It’s been over a year since my ankle broke. I’m sitting in the doctor’s office, which has been an extremely long wait (2 hours). The recovery has not been simple or quick and I struggle with many mobility issues still. Reflecting on my time here last year and my initial healing process, I couldn’t help but remember the moments I scoured the internet looking for info. It’s different for everyone, but here’s my two cents
On June 29th I was riding my bike when a car hit me. I was riding forward with a right of way, when the car turned into me from oncoming traffic. Luckily, they were traveling at a moderate speed, but it did cause enough force to land against the pavement hard.
I was in a daze, there were people outside but no one noticed any significant details about the car. The car kept driving away, which felt strange at the time because i expected them to stop. Someone called the police. A few people stopped by to check on me. I was in the middle of the road and it was surreal to see my ankle bent and flopped over. There were no protrusions from the skin, but it was definitely broken.
It’s been over a year since my ankle broke. I’m sitting in the doctor’s office, which has been an extremely long wait (2 hours). The recovery has not been simple or quick and I struggle with many mobility issues still. Reflecting on my time here last year and my initial healing process, I couldn’t help but remember the moments I scoured the internet looking for info. It’s different for everyone, but here’s my two cents
On June 29th I was riding my bike when a car hit me. I was riding forward with a right of way, when the car turned into me from oncoming traffic. Luckily, they were traveling at a moderate speed, but it did cause enough force to land against the pavement hard.
I was in a daze, there were people outside but no one noticed any significant details about the car. The car kept driving away, which felt strange at the time because i expected them to stop. Someone called the police. A few people stopped by to check on me. I was in the middle of the road and it was surreal to see my ankle bent and flopped over. There were no protrusions from the skin, but it was definitely broken.
The typical architecture of urban development has neglected harmony with nature. However, nature prevails. We see it in the lone dandelion sprouted from concrete crracks and the sprawling grapevines on brick walls. Despite oppressive conditions, the resilience of life perseveres. On previous trips, I noticed a few houses with tiny postage stamp sized front yards. Easy to overlook, swaths of gourd leaves caught my eye. Ever since, I’ve paid close attention to how urban gardeners utilize their spaces. This trip captures the prime of summer growing.
I walked through the outskirts of Flushing and was amazed at gardens that are everywhere. Seriously. My dad thought I was weird for getting so amped at the sight of si gua and winter melon, tomatoes and peppers. I’m accustomed to land for growing vegetables but city folk do not have the same luxury. I’d say their growing methods are highly efficient for the space that’s available.
What I love most about their presence, is the culture that’s grown with it. In this area, there are stores everywhere and on every corner. Produce is cheap and abundant. Now, food insecurity is a huge issue in NYC with over 13% of the population experiencing it. In flushing, the rate is:. One of the biggest barriers to accessibility is the physical presence of markets. There is a long history of grocery stores deliberately locating themselves in areas of higher wealth. This widens the gap even further because then transportation and time become bigger limiting factors. Recent studies have come out detailing the high poverty rates of Asian Americans. In fact, Asian Americans experience the highest rates of poverty in the city. There is a lot of stigmatization for using social services in the Asian community and a lack of open discussion can only exacerbate this. Interestingly, the areas that were more likely to grow vegetables in their homes are considered to be more poor. At least, that’s what my dad said. I would need to do actual research about this. However, as a conjecture it does make sense. When we visited the suburban part of flushing, the presence of urban gardens plummeted. Though many homes/apts could be worth a ton of money now, people living in them still don’t have access to that wealth.
I would love to do some kind of further study about this. As for now, it’s my own perspective regarding food security. You can tell a decent amount by observation. Anyway, as it happens in Albany, I reckon many people grow for both pleasure and necessity. Gardening can intersect both rather flawlessly. Once you grow vegetables, you will realize that you are never too far from a garden.
