Valley Mama

First Farmer's Market

Last weekend was the first farmer's market of the season, and it was so much fun.  It feels great to be back, right where we belong, between the community gardens and Kretsinger Grassfed Beef, sharing a booth with our good friend Melinda, of Green Frog Juice.  Melinda, by the way, makes the most amazing juices and smoothies you will ever have.  Seriously.  I'm not exaggerating.

Though the majority of our produce is sold through the CSA, the market is a great way to share what we do with the community and hang out with some awesome people.  I did not go to the market the last couple of years, and had forgotten how much fun it is.  

Though it is still early season for us, and we did not harvest much, our table looked beautiful!  We brought some of our lettuce and basil boxes, and Melissa made the most adorable sign in the world.  Again, I'm not exaggerating.  It's that great.  

The farm kids played with other market kids most of the morning, while the farm babies mostly hung out on us, sleeping and taking everything in.  Utah, of course, made a run for it several times.

The first market is always a little slow, but even so we nearly sold out.

River spent some time hanging out with Seanna, who stopped by for a while.  I could not resist these two healthy, radiant girls in sunhats...too sweet. 

We had a great CSA pick-up yesterday, and tomorrow we harvest for market again!  In between harvests and markets we work to keep the weeds at bay and replant whatever we can.  We have a very short season in our high valley home, but we get the most out of it that we can, while we can.

Rain

I never get tired of the smell of rain.  Probably because it's so rare here.  Melissa and I and all four farm kids were in the garden right before the storm hit yesterday.  I suppose one of the benefits of being able to see so far in any direction is advance notice of storms rolling in.  We were replanting beans and cucumbers...many of the seedlings of the first planting got consumed by grasshoppers...when we felt the first drops.  We put everything away and started towards the house.  I was in the back yard when I noticed a glimmer on the ground out by the animals' pen.  

                                                

Sometimes someone turns on the hose to fill the goat and sheep water and walks away to tend to something else.  Every once and a while someone forgets and does not return for some time.  When this happens, the area outside of the pen is flooded.  The farm kids love this.  The grown-ups and animals...not so much.

                                                             

It's evening time - time for the goat and sheep to come in from the field and go into their pen for the night.  Also, a storm is coming, so Melissa and I go out to bring them in, babies on our backs...of course.  Melissa finds a huge board (fairly easy to find in our yard) and puts it across the lake that we discover by the pen to make a bridge for us to cross.  I open the gate to let the the girls in.  Normally, then run right in.  Tonight, however, they are not thrilled at having a lake where there used to be solid ground between them and their hay.  They are not going in, and the rain is coming down a little harder.  They bolt a couple of times, we are soaked, and Melissa is up to her knee in mud before we get them in.  Then the rain really comes.

                                                                       

An actual drenching, ground-quenching rain.  

                                                                        

Rain always feels like such a gift here, and with fires burning all around us, this rain feels even more like a gift than normal.  

        

The garden loves it.  Since we don't get much rain from the sky here, we irrigate everything.  It keeps the plants alive and they do pretty well, but it cannot compare to an actual rain.  After the first real rain of the season everything pops (including weeds).  It seems the plants grow inches overnight.

                                          

                             
I went out this morning to check on everything, slipping and sliding in the mud.  Maybe it's my imagination, but I'm pretty sure the plants look greener...happier.  

                                       

                           

It's raining again this evening, and we're loving it...it sure is nice to not have to turn on the drip for a couple of days.