Finding inspiration amongst the mundane…….

Among or amongst? ……huh...I checked and surprisingly there is no difference between the two other than the fact ‘among’ is Old English and ‘amongst’ is Middle English…. so really it’s just a matter of the writer’s acoustic sensibilities….. um….. I'm sorry….. SEE WHAT I MEAN?!? Obviously I’m scrounging for inspiration….I mean…among or amongst? Come on now…

so I’ve sat down and started about four posts since my last one…. I’ve attempted banter about wwoofers, eggs, potato bugs and Bella…. I’ve listened intently on Farmer Luke’s downloads throughout the day hoping for a morsel of ‘something’ for which I can just jump on the tangent train….but nothin’…..nothin’! My lack of inspiration of course could simply be the result of something I call ‘beginning of market season haze’… After the first few weeks of market season…. weekends become a blur….. you beg for muscle memory to ease the transition smoothly…. 6 a.m. on Saturday morning IS normal….. 6 a.m. on Saturday morning IS humane… 6 a.m. on Saturday morning IS good for you…… when in actual fact 6 a.m. on Saturday morning IS like a big warm bear hug that lingers a bit too long….. OK…. yes... you get the picture….. I’m clearly off the adrenaline of ‘YAY MARKET SEASON!!’ and ‘it’s a well rehearsed play’... blah blah blah….. the reality is I’m staring at a 21 week run and it’s a soldout house every single weekend!!! ….so ‘transition’ is putting it mildly….. of course, layer that with not having any right to complain as Farmer Luke is up at 5 a.m. on Saturday, 6 a.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. on Sunday….he wins! Of course I wasn’t attempting to beat him….

SEE?!? I mean mundane right!.....I'm talking about our sleeping patterns for crying out loud (hahaha ~ I totally heard my mom in me right now!) 

It’s Tuesday and I’m already planning for Saturday having just gotten off from Sunday…. that’s one day off folks…. and it wasn’t off…. oh no!… it was full of case digesting, telephone calls, letter writing and accounting… I know what you are thinking… “what’s not inspiring about that?!” ….YUP… not even my sarcasm is colourful…. I’m just blah…. BUT FRET NOT everything picks up a bit around bean season (which incidentally is just around the corner)… by then the overload of kale in our diet has kicked in and we get a second wind!

So here’s hoping for a renegade chicken just before Thursday’s harvest….

come on chicken....give me SOMETHING to work with!!

.....or maybe we can rehash an oldie but a goodie as Farmer Luke attempts the canoe fishing trip again this evening with our Austrian WWOOFer (I kid you not!... it's now the 'canoe fishing challenge')….. 

 

a mundane photo of Mr. Tippy Canoe

.....or perhaps something inspiring will burst forth from the kale patch…..    

KALE! .... I can hardly contain myself....ok I AM excited about kale chips!

.....stay-tuned folks as it can only get better than this!

 

effective mosquitoes, flannel sheets and kid germs…..

being sick in and of itself just plain sucks.....being sick while trying to sleep in a humid room while kicking yourself for not changing the flannel sheets sucks even more......OH WAIT!...being sick and overheating on flannel sheets while swatting mosquitoes is just plain OBNOXIOUS!! Luckily I'm an insomniac....so now I'm up and I can kill those buggers face to face...while sick and overheating....

….so why not write? right?......WHAT!!!!?....are you kidding me?!!....... ok…being sick and overheating on flannel sheets while swatting mosquitoes AND a big noisy fly is pretty much breaking point!! 