The most common methods I saw were with fences, buckets, and trellising. Vertical space was utilized and there were even climbing vines that went up apartment walls. That’s bold and amazing. Honestly, vertical space can quadruple? your growing capacity, in fact, these gardeners put soil in buckets and used their driveways and sidewalks. Plants don’t need very much soil individually, as long as they are well fertilized and watered.
Everywhere I walked, there were metal trellises full of broad leaves. I find this usage of space extremely enchanting. Most of the sprawling vines were either si gua, bitter melon, winter melon, fuzzy gourd, or pumpkins. And believe me, they’d climb to space with the right trellis. It was interesting to see the permanency of these trellises too as most of them were made of metal rather than natural materials. This points to a sense of regularity in growing practices. I’d love to discuss growing methods with these gardeners and potentially trade seeds. In Albany, this type of growing is extremely rare. Most people use community gardens or their own yards. Off course, space is more widely available and perhaps the relative abundance of it can create a lack of utilization. Growing culture is all around and we adapt to our environments. I didn’t expect to see this much gardening, but the lack of space created a hyper visibility. I’m curious what other borroughs look like and understanding food trends in relation to community/culture there. In any case, if you’re ever in flushing, a simple walk will turn into a grand adventure.
Flushing is my home away from home. Where culture is kept vibrantly alive and accessible. A few weeks ago I spent some time in Chinatown with family, appreciating both the resilience and adaptation of how people live. My dad’s side of the family immigrated to NYC from Hong Kong in the 1970s (mind you, this was due to the immigration act of 1965, before that Chinese immigrants were allowed in the u.s. with a quota of 100 or less per year!!). His sisters and brother live in different corners of the city, but they’re still connected under the vastness of it all. It’s amazing to see the different ways their lives have manifested, yet their eternal bond keeps them tethered to each other. The city is not my home in the same way, but they’ve carved out spaces and personalities that are comforting upon visits. Everyone was frantically preparing for my cousin’s wedding to his longtime girlfriend. My dad and I were able to lay low and spend the night with food as our only concern. It’s more complicated than you’d think because the myriad of options are mind boggling. For blocks there are stores within stores on top of stores. Cafes the size of closets and grandiose restaurants that take up whole building floors. I’m fortunate to have my dad act as a handy cantonese translator, though the landscape is changing. What once was a familiar lingual navigation has slowly transitioned into freelance Mandarin. For now, he can wing it as the universal language of food can be expressed with simplicity. Regardless of the options, we chose to revisit an unassuming hole in the wall, Red Mountain Noodle House. Last year, we stumbled upon it when tasty house 18 was stuffed like a squash and we explored the surrounding neighborhood. Now, China has 8 great regional cuisines and cantonese happens to be one of them. If you’ve been brought up with a certain style, that can easily become your comfort food and preference. We got shaken out of our habits and enjoyed some dishes from Northern China. The lady running the business is super cute and friendly. It’s a no frills place that lets you sit yourself and doesn’t offer hot tea (gasp). There are a ton of dishes, with their specialty being hand pulled noodle soup. None of their broths are vegan, but there are several veggie dishes and dim sum options to keep me satisfied.
My dad is cute and though not vegan, enjoys many vegan dishes with me.
My dad has actually helped expand the vegan-asian universe for me. With his fluency in Cantonese and also stubborn personality, he helps me order dishes with stringency and clarity. I’ve eaten a lot of awesome regional cuisines from China thanks to his assistance. Also, as I aspire to be America’s greatest Chinese vegan chef, I’m very familiar with cooking techniques, ingredients, and can read lots of food related characters. Some dishes are just very obviously vegan, with this background knowledge.
Dried tofu with celery and woodear mushroom salad. I am salivating.
These cold dishes were super refreshing and the perfect way to begin any meal. The tofu is dry pressed with an exterior that’s been basted with 5 spice and soy sauce. The slivers are mixed with a celery that’s been quick pickled and salted, which results in a very tangy and sharp flavor. It’s a vibrant contrast to the mild tofu and together it makes for the perfect bite.
