I had been so disappointed in my cabbage and broccoli, which produced beautiful leaves and only stunted heads, if any. My largest cabbages were hardly the size of grapefruits, when I was hoping for basketballs. Gardening: fail.
But when we visited our friends who have a CSA box, their "professional" grower also produced cabbages just like ours. "It's the weather," said their farmer.
This was very hopeful for me. It wasn't my poor gardening, or impoverished (or too heavily mineralized) soil. It was nothing but weather, something I have no control over. What a blessed relief! And so we try again. I planted two flats of cabbages today, and I'll keep trying every week or so. Lord willing, we'll get good sauerkraut yet!
We've also had good feedback from our farm subscribers. "The chicken was good, just baked in the oven. [The local health food store] recently changed their rotisserie chicken and it is disgusting now. But your chicken was good. But I LOVE the sausage. I'm actually surprised by how much I like it, because I don't usually like sausage, but this sausage is fantastic."
So our spirits are lifted. I had reached a point a week or two back, where I felt like I was constantly on the verge of fainting. Not really physically. I had heard a lecture that a person with adrenal fatigue will get a white ring around their mouth (which could also mean something is wrong with the thyroid, but the white ring shows you that there is something going on). I expected to find that, with my fabulous tan, I would have a lovely, dark face. But, no: there was a white ring.
Adrenal fatigue made sense. I guess fatigue in every way made sense. I started taking a licorice tincture, leftover from Phil's adrenal fatigue when I was pregnant with Joe, and within a day I felt better. I still have a white ring, but I'm happy to feel hopeful! And sturdy. No more faint feeling!
***
On Wednesday, we had a special privilege. A friend from church wondered if she could bring her farm-loving friend, turning 21, to our farm for a surprise party. We had six young ladies come for the evening, and we had such a great time! It was refreshing for me to relive the wonder that our "chores" actually hold.
It's symbolic of how far Reese has integrated into our farm that all six girls had a chance to milk. The enthusiastic birthday girl started.
And the organizer ended. She said before she began, "This is really out of my comfort zone!" But they all managed to get milk out, and they proudly took their gallon home.
We played in the garden, trying cherry tomatoes and my beloved ground cherries, looking over the tomatoes and greeting the bees.
We also cut flowers from the garden. I am amazed at how rich it feels to be able to cut flowers: to carry colors and textures around, colors that seem almost unreal and textures like brains or bells. I love it.
We even dug potatoes, though my ambitions to cook them with homemade butter and homegrown parsley didn't quite come to pass.
We went to meet the chickens. We have a batch of broilers almost ready for processing, so the girls held the bird. It's amazing how large and heavy they are with their innards intact and their feathers unplucked.
Then we went inside and practiced cutting up a broiled chicken. I didn't learn to do that until a few years after I was married, and I think it's a useful thing to know. And it's not every day that you can hold a live bird that's similar to the one you'll eat for dinner.
After about a week of overcast skies and intermittent thunderstorms, the weather turned beautiful for this night. It was an extra gift.
I never get as much done in a day as I wish, but I am surrounded by beauty. I just need to remember to look for it.
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