Hello 1:29 a.m. …..for the safety of myself and the fly I need to vent onto the page in a long diatribe about sickness… flannel sheets in summer weather…. mosquitoes…. and noisy big ass flies…

1. sickness: whenever I’m sick I can’t help but think about the kids…. yes, the kids…. and not in a ‘OH NO now I’m going to be less of a mom’ kinda way…. nope…. it actually suddenly dawns on me in a complete moment of ‘aha!’…. “holy shit they did feel like crap!”…. that moment when you feel their pain… their stuffy head and runny nose…. their slightly swollen glands and phlegmy throat….. WHOA… wait a minute…. phlegm?.... who the hell knows how to spell that off the top of their head?.. and if like me you can’t… good luck sounding it out…. there is just so much going on phonetically!!! …ok…. anyhoo… ya…. that moment I realize I probably shouldn’t have finished their virus infected dinner attempting not be wasteful…. or maybe ‘kiss torture’ should not have been on the agenda during those critical days when the small humans were contagious…. ya…sickness…. that’s what I think… sniff sniff cough… I will be more aware in the future…
2. flannel sheets in summer weather: um…. ya…. epic fail on that front!! ...and I’d like to say this was the first time this has happened…. I really would… but the honest truth is every year I am faced with the same crappy night’s sleep prompting me to change the sheets…. in fact from this day forward it will be called “SCREAMING HEAT FLANNEL SHEET” night…. an annual event!....nice….. and it’s not like I can wake Farmer Luke from his restful (albeit mosquito interrupted) sleep to….um…. change the sheets…. now can I?....risk that… you don’t wake a sleeping farmer…at least not mine. So after tossing and turning, sweating and sticking, swatting and cursing and dreaming of various ways to cool down (would Farmer Luke notice if there was a sopping wet cold towel next to him?…. do I go and steal one of the children’s fans #whydidntigetours? #wtf? ....hmmm I bet the wood floor is cold…) …the thing that sucks the most is that you don’t want to be uncovered (hence potentially cooled down) for fear of the mosquitoes that are just waiting for warm steamy flesh to be exposed….. ARGH!!!!!!!!!! ..... in the end I simply gave up and here I am dreading the moment I need to get back into that bed with my already feverish body and inevitably have to meditate through the heat…ugh……
3. mosquitoes: ahhhhhhhh the quintessential icon of a Canadian summer in the country… when that small window of cool spring sunny days allowing for endless unbridled outdoor activities breaks and the onslaught of swatting and itching begins… that time when the world of bug spray and citronella steps onto the stage… as I lay in bed endlessly swatting at the air in hopes of killing the buzzing in my ears I can’t help but think of a saying I heard from a very brief… very inspiring... and very influential meeting last summer…. the saying is “if you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito”….DAMN RIGHT!!! Interestingly this was said by a man who ran unassisted across Canada raising money for children’s hospitals…. Mr. Jamie McDonald. One night last July Farmer Luke brought him home after passing him running on our road near dusk… always willing to help someone out we happily took Jamie in for the night and fed and watered him…. what an amazing AMAZING man…. incidentally he began this run after cycling 14,000 miles from Bangkok to his hometown in Gloucester, England AND gaining the world static cycling record pedaling straight for 268 hours…. yup, I’m exhausted just writing this… and this guy just happened to run by our farm and needed a safe place to crash…. um, ok!?!… from that day forward we followed him as he continued to run UNASSISTED across Canada from summer to winter finally making it to the western coast just after February ~ AH-MAZE-ing!!! …that’s one mosquito I’m happy to say has passed through my life… check out our addition to his documentary (10 mins and 22 secs in....there we are) and I HIGHLY recommend watching more of his videos as he's really funny and... well...  Canadians rock and their hospitality is astounding!!… bet you get hooked… wow I just managed to turn an annoying encounter with a mosquito into an uplifting and inspiring moment…huh.
4. big ass noisy fly: …um….sorry….he didn’t make it.

2:13 a.m…..well that killed a few minutes…..now I’m still sick…. only slightly overheated and cooling down….. and the mosquitoes seem to be feasting on the humans upstairs and the fly is…well…gone…. huh…wonder what’s on the food network?                 

night night

the hesitant loyalist......