If woodear mushroom salad is on the menu there is a 100% chance that we will order it.
Woodear mushrooms are not common in Cantonese style food. I was first exposed to them at a Taiwanese restaurant, which offered a similar dish. I’m now infatuated with this magical black cloud. I wonder how appetizing it looks to the unfamiliar eye? Woodear mushrooms come dried and must be rehydrated. They expand in size by an incredible amount. I rehydrated some that were the length of my finger and widened into the width of my face! Their texture is a quite interesting combination of chewy and crunchy. These were mixed with vinegar and sesame oil, possessing a nice piquancy. It’s served cold but they are also commonly eaten in cooked dishes and seem to have a much softer bite.
Ive been dreaming of this dish for months: vinegared napa cabbage w/dried chilis.
The first time I saw this on the menu, I was extremely curious. Cantonese style vegetable dishes are mostly cooked with shaoxing and garlic in a stirfry. The seasoning is light with a dash of soy sauce and salt. When this dish arrived, I found its appearance to be lackluster. The first bite blew away all misconceptions. The vinegar makes the cabbage succulent and tender, it practically melts in your mouth. The chilies add heat but not spiciness. The sauce is light and bright, clinging nicely to the folds of cabbage without being excessive. Overall, it’s an amazing combination of texture and flavor; I’m always wowed by the transformation of vegetables under a Chinese chef.
Rice noodles in a peanut sauce.
I was really curious about this dish as it was in the dim sum section. It definitely is not Cantonese style dim sum and I wonder if they labeled it as such rather than simply calling it an appetizer. For 2$, we said, why not? I expected a small bowl, but what arrived was a heaping portion of rice noodles with a swath of peanut sauce underneath to be mixed in at the diner’s leisure. It was mild in flavor and its taste was uninteresting. Kind of felt like a chore to finish a pile of carbohydrates when there were delicious vegetables to be eaten. Perhaps the tangy contrast of the other dishes dulled this one. I wouldn’t get it again but if you’re low on cash and hungry, it would satisfy a person’s needs sufficiently. On the table there are lots of condiments like chili paste, black vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil which could jazz up the dish but not lighten it.
All in all, we had quite an excellent time and begun to talk about our next meal during dinner haha. We walked around the streets appreciating the lights and colorful signs. My home away from home changes in some way with each visit and I reckon that I do the same too.
I was going through the blog and found some unposted stuff. I really enjoyed this entry, though it is incomplete. Would like to share it regardless:
The growing season has begin. Another reason to be enamored with Spring. The brightness of the sun, the call of the bird, the ambient winds. It’s intoxicatingly lovely. We are working hard, finding a sense of purpose and meaning in the gritty shovel sessions out on the land. For all of winter I’ve felt impatient and now that upstate NY seems to urge us to plant our seeds, I feel unprepared.
Last month I started over 8 seedling trays. We have one grow light. A small hoop house. And temperatures that, up until 2 weeks ago, were like a summer slushy: strangely warm and icy. Because we grow on borrowed land, it’s hard to erect a more permanent fixture such as a greenhouse. I’ve clandestinely been growing seedlings under a small grow light in my shared apartment. Did any one ever wonder about the soft glow emitting from all hours, especially in contrast to the darkness of night? That was our limiting factor, now we can grow outside in the hoop and in the ground. An exciting time for farmers/gardeners. Our farm comes to life beyond the pencil drawings of future beds and planting maps.
The beginning of the season is usually the toughest for us. We’re adamant about hand-tilling our 4×100 foot long beds with shovels. Roto-tilling is destructive and prolonged use can lead to soil erosion. Not to mention that it destroys microorganisms and worms alike. Our growing neighbor was running the machine yesterday and we watched the soil aerate into the sky,evaporating like precious water away and away. This isn’t a singular experience either it is estimated that “We are losing 30 soccer fields of soil every minute, mostly due to intensive farming.”
