Inspiration

Here are some things that are inspiring me lately:

• Permaculture Voices. This podcast shares stories from people around the world who are producing food differently. My favorite episode so far was with Jean-Martin Fortier, who produces $140,000 worth of vegetables on 1.5 acres in Quebec. I love the idea of having a small, intensively productive piece of land with a focus on efficiency and a resistance to growing in scale. I have his book, The Market Gardener, on request at the library and look forward to learning more. 

• Urban farming. I just watched the above poorly filmed but info-rich video of a talk Curtis Stone gave about his methods in Kelowna, BC. I could really see this working in the Twin Cities, and I know there are already some folks making it happen (like Growing Lots). I'm leaning towards doing something like this next year, but I know that long-term I want to have a 5- to 10-acre homestead that includes animals.

• My own crazy garden. It has problems.

I planted the tomatoes in beds that weren't really ready, so they've been competing with some pretty hardy weeds. I tied them up late and poorly, and the system fell apart, so now the tomatoes are sprawling on the ground. But I have tomatoes, and they're delicious.

I have wonderful, productive cucumbers, trellised by Aaron with branches that fell off our maple tree during a storm.

I have a monster zucchini.

(And hopefully some normal-sized zucchini on the way.)

I have watermelon!!!

The Mexican sunflowers attract bees, butterflies (including monarchs), and even hummingbirds.

I have dill for pickling things.

I have beets!

And carrots!

And lima beans that may or may not mature before frost.

And lovely Swiss chard.

And raspberries that are taller than Aaron.

Hot peppers (some cayenne, some unknown variety) drying in the pantry.

My garden has taught me a lot about the benefits of thinking less and doing more. It's a constant inspiration to pursue a life that has a lot to do with good food. And a constant reminder that not-perfect can still be really awesome.

• Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. Aaron, Karly, and I went on a week-long road trip to Yellowstone and Glacier, and we had a great time. I'm so grateful to have these wonderful people in my life. And I feel even more inspired to continue making the outdoors a huge part of my life and to ensure lots of time for travel. I'm working on getting photos organized, but here are a couple highlights:

Sheep in the Badlands.

Buffalo in the mist at Yellowstone.

Crazy bacterial mats at Yellowstone.

Artist's Paint Pots at Yellowstone.

At Ptarmigan Falls, a quarter of the way through our epic hike to Iceberg Lake at Glacier.

Finally made it to Iceberg Lake at Glacier. Felt like a fairy tale.

Aaron broke the rules and ran off the path to get some pretty amazing photos of the mountain goats at Logan Pass - including this very vocal baby.

I hope other folks are feeling inspired, too. It's nice.

Already August

I need to come to grips with some basic facts:

• It is already August.
• I only have two weeks of work left at Squash Blossom Farm. 
• We're leaving on Friday for a week-long road trip to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. 
• I'm not sure what I'm doing next [month, fall, winter, spring, summer, year - aaahhh!].

Some things I've already come to grips with:

• I love chickens.

My favorite chicken buddy.

• I love camping. Aaron and I spent two nights at Afton State Park in July. This was his first time backpacking and overall a success.

Camping!

Our cute tent.

• I love turkeys.

• I love my nieces. And they love yoga.

• I love Poet. She used to sleep on my bed during the day, but she recently spent one night outside, caught a rat in the barn, felt very proud of herself, and has decided to be an outdoor cat the last couple weeks.

Poet. Rodent exterminator extraordinaire.

• It's possible to get sick of having pizza.
• I actually enjoy making fruit tarts.

Raspberry and red plum tarts with pastry cream.

• Selling bread at the market is much more fun when there's excellent live music nearby.

Music at the Rochester Farmers Market.

• I probably don't want to have cows. LaFonda is currently giving Sue five gallons of milk a day. This leads to a brand of guilt I didn't know existed: milk guilt. Can one really make time to make cheese - and lots of it - every single day? No, one cannot. I've been taking home four gallons a week and having a tough time using all of it. I think I'll prefer the more modest production of a couple goats.

Time to get ready to drive down to the farm for my penultimate week. I've been so grateful to spend my summer outside, get to know some wonderfully hilarious animals, and just... be on a farm. Susan and Roger have such a beautiful place - I hope everyone will visit for the Cow Puja on Sunday, September 28.