So we just came off the first full weekend of farmers markets for the 2014 season….WOW what a mixed bag of emotions that was! It’s always a big deal…for me at least….of course not everyone is a type A perfectionist like me that ultimately just needs to chilllllllll-lax…ya, k…I know...and maybe one day I will….but in the meantime lets get this party started! ...hmmmm, how many balls can I juggle at once? 

I always like to do something new each year and besides a new delicious flavour of CHILI & LIME chicken jerky…and a sticker line promoting Earth conscious farming......I also pulled some custom t-shirts out of my bag! BOOYAH! 

enter MARKETING 101….

That's right.....in a stroke of brilliance I decided we needed to be....THAT family….you know, the one you can pick out of a crowd wearing matching t-shirts...usually at an amusement park…..you know who I am talking about....yup that’s us!! …. LOUD AND PROUD…. it's actually quite funny because I always mocked my mother for dressing my brother and I in matching outfits…. OH WOW... OK.... here ya go folks.... and it's not even Thursday…. 1978…..my older brother and I are both dressed in matching handmade brown velour one-piece jumpers…I kid you not!  

SEE ~ told ya!...thanks for the pic mom

In an attempt to break free from that 'image'....not of us cuz we're pretty friggin' cute... and the potential mockery later when the children inevitably discover we aren’t the coolest people on Earth… I reinvented the 'theme' in a cool tie-dye kinda way (think marketing....)...our shirts are all unique designs but with matching gold, green and blue tie-dye!! The idea seemed super cool from a marketing standpoint ~ we printed on catchy phrases like, “grass isn’t just for rolling in” and “know your food ~ ask my dad” for the kids and “know your farmer, know your food” for us…..we asked an amazingly talented tie-dye artist (Goodies by Maryse) to custom make our shirts and they turned out amazing!!! ..... I mean awesome right?! ...in an eye-catching, attention seeking, living in a fish bowl kinda way... LOCAL, LOUD AND PROUD!!!…. right?….. um ya!…. riiiiight….. okay…. I need to confess something…. getting ready Sunday morning with everyone dressed in matching shirts made the introverted me wonder if I could actually commit to this attention….you see, I couldn’t help but feel a wee bit weird about wearing them….don’t get me wrong! I’m totally proud of the farm and the marketing opportunity of this endeavour has certainly not gone unnoticed....and the kids and Farmer Luke LOVE wearing them ….but I have to admit…I was hesitant donning my shirt for the market….why you ask? …. Good question! … am I not a team player? ….don’t I want to shout out to the world that we’re on a journey to feed our community and we need you to come along for the ride?....wasn't I loyal?... OK....it really wasn't that philosophical.....it's just... I couldn't help feeling….. a bit like….. the Griswolds of the farmers market…
 

meet the Griswolds - 1983

I know my 80’s sentimentality was getting the better of me and there was nothing to be embarrassed about…..it's just the image of us in my mind and perhaps some residual subconscious insecurity from around 1978 (love ya mom!!)...left this nagging feeling in me...

BUT you know what?!….. IT DIDN'T LAST LONG.... after hanging with the fam all day talking about the farm and being able to easily spot Ms. Rea and Mr. Fab Finn out of the sea of peeps at the market as they ran back and forth from our booth to the kid zone …. (cue "aha!" moment and instant kinship with THOSE families at the amusement park...I get it man ;) ...OH and informally winning the best mother/daughter outfit of the day…. I have to say I AM PROUD to be a Griswold and YES, you CAN spot us out of a crowd in our tie-dye uniforms of gold, green and blue….and in the end...I guess that’s kinda the point!  

MEET THE GRISWOLDS

 

LOUD AND PROUD Ms. Forrest Rea

peace loving Mr. Fab Finn

funky Farmer Luke

and that's me....Granola Girl...too legit to quit!

LOCAL, LOUD AND PROUD BABY!!

Tipping WWOOFers......and I don't mean cash.

When in Canada canoe right? It made sense to us (note the past-tense) and we just so happened to have a canoe AND a river along the farm….BOOYAH…come hop on the Canada train wwoofers!

um…ya…

....we were wrong…it’s not that easy….