It takes thousands of years to generate 3 inches of topsoil. Farming, even organic farming, can be entirely unsustainable. We must consider the long term effect of our actions. Organic farming is equally about cultivating the very ecosystems we utilize, creating balance, rather than mining them for resources in an advantageous way. We are interested in practicing no-till methods. But still have yet to get there. For now we hand turn the beds, adding compost/green manure cover crops to each section. After planting, we use heavy mulches and are experimenting with holely cardboard as it is a very accessible resource to us (and perhaps any one?).
This week we turned our beds, added our lush compost and seeded one bed with radishes.
Compost:
Composting is a form of alchemy the ancients did not wax rhasphodic about. Perhaps only the true grower appreciates the beauty of a steamy pile’s transformation. Last year we collected produce scraps.
On Monday I went to Food not Bombs after a brief 3 week hiatus. It’s common in activism to feel the burn out creep up. Perhaps it’s the pressure or the importance we place on it. It’s also a committed act that must be taken seriously because many folks have come to normalize its presence and use it to account for their needs. However, it’s also important to take the time for ourselves as individuals to identify personal needs and support to continue any community based effort. 1 week doesn’t sound like much dedication but it adds up, especially with a regular role and subsequent responsibilities. I’m technically the point person for the cooking team, which means that people/volunteers can contact me to participate. And I should also technically make sure that we communicate our needs to the rest of the FNB volunteers and identify areas for improvement.
i returned with a bit of renewed energy, but it’s very intensive being there. For over two years I’ve volunteered almost every week. During the winter of 2016, it was mostly Nickleson and me delicately keeping the meals going. Somehow, I churned out 4-5 big and different dishes for months. Luckily there are more regular cooks who bring ideas and creativity. The kitchen is HOT in the summer and the circulation is poor. There are vents and it meets health code standards, but there is no air conditioning or even enough working fans. The stove and oven are industrial and produce way more heat than the average household unit. It’s certainly an upgrade from the last kitchen, in terms of space and functionality.
Grilling some fresh local corn for salsa, this isn’t even at the hottest temp.The stove top has some fierce chefs and very close quarters
I biked to the free school and was the first to arrive. I was greeted with a fat stack of produce/bakes food donations. They turned out to be super hefty. And I swear 5 of them were celery and cantaloupe, which were extremely heavy. We need to walk up over 20 narrow steps to get to the kitchen, a somewhat tiring and harrowing experience. Soon, Jen and Clarese arrived and we hauled ass.
At this point, we examine the quality and quantity of the produce. In our observation, we can get an idea of a menu. Sometimes the dish summons its existence and calls out from each box. Sometimes, our dish transforms into its desired state at the very last minute. Don’t we all have those moments, even at home?
You see alllll this produce and the gears start to turn. Here’s what stuck out to me: mushrooms (they’re savory and have good umami that can boost any dish, commonly liked, cooks fast), tomatoes (pretty much the same), potatoes (quick, filling, versatile), carrots (add texture and sweetness), eggplant (absorbs flavor), broccoli (beautiful when surrounded by sauce), sweet potatoes (wholesome and natural sweetness).
Here’s my workspace. It’s amazing to be surrounded by abundance and variety. All of this was deemed unsaleable and contributes to the unrealistic expectations for perfect and uniform food. To a level of 40% globally. Meanwhile, Albany has an average of 15% of its residents having experiences food insecurity at some point in their year. That’s over 40,000 households!
With a slight chill in the air and some roots in the box, images of warm bubbling soup filled my head. And once I perused the pantry and saw some gleaming cans of coconut milk, that shaped into a more concrete idea of vegetable curry.
