This season...

I've decided that avoidance is not a good tactic...I haven't been here since April, and there's a reason for that. First, before i go any further, let me say this: we have, bar none,  

The.Most.Awesome.CSA. Members. Ever. 

That has always been the case, but this season has been 'special', and their efforts have been even more meaningful than in the past. If that is possible.

The weather, all spring, has been difficult. And I'm being polite here. Torrential rains, evenly spaced, have meant planting and re-planting. The ground has been saturated, the soil packed down. Veggies do not like this...I heard Will saying this morning to someone...'plants cannot grow in mud' and that is the truth. But that is what we have been battling since March. Case in point:

This looks like a perfectly respectable corn patch. yes. Tasseling, setting ears, all the right stuff. However, if you were standing in front of it, you'd be laughing (to keep from crying). because the corn is probably 5 ft. tall. or short.Or whatever you want to call it. It's doin' it's thing, but it's tiny. For corn.And this has been the season so far, in a nutshell. Things are stunted. The cucumbers were set out maybe 5 weeks ago. maybe 6, i cannot remember. and there they sat. And did not grow. Because it rained and rained. Yes, they have now 'busted a move'. as we like to say, as has the squash, which behaved the same way for weeks.
I like to porch-sit in the evening and try to count our blessings in the garden. Let's see; The garlic will be good. the squash is finally 'making'. The field tomatoes are promising (but the hothouse tomatoes are trying so hard as the greenhouse gets flooded over and over). After replanting then finally plowing under the red beans, the field peas (replacement beans) look pretty good. We will have awesome flowers at some point.
But it's just been hard. That's all there is to it. And our members come out every week and they work and smile...we love them.
We have yet to start our CSA distribution for this season. That is amazing in itself. But we will begin next weekend, on the 1st, on our 39th wedding anniversary. We are DETERMINED to make a good season out of this, a year in which nature is NOT cooperating. But that is farming, right?

Here. A bright spot. beautiful lettuce.

Well. Everybody went home today with lots of squash and rosemary. I'll be glad to get this show on the road next weekend. And I am also glad I have a place to go and say what I have to say (that would be right here). Not all seasons will result in the 'Disneyland Effect' we have perhaps become to used to these past years. But there will be plenty of good food. Will explains that the curve of the season will just be different his time around. From the looks of things, the beginning has been slow, and the production will all happen in a cluster in the middle somewhere, about the end of June,. beginning of July. The shape of the garden will just be different this time around.

More later, but I had to start somewhere.....