Haurki, our second EVER wwoofer was from Japan and had been to school in BC the previous year and was wwoofing his way to Toronto to catch his flight home. Really sweet kid….and we were his last hosts.

Haurki getting a lesson from Ms. Forrest Rea

Well one evening Farmer Luke asked him if he wanted to go fishing down at the river (which incidentally is chock a’ block full of hungry pike) ~ Haurki’s eyes lit up in excitement… “Oh YES please” ….in order to round off this ‘Canadian experience’ Farmer Luke decided they should fish from the canoe! But of course…you’re in Canada right….and we want to give you an honest feel for the culture ~ bring on the CANOE!! Farmer Luke went about loading the gear, strapping the canoe to the roof of the truck and making sure he had his phone and life jackets ~ READY. STEADY. GO!! And they were off…I stayed behind with the kids and anticipated their return….

and what a return it was!! ....the door opened to a ….

Soaking.

shivering.

Bootless.

Farmer.

.…with a dripping phone…

ahem…ummm….chuckle….sorry….giggle…snort...SO SORRY!!...

the story goes………

Farmer Luke loaded himself, the gear and Haurki into the canoe….having foresight enough to establish that Haurki couldn’t swim, Farmer Luke provided a life jacket….the Farmer did not wear one because he could swim…and he didn’t think it was that deep anyway…..so no life jacket BUT he did have on his brand new shiny gum boots that had arrived 4 days prior from New Zealand as a present from his parents….smart farmer always prepared for mud. Anyhoo…they were enjoying the evening floating and fishing when Haurki’s hook got caught on a branch…always a helpful fisherman….Farmer Luke said he’d grab it…well whether it was Haurki’s inability to completely understand Farmer Luke’s unique ‘kiwi canadianese’ or his insatiable need to assist…either way… Haurki thought he’d lean in and hold the branch for Farmer Luke….well…..common canoe knowledge tells you that two people leaning on the same side of a canoe does not make for happy canoeing….SPLASH!!!.....or maybe just more of a…SLUUURP! ...as the river engulfed the canoe sending gear and wwoofer bobbing and floating away……and clever Farmer Luke had his new gum boots on and his phone primed in case of emergency! giggle

Farmer Luke described the scene as such…..I quickly realized that I had to let me boots go or else drown…have you ever tried to swim in gum boots?.....well, no…I’d never wear boots in a canoe any good Canadian knows that… I THOUGHT TO MYSELF… well you don’t swim you sink! It’s like having a couple of led sinkers attached to your feet!...so I had to let them go…but I had a good look around so I know where they are if I want to get them back ….INTERESTING… holding my tongue… once I dumped my boots I gathered all the gear as Haurki bobbed in the distance observing the entire scene with a look of extreme concern and apology…once I got us all to shore, including the sinking canoe… Haurki broke the silence with a “SO sorry...and you lost your new boots...I’m SO sorry!!!”...all I could do is laugh!...there was nothing I could do about the boots or the phone it had happened ....and looking at us it WAS pretty friggin' funny!

 

OK….so once bitten, twice shy right?….um, ya right. From that experience we learned:

1. Do not wear shoes in the canoe…of any type.
2. Utilize water-proof bags for any electronics. Putting the phone in a bowl of dry rice for days may have contributed to the remaining limited functions of the unit…..however avoidance would be the best solution.
3. Teaching canoeing and fishing for the first time to anyone should be done as separate activities…  

OK…..so flash forward to two weeks ago when Linda, a really sweet girl from Germany, ventured out on her canoe trip…..what were we thinking?.....I went off to run errands while Farmer Luke got her prepared and set her off…..when I got back Linda was home.....not a good sign. 

So the story goes….

Farmer Luke approached this canoe trip with the gift of hindsight ensuring the following was in place:

1. All shoes were off
2. Phone was in a waterproof bag
3. Life jacket was on
4. AND…no fishing gear was in sight!

OK….we’re good to go! ….er…I mean…YOU are good to go…See Ya Linda!!