Unlike many Food Not Bombs, we seek and fundraise for monetary donations. Sometimes it’s a punk show or a book sale. Sometimes generous people are enamored with our work and pull out their check books. We strive to cook with wholesome ingredients because we believe that food justice means greater health and wellness. Providing better access to fresh food must incorporate vegetables and whole grains. Many food banks/pantries/soup kitchens receive government subsidizes for animal products. Many poor communities have predominatly people of color populations (which is no coincidence). With inaccessibility to wholesome nutrition and close markets, the food deserts amplify health risks. While we see violence in the media, the leading causes of every human across race, is related to health. Some races are more affected by these health issues because of the structural oppression they’ve been subjected to for generations.
The key of any sauce or soup object is to slowly build up the flavor profile. Here I roasted the spices first and gradually added tomatoes, lentils, carrots, and coconut milk. We didn’t get any garlic or onions in donation which are you know the foundation of any dish. But as one of my fav. Buddhist Dim sum restaurants does in NYC, shows that good food can exist without alliums. Fortunately we did have them in powedered form.
I’m known for my soups and I truly think it is an art to master. I also can feel heavy pressure at a success for my notoriety lol. I will say that, if the dish is not good enough, then I won’t serve it. Just because the food is free does not mean that diminished quality is acceptable. I wish more of my compadres had this mentality and elevated their standards. Don’t give people slop just because it is free. I can’t state this enough.
Anyway, it was hot and busy. And people had various productivity levels. The soup was built into a curry and laden with vegetables. I also quickly made a tvp taco salad which sounds very much like something on a school menu. This was hectic to produce because of the limited amount of time until serving. There was also chaos from a lack of volunteers available for transportation and we were running late. Tvp expands wildly. Mixed with this is local tomatoes, corn, and lettuce. I am a big proponent of local food and think local foods make for a stronger community and a tastier meal. There are debates about it’s sustainability compared to massive conventional farming output. There’s a really good book about it. I’ll look up the title later, but the point is that farming in itself can be inefficient without the right systems in place. For those of us who have privilege in accessing land to grow, we must make our best efforts to provide for ourselves and others. Look for your local community garden! Even if you don’t like their politics 😉
We made many dishes, as seen above. Curry, lava soup, fresh fruit, beans and greens, brown rice, olive-tomato salad, garlic bread, mulberry limeade, nut pate. I’m all tuckered out. I visited my mom after and had a lovely time with her. She’s 64 and I like to check up on her every week. She’s bold and cheeky as ever. I cherish our relationship and have been grateful for its never ending improvement. Grateful that I’ve come to an age where I can truly appreciate her. Check out this awesome front yard garden that she’s let me grow for the past 3 years. What a gem.
Just some snaps of today at the farm. The evening is a wonderful time to work the land. It’s quiet and calm, definitely more temperately agreeable too. It’s amazing to watch the sunset through the leaves, illuminating them with brilliant transparency. I’m trying to overcome a fear of snakes. This fear doesn’t manifest into a hatred or condemnation against them. I’m trying to get to the root of understanding this fear (like any). It seems programed in me, but it is a trait that could be changed. We’re mulching a few beds with black plastic and it draws snakes in as a tempting abode. My peace has been disrupted by their presence, though we seem to scare each other. I’m trying to appreciate their existence. They are healthy parts of the ecosystem and help with mice/bugs. They crave the warmth of sunlight. In some ways, their life is poetic. Yet, I can’t shake the fright just yet. The other day I was in the left side of the field and it felt like they were everywhere. One was lurking in the tomatoes, another in the chard, and as I scurried away, nearly stepped on one in the newly weeded amaranth bed.
Omg, I frantically called my boyfriend Robert to pick me up. I was envisioning a terrifying snakes on a plane scenario which was obviously impossible given the open space. I couldn’t confront that fear no matter how irrational it was. They are harmless and gentle here. Andy has been away for a few weeks so I’ve had to work more at the farm. My heart has been beating frantically in anticipation of them. They sound like rustling leaves and you can only imagine how many rustling leaves there truly are at a vegetable farm.
