A Jar of Pickles and A Special Place

When I looked at the calendar during breakfast this morning, a glowing picture of a bowl of tomatillos looked back at me.  The bright green fruits with their slightly purple husks sing the song of summertime, of making salsa verde and climbing down tightly packed rows of plants, ducking and weaving amongst the bees that cover the tomatillo flowers.  I start to get lost thinking about the harvest of the week ahead and picking sticky tomatillos for hours, when I finally notice the important thing that the calendar is showing me; it’s the last week of August.  I’m pretty sure I then get lost in an inner scream-fest—with lots of ‘no way!’ ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ and ‘this can’t be true!’—when I come back to reality and take a long sip of strong coffee, I begin to sort out the feelings that the calendar has so sneakily unveiled. 

the barn dinner crew!

The end of August, even though not truly the end of summer, is a big transition at Powisset, as it is in most of your lives. School is starting up, summer vacations have come and gone, you may be coming for your share at a new time that works with all these changes.  For us, our summer crew has gone back to college, or moved on to their routines outside of the farm, leaving our crew to it’s core, the five full-timers pushing hard to get a massive amount of work done around fall harvests, end-of-summer weeding marathons and doing this all with tired, tired bodies.  

On this eve of the end-of-Summer, our farmers and CSA members came together this past Saturday to celebrate our farm our food and our friendships, warming the barn with the heat of an August night, festive conversation and glorious potluck dishes.  The best way I can describe our dinner from this past weekend is to call it nourishing.  I felt full of farm food, expertly and lovingly prepared by our members and farm crew. (I even got a jar of homemade Powisset pickles to enjoy throughout the week).  I was full of laughter and smiling and listening to people’s stories of their days or weeks outside of the farm.  I was fully content to watch as new friendships were made as strangers, brought together by the farm, shared their lives across a picnic table.  And I was nourished as all fifty or more of us took a few minutes to share with each other what makes Powisset a special place to each of us.

kasey and fellow farmer, katie

I opened the sharing that evening by explaining why Powisset is special to me.  It is here that I have experienced so many successes and so many failures.  With each success, I learn to appreciate the glorious moments in life and learn how to appreciate my hand in those successes.  In each failure, I learn how to pick myself up and start over. And I learn the power of community and that many hands working together can lift me back up and give me hope and patience and strength.  Through these ups and downs I have grown and changed and learned to accept myself.  For those reasons (and so many more), Powisset is special to me.

It’s time to enjoy this last week of August—so, pick those beans, and make some salsa and eat a meal at the picnic tables on the farm and think about what makes Powisset special to you.

I’ll see you at the farm,

(I’ll be eating potluck leftovers at the lunch table)

Meryl & the Powisset Farm Crew

Maine Wild Blueberries

It’s been a short but sweet season for the Maine blueberries this year; and as the weather starts to turn, we are anticipating that this is the last week the berries will be available until next August!

For that final, delicious taste, we’ll have pints for sale in the farm store (on Thursday and Saturday only). We’ll also have a small number of extra bulk boxes for sale, on a first come, first served basis. Please email Tessa at tpechenik@ttor.org if you’d like to reserve one.

We’d also love to hear your feedback, so if you purchased bulk boxes or pints of blueberries this summer and have any thoughts to share, please email Tessa.

Bushel + Crumb pies are back!

This week’s savory flavor sounds like summer in a crust: roasted summer squash, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes with a bit of sharp cheese and herbs! As usual, if you are a pie share member, please remember to collect your pie; and if you’d like to purchase a pie, we’ll have some available in the farm store. Enjoy!

What's in the share:

In the barn: tomatoes, peppers, arugula, greens mix, cabbage or kale, carrots or beets,

 basil, cukes or squash

In the fields: cherry tomatoes, beans, chard or kale, dill, parsley