We farm with a friend from church. Ok, so really we just pretend to be farmers two mornings a week in good weather, but we love it. We milk the cow, our side is always half full when my friend's side is completely empty, but he says he enjoys our company. We take hay to the horses, and sometimes get to lead them out to pasture or give them treats of apple. When we go in the afternoons we get to take "cow cubes" to the Longhorn cattle (they are super awesome and somewhat terrifying too... those horns!) We work the garden, watering, weeding, flipping the leaves up to look for eggs laid by insects and when we find them we squish them. We also kill live insects when found on the plant or in the garden... this part makes me a little squeamish but my friend insists, so I comply.
Regularly we lose Micah in between rows of corn, or he is found taking a huge bite out of a freshly picked zucchini or squash, radish or sugar snap pea, well, anything we pick, really. Sometimes we find him trying to climb into the Longhorn's pasture (eek!). The kids eat cilantro right off the bush, scour the fields for wild growing dill they found once, take turns pulling carrots and radishes out of the ground. We cut lettuce (did you know that you can just cut leaves from the plant and leave it growing?) and spinach, arugula and parsley. We watch the flowers turn to fruit from week to week... right now there are baby tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, green peppers, squash, zucchini, green beans, butternut squash, onions, and other things I am likely forgetting, just beginning to grow and mature into a lovely bounty of vegetable goodness.
This is all quite fun for this city girl. The kids most love climbing onto the bales of hay and jumping from bale to bale. Or helping muck the horse stalls, shovel the cow manure or "wash" the tractor. We have a wonderful time. It is a joy to be out in God's creation, interacting with it, studying it, and pretending to be like Laura Ingalls Wilder.
What else do we do? I bake. When my friend sends me home with an armful of spinach, I bring him back quiche. When I take a load of zucchini home, I bring back dark chocolate zucchini muffins (currently in the oven). I hope to learn how to make pico de gallo this summer. And I owe my friend some mexican rice with all my cilantro I have brought home. It is a lovely trade.
As a bonus, we have been able to observe wildlife in its natural habitat, like the baby deer in my friend's front yard the other morning, left by its mother right after birth (she did come back to get the little darling later that day). We found a Northern Cardinal's nest just by accident as we were observing the female flitting around in a tree, and right into her nest she went. We watch hummingbirds dash to a feeder, fight with rival hummingbirds and when alone and unopposed at the feeders, they sit... something I had never seen them do. Red-tailed hawks fly over head, as do Turkey Vultures and Cattle Egrets. It is a joy, and two of my favorite times of the week. We are thankful. And it is a joy to behold the fun our children have at the farm.
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