The Season Begins Again

Post date: Apr 26, 2015 10:42:59 PM

For a while it felt as if the growing season would never start this year. Shoveling paths for the animals, removing snow from greenhouses, lambing in the cold and snowy weather, finding wood to heat the greenhouses, keeping the barn from freezing, and gathering eggs to keep them from cracking are all chores behind us and the season of long days in the field begins. We uncovered garlic , planted onions and scallions , mowed raspberries , planted and then covered lettuce to protect it from the frost. As we removed the mulch from the strawberries, I was remembering that it was snowing when we applied the mulch and began to think about how sweet those "hidden berries " would taste in June.

I was listening to the birdsong while planting scallions and thinking about the silence I experienced standing in that very spot knee deep in snow.

We are finishing up lambing with a few stragglers still holding back on us. It is fun to stop and watch the lambs run in the barnyard because soon they will be out on the pasture and away from the buildings where I can watch them. Lambing was interesting and fun this year with 3 sets of twins and one quadruplets - 35 in all so far.

The greenhouses are filling up fast and farmer's markets start this weekend so life will take on the fast pace of the growing season and winter will fade from our memories. We look out on the bare fields and think of them filling up with plants and imagine the good food and colorful, fragrant flowers to brighten our table.