August 02, 2004
Jack's Not Dull
"The turnip express leaves at 6 a.m.", Lorenz said last night, "anyone not there then has to walk up the hill". I'd just announced that I would take advantage of my day off and take pictures of the morning harvest. "The turnip" is the van, which does the morning commute up to the field and comes back a couple of hours later full of vegetables. Harvest is always early in the morning, since you should pick greens before the dew is off them to keep them fresh and wonderful.
I didn't catch the turnip, though. I watched them load it up with crates from the comfort of my bed (perks of having the farm work happen right outside your window!), and then I had a nice long cup of coffee... still, though, I wandered up to the field before 7 a.m. and watched Lorenz and the triplets harvest beets, kale and chicory. J.P. and Justin were busy bunching Kale, and Lorenz and Sean were working in separate rows getting the beets together. Justin then moved on to do the chicory, but Lorenz, perhaps distracted by my chatter, continued with the beets. Since he looked like such an idealized farmer at that time - red beets, favourite ball cap, crouched in a row of vegetables - I kept snapping pictures of him. Boris, who is of the opinion that all pictures should include him, started posing himself.
Not the whole farm team was up in the fields this morning. The new Spanish volunteer, Lukas, was slumbering away in the trailer, and Tara is off on Mondays. Even if Tara was here, she wouldn't have time to bunch greens. Now that the new roadside stand is open on Wednesdays and Friday, she has markets four days a week. Hauling all those vegetables out to the stand is more work than setting up in the red barn, but also much more eye-catching. The new stand with the striped awning has been garnering its share of attention on the Guelph Line.
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It's a busy time of year for farmers. However, even vegetable farmers take a break from time to time, and Lorenz took the kids to a Renaissance Festival yesterday. They must have had his number, since he got singled out during the show and, according to Malcolm, the Renaissance wench sang a song to Lorenz that included the memorable line "roll me over in the clover and do me again". I'll have you note that this was a kids' show!
H.P. and I were having a peaceful bit of lounging in and around the pool (respecting the no glass by the pool rule, I'll have you note, with beer in plastic cups!) while the gang was at the Renaissance thing, but all that ended as soon as they got home. Spying two rather docile targets, Malcolm armed himself with water balloons and came on down. Fortunately for me, I used the kid-with-glasses line of reasoning ("you can't throw a water balloon at me, I have a camera!") to be spared, and Lorenz - who had taken over the floating lounge chair - became the chief target. Boris, who isn't allowed in the pool, soon started feeling left out, so Lorenz gave him a nice shower from within the pool. Lorenz then reclaimed the blue chair, but apparently he's not yet that good at the whole relaxation thing - he paddled it over to the side of the pool and started weeding the edges! You can take a farmer out of the field, but...