Scrambled. That’s how my life is now.
So much so that when my mother and great aunt were visiting over the weekend, it didn’t occur to me to hide the four trays of chitting (sprouting) seed potatoes – All Blue, Lehigh, Adirondack Red, and Purple Sun – laying on the living room floor (planting No. 3).
“What are those things?” asked the 80-something duo. “They look like cookies or something.”
The dining room table covered with semi-organized piles of paperwork, seed catalogs, and planting charts is invisible to me; to them, it was a glaring example of domestic disarray. In their homes, there’s not a paper or knickknack out of place. The pots of luffas crowded on the kitchen windowsill are as natural as the wall-to-wall tomato seedlings in the hoop house or the ladybugs in the bathroom.
“You must like this life,” said the woman who is planning her 90th birthday around nine holes of golf and knows how to relax with a glass of “white water” (vodka with a splash).
It’s spring. Although there is never a month I’d earn the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for my homemaking skills, this time of year is especially bad. Why, when I was carrying out a flat of Giant of Prague celeriac and assorted heirloom peppers to transplant and the tray flipped and spilled all over the front steps, I was more concerned with rescuing seedlings than sweeping up the mess.
Add demands of a part-time job, family obligations that cut weekends from each month, and rain that encourages mats and mounds of weeds … no wonder I feel like I’m always scrambling. So, if I’m not available when you visit, please understand. Bring change or write me a note and remind me what I owe you on your next visit. But most of all, stop in and enjoy our fresh eggs, fresh asparagus, fresh green garlic – and, if I’m around, fresh-cut arugula, sorrel, lettuce, chives and other lovely herbs. No matter what life brings, I promise never to be hard-boiled. And one of these days, things will settle down and I’ll be sunny-side up, or at least, over-easy. Laurie Lynch
More Chick Names: All of the Easter Peeps came back safe and sound. The rest of the names are as fun as the first group: Pecky Anne, HENrietta, Queenie Black (a Crevecour with a crown of feathers), Chocolate Turtle, Arabeth, Aussie, Shelly, Flippy-Flip Chick, Blackie, and Blondie.
Sweet Potato Slips Soon: $10 for a dozen slips. Heirloom varieties include Georgia Jet, Beauregard, Vardaman, Yellow Jewel, Nancy Hall, and White Triumphs. New varieties: Carolina Ruby and Red Japanese. Please call or email to reserve. They should arrive in mid-May.
Llama Beans: We’ve got bags of llama beans (aka llama manure pellets) to cook your compost … and more on the way. Our llama beans can become your black gold … and they’re free!
Dandy Soup: Soon after I was raving about my garden-harvested dandelion meals, Valerie sent me an email that shows how she’s unscrambling her life. “Thinking of you today. I made a soup with beef bone broth, dried beef, your carrots, sheep sorrel, thistle roots, wild garlic, and oregano that grow in my yard. And mint tea, also from my yard. Why do we bother planting anything? Just learn weeds. My rule of thumb when making soup is; If it’s growing at the same time, then it all goes in the soup.”
Written on Slate: “If my heart were a garden, it would be in bloom with roses and wrinkly Indian poppies and wild flowers. There would be two unmarked tracts of scorched earth, and scattered headstones covered with weeds and ivy and moss, a functioning compost pile, great tangles of blackberry bushes, and some piles of trash I’ve meant to haul away for years.” – Anne Lamott
Sign Gone, We’re Not: We are having a new Fleur-de-Lys Farm Market sign made. On occasion during the next month or so, we may be sign-less. But, we’re still open.
