Monday Morning Amusement

Quote for the Day

Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries
by Vincent Van Gogh

"A rising tide lifts all the boats."

John F. Kennedy

One recent morning I woke thinking about this quote. I had been at a continuing education class and ended up talking to the woman sitting next to me about the refugee crisis. She shook her head and said she didn't understand people, meaning those who say ugly things about the Middle Eastern refugees who have had to flee their homes, often with only the clothes on their backs. For some reason, many Americans think that their "boat" is the most important, that a prosperous economy is only for those in the global north, and the rest can stay on their beach. It seems to me that a truly beneficial economy does lift all the boats. What we're experiencing now is lopsided and unsustainable. If we are not raising all of humanity out of the depths of poverty, then something is wrong and we need to fix it.

Farm Update

Happy April! This kid is certainly happy that it's April! I thought I missed the shot as I had waited and waited for him to take the leap off the livestock waterer. Just as I had given up, he did it. I've been slowly working my way through The Desire Map and in the workbook section, one of the questions was something like "What animal makes you think of joy?" Immediately I thought about how baby goats seem so joyful!

Now that the weather is nicer and the days are longer, we've been able to take long walks after dinner. Soon, though, we'll have to abandon part of the area we walk in as the ticks are numerous - and I refuse to use deet (and am afraid to try the natural products for fear they won't work). We'll have to be content with walking the more civilized parts of the farm and our country road.

Our new asparagus crowns arrived this week and Bill planted them on Thursday, greatly expanding out asparagus/perennial garden. Due to the nature of these plants, we really won't be able to harvest them for three years! The first year you just let the plants grow, the second year the spears can be harvested for two weeks, then after that we harvest throughout the season. We're already getting yummy spears off our older plants - not enough to sell but enough for us to enjoy. Last night I made an asparagus pizza for dinner.

We finished out the winter farmers' market. The regular market opens in May so we have a little bit of a break. While it wasn't ideal to do a market every Saturday in the winter, it did increase our sales over our usual deliveries and I managed to sell a number of my aprons, something don't typically sell at the market. We'll continue our deliveries of pre-orders until the market re-opens. We have lots of greens coming in and the hens have cranked up egg production.

Today will likely be my last post on this blog. While I've enjoyed blogging about a wide variety of things, it seems my focus here has turned to farming and food. Now that I've taken on an additional role outside the house, I feel that it's time to move on. I'll now be blogging at Simple.Beautiful.Life. I had been contemplating this for some time and now I feel even more drawn to a new kind of blog. This blog will be more fun, feminine, and sometimes frivolous, though sometimes will touch on serious thoughts. I want to focus on a more simple...beautiful...life and decided that calls for a new blog. Thanks to all who have been reading Renaissance Garden. I know some of you will follow me to my new blog while others will say goodbye at this point. 

Have a great spring!

Monday Morning Amusement

Happy Easter and Quote for the Day

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of the Earth and to foster its renewal is our only legitimate hope of survival.

~Wendell Berry

Farm Friday

It might appear as if I've abandoned my blog. I haven't. I had  several blog posts planned but then time slipped away from me. My niece and her husband were in the area so we met them in Greensboro (about an hour away) for dinner one night. My aunt, our son, our daughter-in-law, and our granddaughter joined us so it was a nice family event. A few other events - farm and work - kept me from home so I've had less leisure time than usual which also kept me from blogging.

Spring has sprung in our part of the world. Bill got our seedlings planted yesterday. He worked into the evening anticipating an overnight rain that didn't come. Now he's going to have to lay down the drip irrigation lines. He planted potatoes today and will finish up tomorrow. A friend gave us some thornless blackberry canes and I purchased a couple of raspberry plants. We're going to put them in what has become our perennial/permaculture garden. Our asparagus crowns are shipping next week so we'll have an even larger asparagus bed.

Even though I haven't abandoned blogging, I'm planning some changes soon. I feel with my new job, our returning to a homesteading rather than market farm mindset, and other outside influences caused me to rethink this blog. In the meantime, here are some photos I took around the farm during this evening's paseo:

Beautiful sunset

The tulips I planted last year are coming in

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Have a good week!

Monday Morning Amusement

Hahahaha...