CSA: April Gloom, May Boom
Farm Share Newsletter - May 5, 2023
Kermit, our propagation guardian.
Housekeeping
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There you are.
April Gloom, May Boom
do you think there is anywhere, in
any language,
a word billowing enough
for the pleasure
that fills you,
as the sun
reaches out,
as it warms you
—Mary Oliver, The Sun
I am a pessimist by nature and no time and place fuels my negativity cycles like early spring on the farm. Greens in the field appear stunted by the cold, and in my mind, there is no way they will be ready for farmers markets in a month. Most of our crops are blanketed by row cover, an ugly polyester fabric we use to raise soil temperatures in the shoulder seasons, giving our workplace a rural dystopia junkyard feel. Darkness and rain only heighten that sense. Seeds fail to germinate. Mice snack on our seedlings. Mud encrusts on our jean's knees and beneath our fingernails. We’ve invested months of labor and thousands of dollars and for what?
Oh right.
Enter May. Enter the warmth of the sun on our skin and the glow of the sunlight on our greens, now uncovered, growing like they’re going through puberty, waiting for our harvest knives to slice them off the earth. Enter our market van onto the ferry, into Seattle, stocked with vegetables, destined for weeknight stir fries and family dinners and lunchboxes and pickle jars. We made it to Columbia City Farmers Market on Wednesday.
The clouds and rain have returned, but our farm has already transformed, and our outlook could not be sunnier.
Steven