Week 2, Summer 2024
Hello again, dear readers! Welcome to week 2 of summer, and my (Ayden’s) last journal entry before I head home :(
Picking up where I left off, we were just heading into our first Shabbat as a new cohort. Eric, Zoë, and I formed a guitar-ukulele trio to accompany everyone’s beautiful voices through farm favorites new and old: Oseh Shalom, Loosen, Hallelujah, Lecha Dodi, and more! For dinner, Yonah, Ernest, and I made a creamy radish soup, buckwheat salad, mushroom and green bean casserole, and 2 freshly baked loaves of challah. I’m really glad that cooking on the farm has encouraged me to be a more creative and innovative chef. It was so lovely to sit by the candlelight together, enjoy our meal, and reflect on our first week together.
Shabbat day was a peaceful one. Some of us ventured to the Kentland farmers market to explore and connect with other farmers in the area. In the afternoon, Yonah, Patricia, and I picked bowls full of strawberries, mulberries, and black raspberries. It’s amazing how much abundance our perennials provide for us. When Shabbat came to a close, we made our way to the silo to recite the havdalah service. I will never miss a chance to sing together in the silo! What a beautiful way to bring in the new week together. Afterwards some of us stayed outside to stargaze and enjoy the cool summer air. I’m trying to soak it up as much as I can before I head back to the Big Apple.
On Sunday morning I was craving something sweet, so I made a spiced challah french toast with cinnamon, cardamom, sumac, and a pinch of cayenne. It came out quite tasty! People took time to stroll, bike, and catch up with family and friends. Since Zoë and I had already prepared for a text study of the Torah portion, Bamidbar, we headed outside to discuss the text and its themes, have a larger conversation about Jewish identity, and even get in some music making time. Hedy, with an assist from me, executed an incredible dinner of falafel with radish hummus. And for dessert, Yonah and Zoë made a radish and carrot cake garnished with candied sage and topped with a lemon cream cheese frosting. Amazing!
On Monday morning we got the group oriented to our google drive and important documents. After splitting off for some different tasks, we all joined together to plant some fig trees in Bayit. Even the cats joined us! For lunch I took advantage of the fleeting asparagus season and roasted them with some radishes, surprise, surprise. But in all seriousness, I’m so grateful to be able to harvest and prepare our own fresh produce. I love the way I feel so connected to the land every day at ZA. After the work day ended I checked up on the cats and the chickens. Though Acacia is skeptical, I’m pretty sure the chickens are starting to make baby clucking noises now. On the topic of radishes, I am more amazed by the day at how many ways we’ve been incorporating them into our meals. For dinner Zoë and Yonah made potato and radish gnocchi! And, after firing up the sodastream, our chefs made sparkling water infused with a ginger-sage simple syrup. I am seriously so lucky; sometimes I feel like I’m living in a michelin-star restaurant.
On Tuesday we worked hard on weeding and setting up drip lines. Some of our new fellows made a trip to distribute some of our mushrooms to a local grocery store. It’s awesome to see folks getting excited about their roles on the farm and taking initiative. Speaking of which, Hedy and Zoë, who will be bottomlining mushroom operations for the summer, helped me soak our older shiitake logs in cold water. This encourages them to fruit again in a process called “shocking.” The low temperature of the water will “trick” the mycelium into thinking that it’s getting colder outside, meaning it's time to reproduce before it gets too cold to do so. Because mushrooms reproduce by sending out spores through the fruiting bodies, the shock of the cold will encourage the shiitake to rapidly produce more mushrooms. For dinner, Ernest and Eric made fried rice with some newly fresh peas and phoenix bean tofu, courtesy of JR.
On Wednesday I oriented the mushroom crew to the straw chopping process, which is equal parts fun and messy. The rest of our crew kept at weeding and installing drip lines. In the afternoon I led the group in a fun learning session in celebration of Shavuot. As I mentioned briefly in some previous journal entries, Shavuot is one of 3 Jewish pilgrimage holidays. Shavuot celebrates the wheat harvest, something we’ve been seeing a lot of in the area. Shavuot also celebrates the revelation at Sinai and receiving of the Torah and G!d’s commandments. We talked about how to celebrate this holiday as Jews and stewards, how we can incorporate mystical kabbalah into our relationship with the Divine, and even the history of the dairy industry in the US. The last part touches on a common practice to eat dairy on Shavuot. We were happy to indulge in this thanks to the scrumptious cheesecake Yonah and Zoë made for us AND the radish ice cream that Ernest so boldly spearheaded. It is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before and it's actually delicious. Exciting chicken update: renovations were made on their new enclosure and they now have a ramp with access to the great outdoors! Although they were hesitant at first, a little encouragement and bird feed piqued their curiosities. After a long day of hay baling, JR, who has been baling hay for longer than I’ve been alive, told us that the day’s weather conditions were unlike any he had ever experienced.
We really started feeling the summer heat on Thursday. The mushroom team and I prepared for my last inoculation before I head back home. Other folks worked on harvesting garlic scapes, thai basil, fava beans, peas, and romaine. Wow! In the afternoon Gavi, Acacia, and Lexi arrived home from their international and cross-country adventures. To continue our celebration of Shavuot we went on a trip to Don’s to get some milkshakes and other goodies. We noticed how tall the corn was growing along the way and talked about the ways conventional agriculture has been shaping this area. I said my first goodbye of many when JR headed back to Chicago, but I know we’ll be catching up regularly over text to discuss lots of good music. For dinner, Patricia and Hedy cooked us up a Southern feast of corn bread, radish greens, beans, and barbeque tofu. Afterwards we went outside to admire the sky, lit up by lightning and fireflies.
With Friday being my last work day I made sure to get outside and get my hands a little dirty. I went out to harvest with Ernest and Eric and we came back with over 50 pounds of napa cabbage! We spent the rest of the day in a bit of a frenzy getting ready to host the amazing Shabbaton that I’m sure you’ll hear all about next week.
And with that, I’ll begin to say adieu. What a pleasure it's been to be back on this beautiful land with such an amazing community of humans and critters. I feel so lucky to have been here to see the process of seeding, transplanting, tending, and now starting to harvest our produce. It’s such a good feeling to live every day in relationship with the earth. Thank you dearly to everyone in the spring and summer cohorts who made my time living here so precious. I can’t wait to come back soon <3
