leavings and arrivals.

Today is my last full-time day here at the farm, and I am truly astounded that it's come so quickly.

My leaving has been planned for a long time, as I'm about to start an Americorps position in Greensboro following a trip to WI that begins today....

but, honestly, I still feel rather torn apart and somewhat devastated!

This summer, just as every summer here at Cane Creek, has moved me, challenged me, frustrated me, enlivened me, and changed me, in the most essential and fundamental ways to who I am - as both a being and a farmer.

I know that it's the right time for me to move on, and this departure was 100% my choice (mostly motivated by the fact that I've only just graduated from school, and feel like I'd be limiting myself to not explore my many other passions).

But my heart is full of love for this world, and for Eliza, and for this land, and for my gardens, and I feel like I'm grieving this day in a way that's more painful than I'd anticipated.

I have lots of gaps to fill in describing my garden adventures this summer, and they will be filled as time moves forward and life becomes a little more centered. AND - there are so many more adventures to come!!

Thank you for your attention, and your care, and for reading the ramblings of a somewhat silly, but very alive 22 year old farm gal.

All my love, forever and always.

-Hailey

farmer's markets soothe the soul,

so I thought I'd write again and say something a little more upbeat now that I'm feeling happier. :)

For example.....

-this Saturday I'm all set to pull the summer crops in the lower garden (which are our tomatoes, some of our eggplant, some flowers, & some herbs), to clear space for our fall crops. I'm debating as to just how many of the flower and herb plants I should pull. Our zinnias are still looking soooo lovely, but they also just aren't selling well at the markets. Perhaps I'll just leave a few plants so that we'll continue to have flowers through the end of the summer.

- In the upcoming weeks, starting this Saturday or Sunday after I clear and add organic matter (compost and perhaps some organic fertilizers) to the soil, I'm going to begin our fall plantings! I'm going to plant:

• arugala, chard, collards, kale (including this glorious deep red variety), spinach, new zealand spinach, and 4 varieties of heirloom lettuce
• pumpkins... although I doubt very seriously that they'll make it because a) I'm planting them incredibly late and b) because we had such pest and disease problems in that plant family this year.
• snap peas
• beets (4 different kinds, including an heirloom called a "misato rose"), radishes (3 different varieties), and carrots (4 different heirloom varieties, including a purple variety called "dragon" and a big, fat, super hearty kind called an "oxheart"!)
• cauliflower, broccoli, and brussel sprouts
• and finally, perhaps also some fall blooming flowers, although I haven't yet done the research as to what those would be.

It's a really exciting crop list, especially since most of the seeds are from too companies that I love: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Seed Savers. They specialize in open-pollinated, heirloom seeds, many of which are also organic and many of which have been on our beloved earth for generations and generations, saved by those who grew and loved them. It's amazing to help preserve the biodiversity of crops - plus you get to try vegetables of all colors, shapes, and sizes that you've never seen before!

That's all for now, I suppose. I just got a new part-time job as a bartender in Greensboro, at this fantastic place called "College Hill." However, I have 0 experience so I have to go "practice" pouring liquor... except with liquor bottles full of water, haha.

Hope your days have been fantastic! Tune in later tonight for some veeeery delayed photos of summer crops in the upper garden.

*sigh*.

I'm feeling a little sad this morning. It's probably just the gloominess of the weather on top of the whirlwind of commuting back and forth between Snow Camp and Greensboro that I've been doing as of late, but I guess I'm just feeling a little bit alone in the world.

... which is very silly, as I am practically never alone. ;)

Sometimes when life gets a bit too stressful, or overrun with responsibility.... or there's a goat with an infected hoof wound that needs my attention twice daily, every day - I realize that this is the first time in my life that I've ever really lived with such complete independence. I'm becoming financially independent for the first time, which helps to alleviate the weight of feeling like a financial drain to my folks (I'm an unfortunately expensive child, it seems haha). I'm done with school, at least for awhile, and am finally making choices based on what I really love and feel inspired to do. Which.... is AWESOME! :) However, sometimes on days like this, I also realize that I still have these deep pangs of sadness that arise when I realize that my heart has also changed in difficult ways over these past few years.

