictory. Really. “Health” is a lot like Christianity with it’s camps and bents and denominational mindsets. From those who swear by exercise to those who say food choices alone are the ticket…to the ones who swear that your blood type determines your metabolic profile and cravings, to those who are raw foodists, there are hundreds of ways to think about what you put in your mouth and what you do with your body.
Two years ago I met my first true blue vegetarian. At the time, I was like, no way, too rigid for me, as I watched her scrutinize menus, and tweak recipes and bring along a dish that she could eat so she wouldn’t starve. She strongly embraces the blood type theory. And she introduced me to the whole idea of raw eating. She had been there, done that, for six months but found it too restrictive (and too painful if she stepped away into cooked food for a meal or two.).
But, I’ve learned that sometimes, your opinion can change with changes in circumstances.
Truth…we are able to choose some of what our life will become, and who we will be, and how we will feel. Not all. But some. And those little choices can add up to a lot in the long chain of little choices.
In a reversal of what I was doing... growing weaker and achier and heavier with each passing year, now making different choices has me growing stronger, healthier and teenily incrementally smaller within each of the past three years of healthier changes.
I don’t really like paying attention to what goes in my mouth, or actively choosing to be active and move. I’d rather sit on my couch and eat bag upon bag of whatever sounds good to me. But. I don’t like the outcome of sitting and eating. Not at all.
So, since I subscribe to the theory that Insanity is making the same choices but expecting different results, I decided to change my choices. Here are a few simplistic but really powerful choices I’ve discovered that helped me further down the path of feeling better.
I'll be back....you know the drill.
The farm.
At noon we met up, grabbed lunch, put our grubby clothes on. (Except my sweet new pink gloves... I had to take a picture because they won't ever look like this again.) The plan was to leave at 12:30. The skies opened up at about 12:45. When I say opened up, I mean OPENED up. Lightning, thunder, buckets of rain. (The picture didn't quite capture said torrents.)
We arrived, thinking, that possibly the women would be hiding in an outbuilding, or waiting in cars. No. The ladies were ankle deep in mud, out in the field wrestling with two by fours, building a dam.
We jumped out, sloshed into the field and began working. The greenhouse had a small river running through it. We harvested lettuce once the lightning died down though the warning about not touching metal was restated. The squatting and duck waking was made more challenging because of the greasy black river and the extra ducking to avoid the metal shelving.
Today's harvest and packaging took only five hours. Impressive. The team seems to have their stuff down. Even though the spinach needed an extra wash....aphids... ants' little herds of cattle, and someone accidentally put some spinach in the lettuce wash bin and the spinach had to be painstakingly picked out. And, there was the forgotten radishes in two boxes incident. Counting is not my strength, and there were 23 boxes.
Another successful day, another harvest of goodies in the fridge, and another night wherein I slept like a baby.
Today should be a full day.
Yesterday was as well. It included two long walks in the slightly sticky but beautiful, beautiful weather, a trip to procure a used burnt orange chair for 24's book nook room redo, and eating leftovers for dinner.
Today blooms with the promise of some old-fashioned sweaty good work. It's farm day.
And somehow I'm hooked. Big time.
24 is committed via verbal and written commitment, but I was the substitute helper. I had every intention of not going today. The other helper is back, and, well, they could do it without me. But the day promises to be beautiful, and there is something about the snipping and gathering....the smells, the sounds, the sweat that is getting under my skin.
If I go, the process will be that much quicker and smoother.
And I'm sure I'll have some stories or comments to share with you all so that you feel like you were there, too.
So barring a downpour...I'll have a thing to two to blab about...come back tomorrow.
And Mom and Kim your comments cracked me up. Tell Dad that his remarks on the banana did indeed spark the banana bars. My taste-buds thank him and if he plays his cards right he'll get to taste his inspired dessert sometime.
We had two sorry looking bananas on the counter. I could've frozen them for a future baking opp, but decided to find something to do with them right then and there. I looked up a few recipes, combined, made a few tweaks and got some yummy results.
A nice mix of cake/bars. Chewy, dense, moist and flavorful.
Banana Bars
3/4 Cup coconut oil
1 Cup sugar
3 TBSP ground golden flax seed
5 TBSP water
2 Ripe bananas
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1 Cup flour
2 Cups oatmeal
1 Cup mini chocolate chips
1/2 chopped nuts of choice (optional)
Set oven to 350. Grease a 9 x 13 pan (I use the oil left in the bottom of the measuring cup after I dump the coconut oil into the bowl. )
In small cereal size bowl mix flax seed and water together. Allow to sit while you stir sugar into the coconut oil in a medium to large mixing bowl, Mash bananas into that mixture, Stir in vanilla, baking powder and salt. Add the flax seed mixture and blend well. Stir in flour and oatmeal. Finally mix in chocolate chips and nuts.
Bake 30-35 minutes.
