CSA Week 7

Jul 22, 2025

Farming and Mary Oliver unveiled to me the power of noticing. Of taking in munched holes in the leaves, bugs unearthed as the weeds are pulled, wilting leaves once the sun beams above us all, a bee that spent the night in the cucumber flower, tomato flowers that aborted during a heat wave, fresh fruit sets on the winter squash vine, ladybug larvae growing steadily in the peppers. How long was the soil housing the oriental bittersweet that is now rapidly spanning the fence-line? For years, our swiss chard has struggled to grow well due to a leaf spot disease. It is fungal, spreading more rapidly when humidity is high & rain is falling on the leaves consistently. This year I have taken note of the surrounding invasive grasses (quack, crab, johnson, etc), who seem to be acting as host plants. Would the grass be thriving if we had not disrupted the field? It certainly would not be here if not for European colonizers introducing the seed. Within small patch of world…… every detail adds new depth to a broadened web of story.

Recently, a quote from Fariha Roisin caught my eye…..

Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as a prayer. It presupposes faith and love.
Absolutely unmixed attention is a prayer.
if one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like a revelation takes place.

To me, growing food is spiritual work. In part due to the sacredness of a meal, but also the eternal detail to examine. Ansel, our baby, is just over four months old. He will spend many minutes staring at the pattern in the double wedding ring quilt design that was made by Ardella Rowden, an ancestor of mystery to me, back in the 1930’s. But yet, she still lives on through freshly born eyes. There are 1” x 2” pieces of fabric in seemingly no particular order, looping together to create a floral & checkered rainbow. When we crouch down into the calendula blooms, his small hands will take in one bright orange, slightly sticky, heavily petaled flower while I gather us handfuls at a time. Under the shade of a tree, he will watch the leaves sway & the beams of sunlight shimmer. I could be projecting, but it seems that, for a baby, every moment is revelation. My friend Leah repeats the idea that babies are the best anti-capitalists. I would argue that this is an admirable continuation of that fact.

So I guess I am feeling that, in July, amidst the chaos of the tasks at hand, the field is overflowing with worlds to admire & find hope within.

CSA Harvest Week 5