Sam Writes: Raspberry Picking

The raspberry says,
Drink your wine, but forget not!
I too am sublime

We picked the season’s first few half-pints of raspberries last week. As with any new task in the field, I think about how to go about it most efficiently. Crouching down next to that first raspberry bush, instinct took over. I closed my eyes and stuck my head right into the bush! I mastered this technique as a child, when a very special place in my grandma’s yard would become full of ripe raspberries. Ask a kid to find berries, and he will find them…and eat them. I learned early on that there are always two buckets whenever you are picking berries: the communal one you’re holding, and the one between your nose and chin. So again, ask a kid to find berries, and don’t be surprised when he comes back with rosy mouth corners and an empty bucket in his hands. My mom, hoping to bring some berries home, compromised and came up with what became my mid-summer mantra – one in the bucket, two in the mouth. That was still a bit hopeful, but at least I learned to save some for later. I’m sure all it took was one bowl of ice cream with raspberries on top to get me to seriously consider putting more in the bucket in my hands. This is a very important moment in my life for you raspberry eaters. 

I haven’t picked many raspberries since my childhood, instead cavorting with thimbleberries, huckleberries, and anything else growing nearby. But here I come back to my oldest friend, and it tastes really good. However, this time I’m on the production end, where “success” is not measured by how many berries I get to eat later, bur rather by how many berries you get to eat later. Good thing my happiness is no longer attached to putting berries in my mouth. I am moving into the realm of happiness derived from bringing you all the finest food we can grow, raspberries included.

As the weather heats up and your motivation to move fades, come grab a half-pint or three in the market, and find a shady spot to sit and smile. Or is eating plain raspberries not your thing? What’s the matter with you?! Absolutely nothing! Get some ice cream and really chill out, or mix up a fruit salad, or butter up some toast and top it with honey and berries. Let your imagination go, it’s likely that raspberries will blend well with what you’re feeling in the moment. Check out some of the raspberry products our neighbors have come up with that we have in the market. As a sweet tooth, I’ve been digging on Anna’s Raspberry Creamed Honey and Honey Ridge Farms Raspberry Honey Créme.

Happy rosy mouth corners in the coming weeks!

Love,

Your rosy-fingered friend

Renae Writes: Farm Day Camps

Renae takes a break to hang out with Jessie in the watefall garden at the winery.I didn’t always know I wanted to be a farmer.  Before I discovered my love for planting seeds in the soil, tending to the crops and providing people with the bounties of the earth, I worked in another line of work—as an educator, planting seeds in children.  I’ve worked in preschools, elementary schools, outdoor environmental camps, and as a nanny.  After working in such a diversity of educational environments, I have found the one environment where I most enjoy teaching:  the farm.

Since I am a kinesthetic learner myself, it is easy for me to understand how important it is, especially for children, to be physically engaged in their learning. It is as simple as a child holding a seed, placing that seed in the soil, watering the seed, watching the seed grow into a plant, and in the end, seeing that plant end up on their plate as something to eat!  Something we do every day in order to survive!

I believe that bridging the gap between children and the food they eat will be the keystone to the health of future generations.  I love helping children make the connections between what they eat and where it comes from.  I love helping them see the beautiful simplicity of the natural processes of growing food.  I want them to see the production of food as it was meant to be, as a natural process that begins in the earth.  My goal is to show them an alternative to mechanically engineered food from factory farms, to processed food-like substances that can hardly be recognized as food!  My hope is that in the future this sort of experiential education will influence them to actively participate in their food consumption decisions—and to make those decisions wise ones!

Although a two-hour session will not allow your child to experience the entire process of watching a seed grow into a plant, your child will get to see all the parts of that process in various stages.  They will see broccoli seeds, seedlings, mature plants, and plants that have gone to flower, beginning to make seed for the next cycle.  They will look at the life cycle of lettuce and carrot plants, and get a chance to harvest some of these crops when they are in their prime.  Walking through the orchard, visiting the goats, chickens and cattle, making their way up to the vegetable fields will provide discussion about the diversity Sunshine Farm has to offer.  Farm Camp sessions this summer will include a variety of topics:  plant and animal life cycles, the different parts and purposes of a plant’s “body”, composting with worms, what it takes to “grow” a pizza, and exploring with vegetable art.  Your child will go home with a small bag crops they harvest themselves, an understanding that a carrot is the root of the plant, and maybe even with a willingness to try new vegetables at dinner that night!

For more information, and to register online, click here.

Students from Manson Elementary head down to the barn after touring the vegetable fields.