the farm | these days...

the sunflowers are racing the barn to see who can touch the clouds first.
the blueberries are bubbling.
the new lavender whisper secrets in the breeze.
the path engulfs. 
&
i find myself celebrating my fourth summer here on the farm. i have had the immense privilege to witness exquisite beauty and growth, both around and inside each of us here.

 

fruit.

during the summer, the farm is prolific -- plums, apricots, blueberries, blackberries, corn, sunflowers, squash, flowers, tomatoes, herbs, greens... but what often gets forgotten are these beauties. (eh, they're probably better for picture taking anyway.)

for the love of family :: part ii

the second day of my parents' visit (dec 26), my mom insisted that we go an pick persimmons from my neighbor's yard. granted that i had never met them before, i was a bit reluctant to just romp on over there and ask them if i could pick the persimmons i had been drooling over this past winter. it seemed, well, a bit weird. (even for me...who will talk to just about anyone.)

lucky for me, this gave me the perfect reason to go. my parents were the ones who really wanted to pick the fruit, not me. i was just there to help facilitate the exchange. um. yeah. (insert echo here: yeah!)

i have to say, i thought i was an enthusiastic gal...but my mom is quite the energetic one. she looks really confident up on that ladder, but when asked, she expressed how scared she was to be on on the ladder. yet, she climbed up without any qualms and picked every good lookin persimmon her little arms could reach. we - i mean she - picked about 30 lbs...i'm sure of it.







meet alice. she lives on the property with her brother and mom.


the damage was done.



ps. all of the pictures here (except for the very first one) is straight out of the camera.

screaming angel

i met this little girl at the farmers' market last sunday.























in fact, it was my first time at the mountain view farmers' market and i was really impressed. if i were there by myself, i would've shamelessly consumed loads of free washed and cut up fruit. the best thing about the fruit that the vendors have to sample is that they know which ones are the tastiest, so you're probably getting the best white nectarine ever OR the one that's about to go bad in 10 minutes. either way, my mouth is happy.

orange monster

scrambled fresh

I finished the last of an egg scramble I made yesterday morning for breakfast. Garlic, onions, blue cheese, fresh bell peppers and tomatoes from the garden. I harvested most of the peppers since they weren't getting any larger. They are in shade most of the day except between sunrise and about 8am, which isn't enough sunshine to make them grow. They look large in the picture below, but it's only an illusion since those tomatoes are only about an 1" in diameter.

On a side note, I love having a slice of toast (whole grain wheat or cracked wheat sourdough) with a generous portion of butter every morning as I run out the door. Then about halfway until I hit the freeway, I pull out the first persimmon of the day. I've been consuming about 3-5 a day; I am passionate about persimmons. Rar. At 69 cents per pound, I've been rollin in the money...actually, the persimmons.

I'm off to Pt. Reyes, and am running late because I wanted to update my blog before I took off for the weekend, but I'll have some great pictures to post when I get back on Saturday. (I hope!)