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2009 Fall CSA Week 4: November 25, 2009

Dear friends,

Please remember that food pick up this week is today, Wednesday, rather than the usual Friday pick up. Next week will be our last CSA pick up and it will return to the usual Friday schedule - December 4.

We have an amazing array of produce for you this week:

As you might infer, the last three items will come from our hoop houses. These are really high quality goods. I am sure you will really enjoy them. Though it would have been nice for the weather to be more seasonal in June and July this year, we are appreciating this late bonus. We will be able to soar through our CSA and keep you in top quality food until the end. That helps the farmers rest easy.

For sale items:

  1. Pork: We have country style ribs, ground sausage, ground and pork chops at $7.25/lb.
  2. Chickens: We have 14 more at $5.50/lb - average around 7 lb birds

Final pick up for 2009 - Friday, December 4

The turkeys are gone. I am a little sad to see them go - such curious and friendly folks they are. The dogs will be happy to have their freedom back. Franny got framed, it seems, for the death of one of our birds right after they went on free range. She spent the past month on a chain all day. Another bird was mysteriously killed, but we found the evidence way out in the field so thought maybe a wild animal had done the deed. Then we found a bird with a bloody side and dead right in the driveway. We turned our analytical powers toward Jimbo who had been seen snapping at them for getting to close. Just to be safe we chained up Zooey too. The trials of farm life...

The Nursing Home

Last week I went with daughter Ellen to see my mom at the nursing home in Wyoming. Mom is 86. She lived with my dad until he died in 2005. She is a fiercely independent person and when he died she stayed in her big house by herself, and wouldn't discuss any other options, even though my sister lives out there 10 miles away. When mom seemed to slip a bit Marilynn gave up most of her jobs and spent two or three days with mom, who, always a little short on the temper, became more so. Not knowing that much about Alzheimer's, we didn't really know what was up with mom. In retrospect, it seems that her already tempestuous nature was going that way. Marilynn took mom into her home in 2007, but that didn't work out either. Mom ran away that spring and we decided she would have to go to the nursing home. Pinedale, Wyoming is in some ways very different from life here. The whole state has less than 1 million people, so folks tend to look at life somewhat differently.

The nursing home is a wonderful place as nursing homes go - the staff are allowed to bring their kids to work. Sparky, the home's dog lives for the most part in Shirley's room and there are parakeets and doves in the front hallway. The saddest part about all the folks on mom's wing (she is on the wing where they have to wear tracking devices because they all are in danger of taking off) is that, as Betty said at lunch one day last week, "Our kids put us here." So as much as women of that generation lived often almost entirely for their families, they feel inherently betrayed. They like it there, but they really want to be "home". Winona is 99 and the most lucid of the ladies at mom's table. Olive sees creepy crawly things in her dinner plate, but Ellen, one who tends to be a little nervous about cleanliness anyway, hit it off with Olive. After the first meal, they were discussing all the little imaginary bugs on Olive's plate with much laughter and enjoyment. Joan has moved from mom's table to a table where folks have more dementia, though she stopped over to say hi as she grabbed for food off of someone's plate. Shirley spends a lot of her conscious time at the dinner table worrying that Sparky is lost (he can't come into the dining room). Bernice is always planning her escape, gathering contraband food to take back for Sparky and reminiscing about her trip to Italy where she had a fantastic time but didn't like the men coming up and propositioning her. At each meal the ladies would ask again how long we were staying.

Mom reminded me a lot of our 2 ½ year old granddaughter. The only difference is that Anya is getting sharper each day and gaining more skills while mom's are diminishing. As is usually the case, mom brightened up day by day while we were there. We had a marvelous time going on rides, walking around the home and looking a photo albums. Sadly, as we were about to go, mom did what 2 year olds often do. After being gracious and happy to have us there for the few days she turned very angry and ordered me out of the room with a few explicative words attached to the command.

As I get older I ponder how I will end my life. Will it be active to the end, a little loony somewhere, crippled physically and in the care of others, perhaps loved ones, perhaps not. There is no insurance of anything in life. What I come to always is that I must make the most out of each day and not fret the vicissitudes of the future.

On that note I leave you with a Thanksgiving statement of gratitude for the ways in which you, our customers, have made it possible for us to do what we all love so much - raise food.

Julie