Clickety Clack, Pause, Whoosh: Veggie Share Week #10 – 8/9/23
Clickety Clack, Pause, Whoosh
This past weekend I took my kids to Noah’s Ark. As an enviromentalist, I have feelings about the Dells and waterparks in general, but as a parent I recognize that my kids absolutely LOVE water parks and so while they are at this age where they enjoy it, I’m all in with taking them during the brief summer.
One of Noah’s Ark’s rides is called Flash Flood. It’s a boat that takes about 20 people at a time up a roller coaster-like track and then down one small vertical drop into a pool of water. The boat makes an enormous splash. One can get wet on the ride itself or hang out on a walkway above and get sprayed by the boat from a distance.
The way up on the boat feels slow. It’s noisy too. You can hear the metal gears clickety clacking as the chain pulls the boat to the top.
Once at the top, the boat is freed from the chain. It quietly makes one turn as it poises itself above the drop. It’s a time of pause where there isn’t much going on. No gut wrenching noisy escalation. Not yet the drop. Just the quiet pause.
If you are like me, this silence is exciting! I know the drop is coming.
Suddenly the boat whooshes downward. Then bam – you are soaking wet and a little cold, wondering how the descent happened so quickly.
As back to school vibes are in the air, as we hit the halfway mark of the veggie share season, as we prepare to say goodbye to crew members who are teachers or students, I find myself reflecting on where we are in the season. I can’t help but think about Flash Flood.
Here at the farm, we are in the pause.
The clickety clacking of the season has just recently quieted. All of the direct seeding is complete. All of the greenhouse seeding is complete. Most of our hand weeding projects are complete. Very little transplanting is left to do. Our full crew is still on staff. Field tomatoes aren’t on full force yet. Potato harvesting is on the horizon.
Here we pause. Here on week 10, a seasonal transition is afoot. We aren’t clickety clacking up, but the whoosh hasn’t started quite yet.
But in just a week or two, the whoosh will be upon us. We’ll be doing nothing but harvesting and everything will be just a little simpler, a little less complicated. The remainder of the season will fly by quickly until we are standing cold in the Brussels sprouts field, wondering how the descent happened so quickly.
Enjoy the bounty! (We are throwing in a musk melon for most of you, because they were ready! Some of you will receive cherry tomatoes too! We are circulating them through the sites)
Farmer Cassie