Maybe this is a good thing, ultimately. But I hate that insensitive boys and broken hearts have made me so afraid. 

Good lord - I'm being so melodramatic (!). Better close now haha. Off to harvest edamame, peppers, okra, and melons, then prepare for market.

Sending you all my love, beloved friends. Hopefully your mornings are going a little bit more peacefully. <3

lovin, and these summer nights.

Hello everybody :).

 *photo credit to the lovely Hannah Sherk, one of my new housemates!

It's Tuesday night, and I'm in Greensboro, in my new house! For the next year, I'll be living here with some delightful ladyfriends: Hannah, Molly, Melissa, & Sasha. The latter 3 ladies have yet to arrive, but our friend Grace has been staying here and the interim. She's fantastic ~ smart, elegant, creative, and a VERY talented pastry chef with an easy, room filling laugh. I've been here for the past 2 days, finally having some much needed time for rest and relaxation,  and even though I've been utterly exhausted from a long and rather hard week last week, I'm also filled with love for these wonderful women in my life.


Here are some farm updates:

- it's crazy to be writing this, but the summer growing season is coming to a close. Planning, implementing, tending, and harvesting from these gardens of mine have been the primary occupation of my past 6 months, and the prime of their glory and growth is coming to a gentle halt. Tomatoes are done, eggplant is continuing to produce but is waning (the orange eggplant are almost completely done, having succumb to a blight to which the others seem to be immune), sunflowers are fading from fullness, and the watermelon have almost completely finished yielding their sweet fruit. Some crops are still coming in strongly, like zinnias, okra, peppers, and beans. Last week was our first week of edimame, and it. is. FANTASTIC!

I'm quite behind on pictures of these lovely crops (my camera battery died a few weeks ago and I've yet to find a moment to reboot it), but I've taken a good number that I hope to post within the next few days.

Also.... it's time for our fall garden!

I'm so completely delighted about this. We're planning to grow: radishes, beets, spinach, kale, collards, chard, carrots, fall blooming flowers, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, snap peas, onions, and more. I've ordered a delightful assortment of seeds from some companies that I'm completely infatuated with, and in the upcoming days I'll also post links to pictures of these delicious crops and their growing information.

To conclude for the moment, I'd like to share that I recently got accepted into an Americorps program that will begin in September and continue for an entire year! The project is called the "Partnership to End Homelessness," and I'll spend 20 hours a week working for an organization called the Barnabas Network in Greensboro, which focuses on connecting with local faith organizations in order to provide furniture and bedding to families who lack these basic assets. I'm completely stoked. This also basically means that after I plant the fall garden, I'll be moving to one day a week at the farm.

In some ways I'm really devastated about this, but the choice was mine, really. The decision was based on the fact that I'm still SO unsure of what I want to do in this life, and, having just graduated from college, I feel like I need to seize every opportunity to explore my options.

We'll see though... the plan for next year's gardens at Cane Creek is to downsize CONSIDERABLY. I'm going to try and enforce Eliza's plan to have one, small garden to provide for her family and to allow for a beautiful display at market. In essence.... I think we're all really starting to move forward in a way that is both terrifying, and utterly beautiful in its vulnerable newness.

Sweet dreams, dear ones. I wish for us all open hearts and eyes this week, as we delve further and further into the month of August, and our own, unique, and gorgeous journeys.

geez louise it's late.

It's 3AM and I should waaaaaaay already be asleep.

However, this night was incredible! My best friend/life-mate Haley (yes... we do indeed have the same name) is here visiting me for the week, which is a delight in & of itself, but tonight we went to Greensboro and met up with friends for $1 tacos/$1 margarita night... which is, of course, the best night of the week, each & every time! :)

It also just so happened that some musician friends were visiting Hannah, my new roommate and dear friend, and whom are also staying in our house. So, after our bangin' meal we had a private, christmas-tree-lights-lit concertslashjam-session in our living room.

