Frost

Yesterday as I was driving out to Loudoun -- my Saturday morning routine after the market trucks roll out -- I noticed what a gorgeous day it was.  Crispy, clear, full of color, absolutely beautiful. And I then noticed that I was filled with joy.  This doesn't happen all the time when I am headed out to work as fast and hard as I can, mostly by myself, so I can get back in time to be here when the market trucks roll back home.  I just felt so glad about everything.

First of all, how can you feel anything but joy when the days are gorgeous and you get to be outside all day long?

Second, we have been preparing for the first frost. We are clearing every field of everything that will turn black. Everyone is tired of peppers and eggplant, the most dogged of all the plants.  They continue to produce, week after week, and the fruits are lovely, but we have had enough.  I am not tired of beans -- I am never tired of beans when they are fast and easy to pick -- but they will go down if it gets below freezing.  On Thursday they stripped all the peppers and eggplants off in Loudoun. On Friday afternoon Becky headed out to the pepper patch by herself and I headed up to the beans.  I had a feeling there would be a lot of peppers, so I texted her, "need help?" She did. From my office in the bean patch, I found her some help -- and they filled 44 baskets with purple and green and orange and red peppers of all sizes.  I stayed on my knees and kept at it with the beans. Mom came up to help, and we had 15 baskets when we had to stop to do other things.

Frost used to be the end point, back when we only grew summer-friendly crops.  But now we grow so much that can stand the cold -- it is just a punctuation mark. It ends a chapter.  We are moving ever closer to the end.

I think that is really where the feeling of joy started.  I love this work, but I also love NOT working.  And we are exactly five weeks from the last market day.

Instead of rushing home to meet the trucks yesterday, I decided to stay on my knees and pick beans out in Loudoun.  Jon has noted that the cell phone has made it possible for me to work and be other places at the same time.  I can also ask someone to bring me some lunch (I got two lunches delivered to the bean patch, so nice) and I can lure others to the beans.  By the end of the afternoon, there were five of us having a bean party, even though everyone had been working since before dawn.  Frost is a great motivator.

Being surrounded by beauty, even in this godforsaken suburban world of Northern Virginia, is a constant source of joy.  Will wonders never cease.

These blurry-edged photos are of the CSA room this morning.  Somehow I can never take a good picture of the room, but it is stunning today.