WHAT? ….you’ve never canoed before?....it will be fine…. just paddle....she seemed so confident..... 

That’s right! Linda went out on her own having never been in a canoe before….OH and that’s not all….it was also a ridiculously WINDY day! BUT I’m sure that when the inevitable tipping occurred she was ever so grateful that she didn’t have any shoes on and that she could call for help once she made it to shore….YAY US! high-five foresight!!....of course what we didn’t factor in was the 10 mins getting to shore…in spring water….in April….that’s cold! The rescue involved knocking on doors and backyards but Farmer Luke was able to save yet another wwoofer from a canoeing mishap….feeling horrible for her (but also seeing the humour and the story-telling benefits) I decided to round off her Canadian Canoeing Catastrophe with s’mores around the bonfire ….#whenincanadaeh

Linda capping off her canoeing adventure with her first ever s'more

So now what have we learned about wwoofers and canoes? ….tell them these two stories and let them make up their own mind…. sometimes you gotta live life to laugh…making memories one tipped canoe at a time ;)

***no wwoofers were harmed in the making of these stories

So I stole the new farm dog……

While I was away for work this past week a number of new and exciting adventures began on the farm….

The first call came just after the kids' bedtime my first night away…picking up the phone expecting to hear “Forrest won’t sleep unless you say good-night to her” but instead I was greeted with a chorus of “WE HAVE A NEW PUPPY AND HER NAME IS BELLA!!!” ….what the?....  Ohhhhh…. kkkaaaaaaay?!... I did know this might have been a possibility but I had not quite committed to the thought at that point… slight shock swam over my body as I contemplated what this meant…you see, I have never had a puppy before… we grew-up in a ‘cat household’ and our Greywacke Jones and Burt are testament to my historical devotion to cats…but now a DOG?! WOW that concept both frightened and excited me ~ the challenge was mutually daunting and a curiosity ~ the loyalty was equally irritating and intriguing… my mind was spinning...luckily I had two more nights to sleep on it...

….the next morning I awoke wondering how this ‘puppy’ was getting accustomed to the new environment and how the kids were reacting ~ curiosity got the better of me and I ventured into the arena of interrupting the morning routine in order to get the lowdown on Bella’s first night… in a brief discussion I heard that it wasn't as smooth as was hoped because in order to train Bella as a working ‘farm dog’ there was a ‘hands off’ policy and apparently she just seemed bummed… OH NO!! POOOOOOOOOR BELLA!.... Farmer Luke should NOT have told me that....as that was the beginning of her demise as a working ‘farm dog’…..

…the next two days/nights involved me checking up on her regularly and asking detail upon detail about her day and her disposition… and to make matters worse… Farmer Luke, who is hopeless on a computer (he'll happily attest to this), was unable to provide me with a picture of this new….fluffy…. baby….. puppy…. that needed….. ME….er…. I mean the FARM …ahem…..so yaaa, OK... I’ll keep my hands off her and respect the ‘training’… for the sake of the farm…no probs!............

…on the morning of my departure the second adventure of the week arrived....I got a very special call from our little Forrest Rea saying... “Moooommy? Mommy! Moooooommy! We have a new baby cow! Socks had her baby!....Oh ya! Oh ya! Oh ya! Whoop Whoop! OoooooH YA!” …. by the way, we tend to breakout in dance whenever something exciting happens…..*insert image*….Farmer Luke then came on the line and was clearly bursting with excitement ~ exploding with delight and beaming with confidence ~ it was a magical moment as it represented the beginning of the first calving season at Earth’s Harvest Farm….then it hit me....we are actually realizing this amazing dream that two years ago wasn't even in our vocabulary…Farmer Luke knew it too..I could hear it in his voice…..fighting off the urge to further romanticize about the enormity of the event, I listened as Farmer Luke painted the picture of what this meant for the farm and the pastures…. so exciting and we still had one more birth to go....

