Prairie Coteau Farm

This week my little sister Phoebe (age 14) came and helped out at the farm.  We needed some extra help getting the garlic weeded because we want to harvest soon.  Phoebe was quite the trooper–even when we spent seven hours in the heat and humidty weeding garlic beds!  She also helped with eggs, starting seeds for our fall crops, and harvesting and washing all the veggies for the farmer’s market this weekend.  To top it off, she volunteered to help me out at my first “solo” market this weekend (Kristianna didn’t come this time).  She was a great help and quite the saleswoman!  Thanks little sis!  You’re quite the young farmer!

sisters at work on the farm

This weekend’s market went very well.  Despite some early rain, the sunshine prevailed. This was the first market we had some extra “events,” and we enjoyed live music, an SDSU food preservation demonstration, and an appearance of the Homegrown Prosperity Tour Bio-Diesel Bus. 

A great week on the farm!

The last several weeks we’ve been focusing on weeding, weeding, weeding.  The garden weeds are exploding at the same time all of our garlic is needing to be weeded.  This means there’s an acre and a half of weeds needing to pulled.  *sigh*

Weeding is hard work, but can be a “zen-like” experience.  It’s just you, the sun, the fields, and the weeds.  The task at hand is straight-forward and once you’ve found your rhythm the zen-state comes on naturally.  Plus, there’s a certain level of satisfaction that comes when you find those larger-than-life thistles and yank them–roots ‘n’ all– right out of the ground.

I guess you can call this experience, “Zen and the Art of Weeding.”