Week 9, Summer 2024
Can you believe that it’s week 9 of the summer season already? Next week Zoë heads back to Portland, and in another two weeks, many of us fellows leave as well. We’re trying to soak in our last week together, and I’m really feeling quite bittersweet as I sit on the front stoop writing this farm journal entry, listening to Eric and Ella play a beautiful rendition of “River” by Leon Bridges.
I think it’s time to bring back the creative energy that I feel like has been present in abundance throughout this land this week, so I present to you this week’s farm journal in six-word memoir form (along with their accompanying explanations). For those who aren’t familiar with the concept of a six-word memoir or six-word story, this is a relic from Ernest Hemingway, who had a predilection for telling a full memoir in just six words (his was “For sale: baby shoes. Never worn.”)
Friday, July 26: Bountiful harvests lead to abbreviated dinners
On Friday, we harvested our usual suspects for this time of the summer in the morning (tomatoes, eggplants, okras, cucumbers, beans, bitter melon, and summer squash) and split up to take on various farm tasks in the afternoon. Perhaps the highlight of the day for me was Shabbat dinner, where, over a delicious meal of spaghetti squash and cheese, shakshuka, and zucchini salad, we proceeded to create alternate meanings for farm abbreviations that had us in fits of laughter.
Saturday, July 27: ZA’s most profitable crop – mouth trumpet
On Saturday, the six of us that stayed at the farm for the weekend went to the Watseka Farmers’ Market, where Eric, Zoë, and Ella played music, Yonah and I sold produce, and Ernest held down the face-painting fort. In the afternoon, we proceeded to take a group nap and spent a chill evening cooking dinner together and playing games.
Sunday, July 28: I never know what happens Sundays
Sunday was a restful day, with folks playing music, making art, reading, going for runs, and catching up with family and friends. Zoë and I executed a delicious dinner of homemade falafel, and we welcomed back Gavi and Acacia in the evening.
Monday, July 29: Typical Mondays precipitate songful Wednesdays
Monday was another typical Monday workday of harvesting in the morning and packing for DAF in the afternoon, though I felt that the excitement and joy of hosting the song circle event later in the week energized us. In the evening, Ernest and I executed a pretty incredible dinner, if I do say so myself, of fried okra and a bitter melon/eggplant/tofu sauté. We also welcomed back Isa on Monday, and it was so nice to have a (mostly) full house again.
Tuesday, July 30: When in doubt, sense it out.
On Tuesday, many of us split in the morning to work on varying tasks to prepare for our very special song circle event on Wednesday, and others weeded ATR and harvested potatoes for the first time this season! In the afternoon, Eric treated us to a highly informative Context Conversation about plant families as one form of acknowledging relationship between plants and how to identify what plants are part of what family, and is also the inspiration for this six-word memoir — I learned that determining what family a plant belongs to relies heavily on using your senses.
Wednesday, July 31: Songful reverence of this land’s generosity
On Wednesday, we welcomed special guests Molly, Rena, and Margot to ZA for a very songful and grounding evening. Margot facilitated on connecting to ancestral and current lands, which was such a powerful tool in thinking about what it means to be a guest on and/or steward land, and themes of home and identity and how place and land play a part in our quest to create home, and more. The song circle, led by Rena and Molly, felt so powerful in helping us be in intentional community with each other through music, and to also process and find healing in many of the emotions that were brought up when thinking about land and identity.
Thursday, August 1: Farewell, our guests — human and reptile
On Thursday, we had a grounding start to the morning with Shacharit taking part in the silo, and bid goodbye to many of our guests. There was one rather unwelcome guest, however, that didn’t seem to realize it was time to depart — after the work day, we found a petrified snake in the basement that Ernest bravely picked up and brought outside.
That’s all for this week, and it’s crazy to think that these will be my last couple of farm journals. I’ve been in deep reflection this week about how grateful I am to have spent the last few months on this land learning and laughing and loving so much, and am excited to share those final few moments with the rest of this community before passing this privilege onto someone else.