Delightful. And actually - this whole week has really been quite delightful. Except that...

At this very moment, I'm sitting next to a little pig named John Henry, who is about to pass away. It's so tragically sad - not so much that he's dying (death happens so frequently here that I've finally come to accept it as a fundamental element of the life cycle here), but he just seems to be in such pain, and there's not really anything I can do :(.

If death is coming to him tonight, I pray that it comes as swiftly and as painlessly as possible. So, please keep this sweet little Ossabow in your hearts, with a prayer that he will fade gently into the evening sky and be released from the struggles of his young, fragile life.

good morning, thursday.

It is a beautiful Thursday morning, and so I thought I'd help myself get moving by writing a little bit about my plans in the garden today.

Today I hope to....

harvest all of the okra, peppers, and melons that need harvesting in the upper garden. (our okra really is still coming in beautifully!)

figure out what's going on with our bean plants... I kind of made an error with this one. I planted a row of beans, with the help of my family, and then decided to ask Derek to do a second planting of lima beans in between each plant. The problem is that lima bean plants appear to have a pole habit (i.e. - they need a trellis!). As a result they've sort of climbed over the other bean plants, which are still alive but may or may not be producing fruit (beans) at this point. Essentially: crapola! But, I do like to be real with myself about my errors, which is why I feel more than comfortable writing about them here. Today, I need to get in there and face this massive, jumbled pile of beans and set it all straight!

check the edimame plants, which are absolutely lovely, and very close to harvest!

look at the new popcorn plants that I put in the ground last week -- have they germinated yet??

water both gardens - check the pressure on all drip tape lines. (we irrigate with a drip irrigation system, and sometimes minerals or other debris clog up the lines. To check/clean this out, I just go down to the end of each row, turn the nozzel "on",  and let it run for a little while so that the line frees itself of whatever's inside)

Well..... it sounds like today will be an upper garden day! I'm excited and ready for this, as I tend to secretly prefer working in the lower garden because of all the lovely flowers.


Over & out, dear friends!

I think I just broke my toe?!

Okay possibly not ;) - but I stubbed it 45 minutes ago, and it's still throbbing! Oh well... toes are overrated anyway, right?

On non-toe related fronts, life is really looking up. I'm finally feel better (yahooooo!) and have accepted that some days, you really just can't work in this heat (especially when the index has been up to 105).

My folks were here for a few days this weekend, as well as my little sister, Chloe. It was really great to see them, and my parents really helped a lot out in the fields. After a few hours out in the sun, my mom got really fussy and insisted that she buy me a "sun shirt," i.e. - a long-sleeved shirt that is breathable, dries quickly, and has an SPF of at least 30. Although I was initially resistant to this ENDLESSLY dorky idea, I gave in and I think that she may actually have a point after all. I've also been pumping the water, putting electrolyte tablets in my drinks, and chewing on these completely awesome electrolyte gel bars made by Cliff.

Anyhow, news on the farm is: that our tomatoes are still chugging along, although it looks like their peak has passed. I think we should still have a few more weeks of harvests over 200lbs, which is great, as some other farms have already stopped harvesting their heirlooms. Our melons are also passed their peak, which is a little bit sad since we normally have a much longer harvest. With our disease problems, as well as some water pressure issues earlier in the summer, plus this ultra intense heat, we're definitely going to lose our plants early. This makes me sad, but what I'm learning is that with farming - you win some, and you lose some, and all you can ever really do is just the best that you can do. Peppers, okra, and eggplant are still coming in fabulously, as well as zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers. We've also started to plan our fall garden! Stay posted for more on that.

Well, it's 11:22PM and I'm still up in the shop. I just spent several long hours cleaning and sorting the veggies form the 3 markets we do each weekend (Greensboro Curb Market, Carrboro, and Saxapahaw). Now everything's nice and clean, and I can happily head on home.

Thanks for reading, and catch you soon!