Spring has sprung!

Happy Spring Equinox, everybody.  Today is officially the first day of spring!  A friend shared this picture with me recently, so I am re-sharing.  Presumably the sign is posted outside a nursery.

At the farm, we didn't wet our plants today, but we did have a spring equinox ritual and apprentice welcome lunch to celebrate spring's arrival.  During the event, we shared our intentions for the season--what we each hope to give and receive this year as part of the Soil Born Farms community.  We also each shared an inspirational quote.  I had a hard time deciding between two quotes that really spoke to me yesterday as I was scouring the internet for ideas.  The first:

"Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."   --Helen Keller

This resonates with me because I have embarked upon what could rightly be called a daring adventure, having left a good-paying job and a career to pursue a dream of becoming a farmer. 

The second, which I ended up sharing with the group, was:

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each."   --Henry David Thoreau

 

To me, this quote is about living intentionally, and seizing the moment.  We only live once, and we should make sure life and time don't simply pass us by.

After the ceremony, we each placed an intention stick somewhere on the farm and scattered poppy seeds at the site we selected.  I chose a shady spot under an apricot tree, right next to the new orchard that I helped to plant last month.  I walk past this tree regularly, so the stick will serve as an ongoing reminder of why I am at the farm: to learn a lot, and to share my gifts and skills with others. 

After our first CSA harvest (71 boxes, much bigger than the 5 we did last week!) this morning, we turned to a task quite fitting for the first day of spring: weeding the asparagus patch.  As Barbara Kingsolver points out in her great book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (entire book highly recommended, but at least read the excerpt on asparagus here), the arrival of asparagus heralds the arrival of spring.  Our asparagus patch began the day unrecognizable, with weeds completely engulfing the asparagus stalks such that I had to get down on my hands and knees and stick my face practically in the dirt to find the asparagus needles in the weed haystack.  By the end of the afternoon, we had uncovered several rows of aspragus, transforming the patch into an orderly array of lined-up green spears.  The tangible result of our back-breaking work made it worth the time and energy we invested.  I didn't take a picture of the before or after (sorry!), but in looking for a picture of asparagus on Google images, I found this instead and couldn't resist sharing.

The description accompanying the original picture on the Green BEAN Delivery website reads:

"Aimee the Archer Asparagus grew up along a fence row at Melon Acres in Oaktown, Indiana. Standing by the fence is great for shade, but not for adventure. Aimee always wanted to take up archery and liked to practice on everything from big pumpkins to tiny grape tomatoes to pass the time; of course, she always asked first. Her steady “aim” and strong arms helped her always hit the target! Aimee prided herself in her sassy style and always had to have the latest boots for stomping around in muddy spring weather. Whenever she decided to practice, her friends would cheer and call her “hot shot” and tell her to watch out for the “bull’s eyes” which the cows much appreciated. Annie’s special talent is to practice hard to perfect her skills. Great work, Asparagus Aimee! Take a “bow”!"

Too funny!