Today I went in the evening, the shade had taken over half of the field and I chopped away at the amaranth bed. I felt powerful with a grasswhip in hand, the mighty swing against thick stems and stalwart roots. The sweat alleviated some fear.
I cautiously walked down the bean/tomato bed which is very apparent in its unhealthy closeness. The pathway is getting weedy and seems to beckon lurking snakes. Somehow, the most I saw of them was the sway of grass. I harvested many peppers, admired the net of bittermelon leaves that grow more prolific everyday, and plucked some ruby red tomatoes.
I braved the left field and watered new seedlings and thinned out some weeds. Right before I left, I took some swings with the grass whip against the burgeoning weeds of the tomato bed and was greeted with the wiggle of a fat snake. That was enough to signal closure for the day! Overall, it was cool, shady, and very pleasant.
A wee si gua 絲瓜, i was once again, terribly late to planting them.A heap of grass to some, a pile of gold to me. The perfect source of mulch. Free and abundant in the summer.The sunset and its shadows. My legs aren’t that long, i look as if i’m on stilts.Purple osaka mustard. What a nice kick to it! You know its pretty spicy when it makes you want to cryDillweed, a volunteer sprout. Like a cluster of stars in a galaxy.The napa transplants are doing quiet well. This variety truly is gold!苦瓜 bitter melon has some of the most beautiful and intricate leaves. My fav. They also have a very pleasant aroma when moved. A bit more palatable than the taste of its fruit lol.Banana peppers arent just for your subway sandwich. They have a nice spice level without being too overwhelming. Prolific, would be good stuffed.These serranos look really elegant and slender.Posing with my beauties.
The story of amaranth and myself is a story of serendipity. Perhaps it’s the inevitable manifestation of our culture, rooted down in some form wherever we exist. Considered a weed in upstate NY and most likely parts otherwhere, I was introduced to it by Andy. He worked at an organic farm and they grew it as a component of their biodynamic system. As pictures reveal, their magenta crowns are beautiful and abundant with seeds. He harvested some heads and brought them to our home, where we strung them up in the basement next to ropes of yellow and purple onions. We winnowed the seed and saved it for a sunny day. That sunny day has expanded our crop every growing year. Some of the seeds were sown, without a second thought or even an idea of our future relationship. Fast forward to now, the glowing bed of magenta seed heads, taller than me, and breathtakingly mesmerizing. It’s like a dream. And the most surprising part?
It’s all self seeded from last year’s crop. They were some of the first sprouts to break through the thawing crust of spring earth. In Chinese culture, we eat the leaves, which cooks up similarly to spinach. It’s more savory in flavor and shrinks down to a miniscule size all the same. Its leaves can be used for coloring and one of my Chinese friends told me of boiling it with glass yam noodles. I need to experiment with it. It is quite prolific, hence why many consider it a weed. If allowed to produce seed, it will be extremely difficult to eradicate. It randomly springs up everywhere and its growth pattern is tall and wide. The full bed that was allowed to seed flowered quite quickly. Interestingly, there are over 3 edible varieties growing, one of which is ginormous and slow-bolting. I call it tie-dye yin choy and I hope it eventually flowers because the seeds would be incredibly special. Would be cool to offer it in seed banks. These leaves look like stained glass prisms against the sunlight and if I were ever to shell out for/create such a thing it would be inspired by them. I pass these giant plants every time I’m at the farm but don’t have any recent photos which showcase their true largesses. You can kind of see them next to the bitter melon, that is an entirely singular plant! The pure green/purple leafed varieties have never gotten to that size. It’d make an excellent crop for American vegetable production because it is tolerant to heat, temp fluctuations, dry spells, and humidity! Perhaps I should start a movement to popularize it.