…my arrival home was full of anticipatory butterflies and giggles of homecoming as I was met by Ms. Rea and Farmer Luke at the train station ~ the drive home was a frenzy of excited natter covering various topics of animal husbandry and the ‘know how’ and ‘what to do’ when rearing a working farm dog that will protect the herd from predators….I was certainly drawn into the ‘idea’ of a working farm dog and I understood the need for one at this initial stage…I agree the concept is actually really COOL….um ya…the CONCEPT was great....but putting it into PRACTICE was a complete FAIL....on my part. 
 
immediately.

the moment I set eyes on her.

I didn't even think twice I just dove right in....hands off what? 

completely unabashed.

HONESTLY!! What was Farmer Luke thinking?…did he actually think for one minute I’d be able to resist the temptation to snuggle and cuddle and love and care for this…not so small…12 week old fluffy white puppy? I mean COME ON I’ve never had a puppy before...my defenses are pretty much non-existent ~ what the hell do I know? I just see fluffy white adorable puppy….nothing more….nothing else......ain’t naiveté adorable?! 

….it instantly became “PUPPY PLAYTIME” and the kids and I spent the entire evening outside playing and loving-up our new Bella….er....I mean....the ‘working farm dog’… Farmer Luke kept his distance probably in hope of fixing any damage this unfettered fun might cause….but by day three he had to step up and crush our frolicking antics….OK…the truth is…by day three I pulled the plug on the working farm dog thing and declared Bella to be part of the family….that’s right…I’m a mama bear and if you think I’m going to ignore a white fluffy puppy on my property until the barn is finished you’ve got another thing coming!  

Sorry Farmer Luke….the sheep can have a Llama

To round off our week of new adventures...Sunday night the second and final calf was born ~ calving season is officially over at Earth’s Harvest Farm and our first 100% organic grass-fed herd of Angus is underway!!!!!!!  

Woohoo Woohoo WHOOP oh ya oh ya WHOOP WHOOP oh YAAAAA!
*happy dance time* 
 

end-of-market-madness ….

Market Day is like the opening night of a well rehearsed play ~ roles have been given, everything has been planned and prepared….there is an energy in the air as you wait for the final set up…it’s magically personal in the beginning of the season but by the end it’s another kinda special… #farmingwitha2yearold

I don’t mean to pop the proverbial bubble but harvesting, cleaning, bagging, pricing, signing, and displaying veggies and other gastro delights are all tasks that are both fun and predictable madness all season long. Let me illustrate with an example from a couple of years ago…..

It’s 5 a.m. sunday morning and Farmer Luke and I get up EVER SO QUIETLY in fear of waking Ms. Rea, who at this time was approaching two…. the thought of having to add that level to our morning was shattering to contemplate... so… without a word we creep downstairs and out the door… Granola Girl attends to cleaning, packaging, pricing and signage for the veggies as Farmer Luke delivers it from the fields…. naught a word is spoken…. partly because we are focused on task... and partly because at that hour the moment is fragile with exhaustion and we are ever fearful that the quiet will be broken…. so we just work… OH and smack mosquito after mosquito as the humidity rises…. I’ll agree there is a sense of peace and beauty in this early morning silent dance and for a moment I get swept up into the meditation....ahhhh.... then…… huh?…...damn. I hear the little footsteps coming down the stairs…. it’s like you get sucked back into this other existence and instantly you SHIFT GEARS….screeeeeech as the wheels lock…..

And so the juggling begins ~ consider this Act 2 of this grand play. Remember Ms. Rea is our little farm girl who wants to help in any and every way possible… cute?…yes. charming?…sure. adorable?…absolutely! BUT it’s also untimely…. to say the least.

