Let's sit in my car and drink coffee together. We just pulled up and put it into park, and were about to open our doors… until a bee flew into my open window, and landed on my finger. We realized how perfect it is outside right now, the ideal autumn day- cool and sunny with a crisp breeze, and the view from our seats is beautiful. It's cozy in the car. Why should we sit in the house, surrounded by the same dumb objects that we're always looking at? Sure we could sit on the porch, but when I'm sitting outside, everything expands for me; I'm taken away from the person and towards the horizon. I fill any space that I'm in, and the larger it is the more thinly I'm spread. In my car, we can take the time to admire a pretty little piece of the property that is always bypassed, that's never appreciated in the rush of coming and going. We can soak in each other's vibes. Sip, look around, and talk. When the doors open, we'll be thrown back into our usual world; but in the car, we'll be in our own little bubble. 

Too bad it's just me and the bee, and she's already flown back out the window. 

Another perk of farming: take care of your chefs, and they'll take care of you. I've already mentioned how we all got $50 gift cards to a gastropub that stocks our produce in their kitchen, courtesy of the owner. Today, we traded garlic scapes in exchange for top-quality house-made charcuterie from a local delicatessen. The video posted below is one that I took of Pinot, a Tuscan transplant in the fresh pasta business. He'd been selling his pasta at the farmer's market and through other outlets, but has just recently opened a small restaurant just down the street from one of our farm properties. We had been doing CSA prep when Brian came in and said that we were going to take lunch down the road; we had no idea what was going on, but the prospect of free food and the mention of wine was enough to have us on board. Turns out it was Pinot's opening day, and as a token of his appreciation (Brian is growing a few things with him specifically in mind) he served us wine, fresh caprese salad, roasted peppers with olives, and the best lasagna I've had in my entire life (made with his homemade lasagna noodles, of course). So dangerously delicious.

My time at the farm is at least a quarter of the way over and yet I've never written about what I've actually been DOING here. Without daily (sometimes even weekly) internet use, it's been hard to keep up. When I do get to it, there always seems to be a time crunch; right now, I'm squeezing it in before heading to work in twenty minutes. Ah, well. 

Now that it's getting towards summertime (which supposedly doesn't really start until July!), things have been picking up on both farms- plants need to get into the ground, there's more to harvest, and the weeds are growing more quickly. Last week when I worked with Betsey, we planted a few more rows of brassicas- broccoli, cabbage, and romanesco. We laid down irrigation in the potatoes that we planted a few weeks ago (not by seed or transplants, but by 'seed potatoes'... basically just old potatoes that are starting to sprout). Shoot thinning in the vineyard has been another priority, which is pretty fun to do once you feel confident that you (mostly) know what you're doing. Usually we work Tuesday-Saturday because we have the farmer's market on Saturday, but I put in an extra half day of work on Sunday for Betsey: hoed in the onions and brassicas, shoveled manure, and pulled grass and shoot pruned in the vineyard. I ended up working on Monday for Brian, too, in exchange to take Tuesday off to drive to Sequim for some one-on-one time with John Erskine (draft horse/people trainer extraordinaire). 

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, work with Brian always entails at least half a day of harvesting and prepping produce for his CSA, usually followed by planting or fiddling with irrigation, plastic, or greenhouses. Prep is my least favorite task, so I enjoy working Mondays instead- one Monday, we mostly just cleaned eggs and weeded. This one past, we planted zucchini for almost the entire day, followed by peas. 

Ah, shit- time to go to work. So let me take this last second to say that I got to drive a team of horses for the first time yesterday and it was totally rad!! (Up to now, had only driven singles)

on the cutting board

brassicas lay in limbo

a quick breakfast shoot 

(and yes, they're from our farm)

And after the sun had set, we stayed and star-gazed

And at 1 am, we all awoke and away'd 

Finishing off the potatoes from last year, and clinking our glasses to those yet to come 

Some crappy, quickly-taken webcam photos of my wifi haunt for the last couple of weeks: Pegasus Coffee. Incredible breakfast/lunch menu, full bar, and super delicious coffee (my favorite breve in town, so far).