Maysies CSA, Middle

Colorful Swiss Chard; not something we pick ourselves. The folks at Maysies harvest enough of whatever is ready each week and place it in the barn for us to pick up. Most crops are picked for us, but usually there is something we can pick ourselves, in varying amounts - - beans, shelling peas, berries, flowers, herbs, and peppers come to mind, but there are many others. 

If you are picking, there had better be a  post like this one at the end of the row, or you are not picking the right vegetable!

I want to point out the pleasure, as someone who has vegetable-gardened a little bit and flower-gardened a whole lot, the guilty pleasure, actually, of harvesting something that you didn't plant, weed, or water. Nope. You didn't get out there and sweat in the sun or nurse those seedlings along, but you do get to just stroll out to the bed and harvest away. Nice.

This picture is of the row-end supports for the blackberries. Oh, the blackberries. The supports are spaced a few yards apart and the berries form tunnels, shady tunnels humming with bees. On berry days you enter with your basket or flat container and pick the ones that just jump into your hand. Yum.

 When I took the picture below I said aloud, "I'm waiting for you" and then realized what I'd done and looked to see if anyone was around. Really, if I noticed some lady crouching in the bushes with a camera and muttering vaguely creepy things, I would call 911.

When I entered the barn, compost was being sifted. I love compost. We compost at my house, and I look forward to the day when I dump the bins onto a screen and sift through what was once banana peels, eggshells, and the discarded root ends of vegetables or otherwise unusable parts. Coffee grounds, tea bags, apple cores, pistachio shells - all of it turns into a rich, moist, black, amazing addition to the soil. It's perfect. 

Next, and last, Maysies post: Actual food.