Farmer Luke and I flounder around taking turns entertaining her with small manageable tasks as we manoeuvre the minefield of potential power struggles and sudden tantrums…and for the most part we succeed without injury…soon that wonderful silent dance turns into a square dance as Mr. Finn joins the foray. Although forever talking to himself or anyone who will listen, Mr. Finn is easily entertained with a few pieces of lego or a good book ~ as long as you listen to his commentary…on and off…..as best you can…all morning long......sigh.

So needless to say the romanticism of having a family farm and all working cohesively together happily taking the bounty to market is somewhat of a fallacy…at this stage in our life… the reality is we are just trying not to be late ~ we aren’t thinking of much else…and after being up late the night before and getting up at dawn and not stopping in between and adding a layer of Ms. Rea and a layer of Mr. Finn, plus mosquitoes and humidity…well I challenge any semi-stable individual to attempt THAT every weekend ALL summer long and still see ANY SENSE OF ROMANCE of the farm or otherwise! .....OK maybe it’s not that bad…but I’m a special kind of me and I’m prone to moments… :)

….one of my more extreme end-of-market ‘moments’ and one I am reminded of every so often….involved……McDonalds. YES, I am well aware of the lack of nutritional components of McDonalds and don’t get me started on the use of toys to drag your children into their corporate clutches ~ hey...I’m Granola…I’m all ‘Supersize Me’ed up…I get the issues…trust me...I do. …Buuuuut I’m also a mom who juggles an enormous amount of voluntary pressure which results in situations that have me breaking down and living the reason fast-food exists…it’s true….not very often but it has been known to happen…and sometimes at the worst opportunity….let me explain...

…after a particularly ‘fun’ and ‘romantic’ late night early morning market day at the end of the season I was completely spent…in so many ways…remember I also work full-time and travel loads…ya…dude.... I. AM. NUTS. …k, flash back to this particular day.... somehow I made it to McDonalds….I don’t honestly know how… I’m sure survival had a part to do with it and I suspect the children GPS’d me there… it was late in the season and my defenses were down… apparently two boxed processed chicken meals with an age and gender appropriate toy were purchased and distributed… I remember arriving at the farmers market flustered, exhausted, anxious and LATE (I hate to be late…). I piled the children onto the stroller with their Rotten Ronnies… without thinking I turned the corner heading towards our beautiful market stand full of nutritious organic grass-fed incredible goodness… smiling happily to the Farmer and relieved I had finally made it…..um….WITH TWO CHILDREN EATING McDonalds IN PLAN VIEW…….WTF!! Honestly. sigh.

Yup. The worst...right?....nope…it gets worse… A friend of ours who is also a vendor was serving a very large group of market customers… he paused what he was doing and said at the top of his lungs…..”MCDONALDS? What are you doing feeding your children McDonalds? Do you KNOW what she does people? She owns an organic grass-fed farm!! Her husband is a farmer!”

….what? the what! ...blink…blink….. SERIOUSLY?... ummm….I felt smaller than a 1 inch nugget…

Gulp.

All eyes on me…

…do I take it away from them as I fumble to explain myself then head over to our stall?

I knew he was kidding in his own way….and I was able to laugh it off with an “I’M ONLY HUMAN and sometimes you have to do what you have to do”…but the disappointment was evident as I walked up to Farmer Luke and he was looking at me with half a smile and eyes saying, “you are such a goof ~ what were you thinking?! I’m never going to let you forget this one! hahahaha” ….that’s just it…..I WASN’T thinking…and he hasn’t stop reminding me…. 

...it has since been diagnosed as ‘end-of-market-madness’….and I'm working on it.

 

Granola Girl: if you need me I'll be in here for the rest of the season

The Deconstruction of a farmer ~ 25/25/50 = school/experience/instinct

In our family Ms. Forrest Rea and Farmer Luke are both extremely intuitive about farming. Forrest has ALWAYS wanted to be in on the action happily following Farmer Luke whenever he would let her tag along. Her gentleness, compassion and instinct with reading the animals and their behaviour is amazing to watch….she has pretty much been happily strapped to Farmer Luke from birth, puttering around going about the chores. It’s truly adorable to watch as they are clearly cut from the same cloth and the intuitive instinct Farmer Luke exhibits is certainly present in Forrest too.

