G'Day Folks,
As I write this week's newsletter I’m sitting on a small hill which overlooks our largest dam. The sun has just ducked down behind the tallest tallowoods and a rather large camphor laurel tree. I’m sitting here waiting for the last crop of winter vegetables to be irrigated. We don’t yet have an automatic timer so it’s a good excuse to sit in the field and just admire all that is going on.
Our calendar is still telling us it’s winter, but as I rest on a soft patch of clover, I am witnessing what seems to look and feel a lot more like Spring. As for the birds, bees and butterflies, they know only too well that Spring has arrived early. Even our vegetables predicted things were going to be much warmer than usual. The Cauliflower heads were beginning to swell open far quicker, and the Gai Lan was shooting its flower stems out at lengths not previously imagined.
The winter veggies know the weeds have woken up from their winter slumber and they must focus all their energy towards keeping their flower petals above the canopy of weeds encroaching swiftly from beneath. These earlier than usual warm days send the winter crops into a right old tizzy. They are panicking, the clock is ticking for them to set seed. Summer is coming and the sun will be far more ferocious soon. The summer heat will suck them dry and force them to wither back down into the trillions of rapacious mouths waiting beneath the soil to devour their skeleton.
As I sit here and listen, I can't help but think “Spring is unbelievably noisy”. Not in an annoying way, such as the roar in an overcrowded restaurant with poor acoustics. But like the sound of kids playing happily in the distance while running around in Nan’s garden. It’s as if every insect, frog and bird is over excited with the early arrival of this warm weather. I can't blame them for being so enthusiastic, it must be tough not having a fireplace or a roof when it rains during these winter months. Unlike ourselves, these guys were freezing their backside off every night, only to half starve during the day due to the slim winter pickings. I hope someday I can be as in tune with the seasons as these lot are (minus the freezing and starving part of course).
This morning we packed your fruit and veggie boxes and the humidity during the very early hours was quite unbelievable for this time of year. We get out of bed around 3am depending on how much time you want to give yourself before starting at 4am. It’s quite funny to think of everyone’s different morning routine. Dad likes at least an hour to execute his morning rituals before starting work. If his regimented morning is rushed because of hitting the snooze button too many times (this is a rare occasion), well, it's a bit like trying to start an old car engine without using the choke. Mum lives her life at the opposite end of the spectrum, she throws the doona cover back 10 or sometimes only 5 minutes before it’s time to start packing orders. And does what seems like the impossible somersault out of bed, into her work clothes and down the gravel driveway. She enters the pack shed with her usual morning greeting “Good morning Tulip’s!” looking like she's just come back from a big weekend at Nimbin. I fall somewhere in between, in my mind I would prefer Dads schedule, but I think I’m a little more wired like my Mum. If I can get 20-30min to get ready and squeeze in a coffee, I'm generally feeling pretty good. But every so often I'm likely to be practising Mum’s early morning somersault. Lochie too dances between organised early meditation and cartwheeling out of bed into the pack shed before he even knows he’s got his undies on. I think you can understand a lot about a person if you understand their morning routine.
Anyway, I do remember stating in last week's newsletter that I would write a story about one of the many amazing humans who buy our veggies each week. But I got carried away down here sitting amongst all this beauty while I was waiting for the irrigation timer to go off, and I just had to share it with you!
Thank YOU for joining us on this epic journey & supporting Your local farmer!
