It took me a week to get these photos up, but good things come to those who wait. If you don’t see yourself here, it’s not because I didn’t care…Thank you too!
It’s been a long season, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the generosity of strangers, who turn into friends. Thank you to WWOOFUSA, as well as WWOOF, for helping farmers and volunteers connect!
My goodness gracious. It has been so hot and DRY lately, things are dying all around us. Lawns are brown, trees are loosing their leaves, the people are wilting themselves. Team WWOOF is so bored, I can tell. They spend a lot of time, all day usually, watering. You see with the CSA, we can’t let things die on us. Our customers are depending on a crop. Let me rephrase that. We could totally let it ALL die and the customer would have to understand, because they signed a piece of paper, and something like drought is part of the liability. But we’re too nice, and since we have a lot of help and it’s too hot to do much else, we put a hose in their hand. It’s funny, because as I type this out, it is currently raining. The rain, which has only been going on for about 20 minutes or so has prompted me to write about the dryness, because I’ve been needing to. One of our CSA members asked me the other day how things were growing. I let him know how tough it’s been and how some things are just wilting away. He totally understood if the bags were empty for the next few weeks. He shared the story of his garden with me. He said he and his wife had been gone for three weeks. Even though they had someone watering it for them, they returned and their garden was dust. This “heat wave” that the weather man has talked about has lasted for two months now. It’s more like a heat tsunami! This wave won’t leave. I guess my message to you dear reader is respect the fact that there is produce at your grocery store, and there are many, MANY factors that go into its survival. Uh oh, the rain knew I was talking about it, it just stopped : (
We have lost Annie, but gained Jake and Patrick, brothers from Springfield Missouri. The brothers have been here a week now and are enjoying their time here on the farm. They have a fun story, sorry guys but I’m going to tell it. They both worked for Expedia, the travel web site. They worked in the call center to help you book your trip. Well, they both got fired on the same day and decided it was time to move on. They said that their higher-ups did them a favor because they saw how unhappy they were. So they started to travel themselves , instead of helping all of you book your vacations. They also drastically changed their lifestyle choices, including their diets. Jake was over 400 lbs. Through good old eating right and exercise, he was able to drop over 160 lbs! Talk about a monkey off your back! I’m so inspired by their enthusiasm and will power and in turn they are inspired by ours.
Annie D’s last breakfast with the team. We miss you already, happy trails.
(L-R) Jake, Patrick, since nicknamed the “Missouri Angels”.
The greatest job on the farm.
Picking tomatoes.
Oliver likes to hang out while people are working. He makes sure this ship sails smoothly.
I’m glad he does, because we can get cute pictures of him doing super-cute things.
Paul put him to work picking green beans.
Jake displaying his tomato harvest.
We are currently selling produce through numerous avenues. A few local grocery stores are the proud recipients of Ozark Alternatives potatoes, as well as a few local restaurants and of course the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market. The tomatoes seen here were sold through our CSA, Northwest Arkansas Local Harvest. We also have sold some through the Farmer’s Market.
We have an endless supply of potatoes in the ground her at Ozark Alternatives, and they’re for SALE (*wink*). Marine, Annie, David and I were digging potatoes, until Annie and David broke for dinner duty. We took a little breather when David brought out some wine, we were pretty much done for after that.
The Ozark Slow Foods movement held a potluck here, as part of their effort to support local foods and local farmers. Paul and our neighbor Pauline, the produce manager at Ozark Natural Foods, were interviewed before the event by Kyle Kellams, for Ozarks at Large, promoting the event. Please click on the link if you wish to hear the interview. It’s funny in the write-up how they butchered Paul’s last name, Chapracki. It was a nice turn out, where good food was shared, which had to have one local ingredient present. So, needless to say, there were a lot of potato dishes. The event also gave us time to promote our CSA to a new crowd of people who were ripe to listen. Most of the people who came, came because they heard the story on the radio and were intrigued. Thank you to all of you who attended.
On this day, the team harvested potatoes. Shiori invited two of her friends from Fayetteville to come over and help, their names were L.J. and Hirona. We also received McKenna, she came to us from Louisville Kentucky on her way west. I can’t forget our newest recruits, David and Marine, coming all the way from Toulouse, France.
The team found snake eggs
Digging up more eggs.
After I told the boys that they had found snake eggs.
Everybody is interested now.
Roy giving everyone a lesson about snake eggs.
Hirona.
L.J.
McKenna.
David and Marine.
Father’s Day, does it always fall on a Sunday? Sundays are our Farmer’s Market day, so we watched all of the daddy’s with their children, young and old. Channel 5 news was there, a local news outlet here in Northwest Arkansas and they interviewed Paul, Oliver and Isaac about Father’s Day and what they were going to do for their Dad. I have a link posted. We were the first to this market with tomatoes. Lest you forget we sell at the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks, every Sunday, from 9am-2pm. Also, I take that back about the first with tomatoes, that accomplishment was shared that day. Another vendor had tomatoes also, they weren’t quite ready, but it’s important to be first. The people are tomato hungry right now and I don’t blame them.
Paul and Isaac at the farmer’s market on Father’s Day.
Later in the day we sat and prepared garlic to cure. Here is Shiori doing an amazing job.
Action Packed Father’s Day in Washington County. Here’s the link to our Father’s Day news spot. The clip at 10pm was much better, they gave a shout out to Ozark Alternatives. This must be the 5pm clip.
My apologies, now let’s move forward. These pictures are of the kids and I planting their garden, and the beginning day of our CSA. This day we also welcomed two new WWOOF‘ers from Brooklyn (represent) Nora and Will.
Isaac planted some tomatoes in his garden. Isaac LOVES tomatoes and probably won’t share his crop.
Oliver adding amendments to the soil for his tomato plants.
Paul adding fresh jam to the sacks for the CSA customers. Did I mention this was day one?
Jonathan in front of house #1 on delivery day. Doesn’t he look EXCITED!
Lucky customer #1.
I had to take a picture of these radishes, they were so pretty.
Maybe this shot should have been earlier, nonetheless, Oliver, loading sacks into the car.
As of present, we just finished week 6 of delivery…maybe that’s where I’ve been.
Our first Farmer’s Market experience was a fun one. There were only a few vendors there because there was rain in the forcast. We decided to go to break the ice and meet some of the vendors. The rain kept the folks away, but there were a few diehards who came out, umbrellas in hand. We mad a whopping $25. It’s no fortune, but it’s a start.
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