Forrest would happily sit and talk to the chickens as Farmer Luke went about the chores

"wawa you wan wawa?" ~ always a helper!

for the first two seasons this was their daily routine

she now insists on gathering HER eggs...so we've been told...

this little 3 foot ninja will be running the show in no time!

As I’ve said, Farmer Luke is truly exceptional in his intuition about farming and knowing the land. For instance, when I met him he could read the sun and be within 15-20 minutes of the exact time….I am not kidding….trust me on this because I would test him at every random opportunity…hoping to stump him and catch him up BUT 9 times out of 10 he was bang on! just plain nuts if you ask me…in a crazy primal kind of way. The guy can also read grass ~ that’s right. Grass! ….and various other ground cover. I know…he went to school for pasture management and much of it was learnt by experience farming in three different countries…BUT nonetheless the man knows the nutrient value of grass based on its height on his gum boot!!….this kinda blows me away …I mean….who else do you know that can do that? Seriously.  

I've been told this is some good grass....

DIRT 101 - by Farmer Luke: bend it and if it cracks then it's sandy loam (preferred) ~ if it doesn't break then it's clay...."Ohhhhh. O.K."

...ANNNNNND  my all time personal favourite example of Farmer Luke’s incredible intuitive instinct at its very best (so far) involved: a bear, some cattle, a few other farmers and a cow whisperer…..

the story goes....Farmer Luke got a call early one morning by a farmer down the way who had been out all night looking for his cows that had broken through the fence after being spooked by a bear. Always willing to help a farmer he was there in a matter of minutes. After they mended the fence and one botched attempt to get the cows back into the paddock, the other farmers went off back to the barn to fetch the tractor and some grain...cuz obviously the only option is to coax them out by spreading grain right?.....ya. right! While they were gone Farmer Luke knew just what to do...he went to the middle of the paddock and lay down in the grass for a lovely mid-morning nap.....don't get me wrong....this was a well-intentioned manouver by a well-seasoned farmer (...and a sleep deprived dad...) ~ while the other farmers were still off busy getting the equipment ready and grain loaded...Farmer Luke was snoozing away....finally, he awoke to the familiar sound of...

sniff.

..sniff sniff.

...snort.

..sniffffffffff...

knowing this sound all too well he jumped up just before the first lick came splashing down on his face ~ GOT YA! WHOOP WHOOP 

farmer 1/cows 0

By the time the other farmers were back with all their equipment Farmer Luke had the cows safely back into the paddock and as he would say, "they were happy as" HAHAHAHA love this story for obvious reasons but the best part was how dumbfounded the other farmers were; they had no idea what he had done.....and even after a detailed explanation they still didn't truly believe him......silly silly silly farmers and their machines. 

You see…what Farmer Luke had discovered along the way by befriending cows and managing them on pastures, was that they were naturally curious and if there was something low to the ground and motionless in the grass they would automatically go to it in order to get a sense of what it was. huh! WELL I’LL BE a monkey’s uncle! Who knew? Clearly the other farmers who also raised cows had no idea. Now for the record, assuming anyone is actually keeping a record...HA...this Granola Girl technically did know this trick...but I would never have thought of it and I only know this because Farmer Luke taught me the trick when I made friends with my first calf on the farm in England. I have to say.....it’s a little disconcerting opening your eyes to this….

So all of this to say….the formula for this farmer seems to be 25/25/50 representing 25% schooling + 25% experience + 50% intuitive instinct. It’s that 50% instinct which sets him and Ms. Forrest apart from the rest of us in the family ~ it’s simply undeniable that they exhibit qualities that you just can’t easily learn…those qualities are inherent. Luke is the product of what I see Forrest to be and as a party to that journey I am so excited to watch it bloom. It just doesn’t get better than that! 

And in the end...I’ll learn….