It's Not Actually Chaos

Through all the years when we had young children and even for years after that, we went to the Big Apple Circus when it came to town. It was a highlight of September, getting ourselves to the big tent, wherever they had found space to rent for a few weeks. In this area, there is always a field that is going to be developed sometime soonish and there are big swaths of pavement -- roads that will someday have houses and businesses built on them but they are perfect for setting up a circus in the meantime.

In so many ways this circus was perfect. It had one ring, an entertaining ringmaster (who was the creator and visionary), lots of fast-paced acts, a few beloved clowns, and some amazing talent. We didn't have to think about what went on behind the scenes but I am sure there were the inevitable troubles that would come with a high pressure job performed by a crew of about 100 people and some dogs and horses, all traveling together for months at a time.

Often the act that stuck with me the most was the juggler. There was always something new that he devised in the off-season. The one with the hats just boggled the mind -- he somehow managed to juggle bowler hats that bounced off his head or his chin or his elbow, with increasing complexity as more tricks got introduced with each new hat that was added to the perpetual motion going through his hands.

I have often thought of the farm season as one of those juggling acts. I usually talk about adding more plates, keeping more and more plates in the air as the season goes on. But as I think about it now, I see that they aren't plates. It is more like those acts where the juggler starts with some tennis balls, then adds a grapefruit, then a shoe, then a hatchet and just keeps on going.

At a recent morning meeting (once a week we take time to sit together for longer than a couple of minutes, and we ponder something that is just interesting, but not about farming) we talked about the culture of this farm, and how chaotic it can be. One of the original thinkers, the founding visionary, my dad, was known for his undiagnosed ADHD. In his day, he was one of those students who frustrated his teachers and his parents with his lack of academic focus. Plenty of intellect, but not a lot of linear, organized learning.  

One of his college friends described my father this way: "Some people have “completion tension.”  Once started, they can’t think about anything else.  Tony had “incompletion tension.”  I don’t know anyone who had more simultaneous projects…half a dozen projects, unfinished." He could stay focused intensely, but was not focused on finishing things.

Sixty years into it, this farm is still deeply influenced by that trait. But we have added many more influences to the mix. If my dad were the juggler, some of those balls and shoes would drop and not get picked up again for months or years. My mother, on the other hand, would be someone who would pick up the dropped objects if it seemed necessary. She would put them back into the hands of the juggler. And over the years we have opened up the circle so that it is not just one person keeping all the objects in the air. The group that keeps its eyes and hands on those flying objects keeps expanding.

To be more specific (and here is where we might lose the non-farming reader), we are right now at the point in the season where we are about to add the last two unwieldy objects to the collection that is staying in motion.  We are about to add real vegetable picking and opening the stand for the summer, which includes buying stuff that we don't grow so there are logistical issues that need to be confronted. We need to get the sweet corn from one place and the peaches from another. 

Why do I say real vegetable picking? Because up until now we have been picking moderate quantities of leafy stuff,  just enough to fill the market trucks. Leafy stuff can be picked on Thursday and Friday and it can be gone by the end of Sunday, if all goes well. We are on the brink of harvesting. In my mind, there is a difference between picking and harvesting. Picking is something that happens over and over, day in and day out. Squash, lettuce, tomatoes, kale.  Harvesting is when you have to find a place to put all that stuff and keep it safe and at the right temperature. Harvesting is stressful for the person who has to think about all the issues. Picking is not stressful.

In the next few weeks we will harvest all the garlic. Last fall we planted a record-breaking 1000 pounds of garlic seed. That was easy compared to what is about to happen. Because I knew that this was going to be a huge task, we have been pecking away at the ends of the field, gathering up green garlic to sell, making the field just a little bit smaller.  We planted approximately the same amount of onions that we always do (so many) and those will need to be handled carefully so they don't just melt before we sell them.

But here is the real challenge, and I hope it goes away soon. About 10 days ago our trusty cooler died. This has taken juggling to a level never attempted before. We have learned a lot in the last 10 days, and we are doing the vegetable Tetris game in our tiny 8 x 12 coolbot, instead of in the much bigger walk-in.  We cannot harvest onions until that cooler is fixed. We need to stash dozens of crates of onions in a space that will keep them safe and cold.

As for the stand, we have opened the stand every year for the last 60 years, in one form or another, and it will happen again.  We have already opened quietly for Saturdays and Sundays in June (and nobody has noticed, since covid is no longer keeping people out of the grocery stores), but peaches and corn and tomatoes are the driving force there, and that happens in July.

When the original juggler was here, our circus involved three different farms and a lot of rented ground nearby. It was not chaos, but it was complicated and things were very weedy on all three farms. Now we are down to two farms and no rented ground. Much simpler, many fewer weeds. But we have a CSA that includes about four other farms and their vegetables. More complicated. And our two farms both have full crews, it's not one crew commuting between them.

Anyway, it's getting to the part where the last objects are getting added to the spinning mix, and if the cooler doesn't get fixed soon there are going to be a lot of tennis balls and hatchets sprinkled all over the ground. But I can guarantee you that we will always have a plan for getting them back into the air. There is always a way. This circus has more tricks up its sleeve, and lots of talent in its crew.