Here’s another lovely jewel, golden amaranth, which was a single plant this year. Quite a majestic crown, it wins the award for biggest seed head on the farm. Though it’s very humble, without the ego to match ;). It’s also super tall, with my height of 5’7″ as a comparison. I just harvested the seed head for seed saving but fear that it was too early because the seeds are still white, rather than tan or black. 😥😌 Yikes, let’s see if drying it out helps. Luckily there are side shoots as backup.
Today I harvested the magenta seed bed and saved all of the heads to dry out. Here’s my trusty Japanese sickle, which I adore. It’s sharp and lightweight. It cuts stems like a knife through avocado. Smooth. Also exciting is the fact that it is a weapon in my martial arts system: shorin ryu karate. It originated as indigenous self-defense and implements a lot of farm tools like the Kama (sickle). I’m a ways away until I can study a weapon kata, but for now, it’s getting fully constructive use at my farm.
So many shades of purple. I didn’t realize it until looking up close. Can you tell the difference? It’s rather subtle.
Here the little beauties are. I will let them dry out and then shake the seeds out of their crowns. This was a test run to see their maturity levels. Some of the amaranth has dusty pollen over it, indicating an immaturity of seed formation.
Deciding what to do with the seeds, they can be eaten as a grain or saved away for a future of an entirely amaranth dedicated farm. Hahaha! How much easier my life would be. Though my pleasure derives from the work exertion. It’s really cool to save seed, you can be more selective about certain traits and create a very unique variety over time. Make some room in your beds to grow a few amaranth plants, for it will be the start of an endless love.
I can’t believe it’s already here (and has been here). I’ve had lofty goals for this blog and then realized that Instagram essays are a valid form of expression. There’s an ease at which I find self-expression in the form of photos. I’ll try more on here too. Today was incredible. It was hot and sunny; I brought an umbrella in an attempt of safer sun habits. Little did I know it was a harbinger of rain. As a farmer, the rain is incredibly exciting to me. I see it as a beautiful action because it creates beautiful things. Though it’s best to work the land during early and late of the day, I find mid-day work to be stimulating and fantastically challenging. I don’t like to feel limited in an approach and find strength in the hot sweat of a blazingly bright afternoon. There was much to do. We’ve scaled back in our vegetable production for the year. Andy is away at intermittent times and we’ve had pest and animal damage. To foster better health in our micro environment, we are cover cropping half of the land. We have two beds of rye that were planted in the winter and allowed to seed (which I’m waiting for them to mature). And we have a fresh sprightly new couples of beds of Japanese millet. It’s glorious and bright, like the first sprouts of spring. And it’s fast with a fruiting rate of 45 days.
Today there was plenty of work to be done: adding another level of trellising to the tomatoes and pruning suckers, weeding the bed of maturing garlic, making comfrey tea, watering/feeding the plants, transplanting husk cherries, harvesting yin choy, and attempting to make wooden trellises for the bitter melon.
The rustles of leaves were telling a different story from the bright sky. Slowly the dark clouds spread across and brought down heavenly drops of nectar. It’s the first time I’ve been out in the rain at the farm all season. It brings back nostalgia of past seasons and experiences in downpour. Transplanting tatsoi in the pouring rain of 2015, the last night of camping for bike tour in a Florida forest with a soaking wet tent, etc. The weather turned out whole atmosphere into a muggy mosquito haven. The dryness of the air was blissful under the sun, even better with clouds. I enjoyed the kissing droplets but found it hard to work. Mosquitos devour me, pecking their beaks into my skin, with or without clothing on. Plus, it was getting impossible to weed, with nuggets of soil clinging to each rootlet. Eventually I had to stop, but I appreciate those moments of realization that the job is done for the day.
Some beautiful sights to share with you. Constant poetry to my eyes and my mind.
My borage brings all the bees to the yard and they’re like “buzz” buzz”buzz”Unfurling calendula…like a sunsetScallions are so elegant and I greatly enjoy their angular existenceWinter rye, golden amber waves of grain
fadoseefarm 