Solstice Update
June 23 2025
Solstice Update
I hope you enjoy the attached video update of the west field at Solstice.
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Gratitude
Friday was a special day this week. It is really nice when there are 9 of us in the field, and especially on the Solstice. Although some days seem to be beset with challenges and time sinks, on this day, we were “cooking with gas” as I am fond of saying. Brandon was back, and will be for 2 weeks until he returns to Stetson and goes back to school. John, who had heard from a farmer in Whately that MHOF was the place to go if you want to volunteer and learn something, seemed elated with every new experience. After knocking off the CSA in record time (okay, it is true that we don’t have as much produce as we would like!), we divided and conquered. Marge went with the “boys” to pick up 5 more loads of hay off the field (Justin, who had thought he was in charge of this operation was slighted later when it slipped out that I had appointed her chief ass kicker on that crew), while the rest of the girls tackled the last two beds of potatoes and finished the sunflowers and hemp. We could hear their peals of laughter while we hoed our best hoe game to finish the potato job. In the end we all mulched. At about 2:25 all nine of us returned to the garden and planted a 500 square foot bed of lettuce after pulling back the tarp, measuring, raking, hoeing, spraying, fertilizing, watering and transplanting the 600 or so lettuces. Devra commented on how neat it was that everyone was doing something different and how it all fit together. At lunch that day on the front lawn, there was the usual teasing, bantering, and varied conversation, with a short serious twist on the topic of peoples’ eating disorders and how they grew out of them. I am grateful that we can move from idiocy and hilarity to camaraderie and meaningful discourse throughout our day together as we raise the people’s food.
The Latest from Jack
Note: As a way of helping Julie manage her responsibilities this summer (and as a small penance for having carelessly become one of those responsibilities by way of breaking my shoulder at the start of June), I hope to be adding something to this newsletter each week for a month or two. It is hard to predict what it will be, but I hope each week to share some thoughts I find enlarging. I hope you find them that way, too! If you like something, please let us know. If you don’t, do the same and say why, if you can. I’ll try to stay with things at least some people like. Thanks — Jack Kittredge
Book Report: From the Ruins of Empire by Pankaj Mishra
If you, like me, mostly studied just American and European history in school and want to better understand today’s world, you might enjoy this book. When Julie and I started reading it, I felt like I was taking blinders off. It is the story of what happened in the many Asian and African cultures – some like the Chinese, Persian, Arabian, and Indian, which had once been the most advanced on earth – upon their subjugation by the West during the last couple of centuries. It is particularly about the indigenous thinkers – visionaries, poets, philosophers, essayists, agitators – who most deeply felt this humiliation, and their immediate and eventual responses.
Let me paraphrase part of the prologue to whet your interest:
Few of us have heard, I would wager, of Jamal al-Afghani, Liang Qichao, Rabindranath Tagore, or the dozens of others who suffered and spoke out early against this domination. Speakers and writers of great feeling, their eloquence reminds me of reading Frederick Douglass. Hounded, publishing in small, banned magazines, arrested, imprisoned, some even executed, these men questioned and tried to address what had brought about such reversals. Their ideas set the stage for the later leaders and popular movements, which largely expelled the West in the 20th century.
That process is not yet complete, however, and continues to shape our destinies. This book is a fascinating entry into understanding it better.
2025 MHOF CSA
I went out and did a thorough evaluation of the crops on Saturday morning. I have concluded that everything that was planted before June 1 or so has been, at some level, stunted or is suffering from failure to thrive. A remarkable exception for which I am very grateful is the green onions, which have been very stalwart. Perhaps a little on the late side, I decided to replant kale, collards, radish, turnips, beets, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kohlrabi, and a few other things. I am always starting new courses of lettuce, but even these always reliable vegetables are only starting to come into their own with the later successions.
This week we will have:
- Chard, but it will not be back for 2 or 3 weeks
- Lettuce – 2 for large and medium shares, 1 for small
- Cilantro – for large shares only; it will grow back
- Arugula – an outstanding crop from our second planting; the first planting tanked
- Green onions – still holding strong; if you receive one that is a bit broken, it is because the green onions live near where the chickens are pasturing, and we have a veritable Armageddon every other night near the chickens. Skippy, who rushes to be the ‘protector-from-varmits’ to be chained up on one of the houses, is stationed there while Dingo and Harriet run free but stay with her all night. We hear the nightly barking but can only imagine the racing back and forth through the onions that is happening . . . One day, we will get one of those cameras
- Garlic scapes – our second and final week for scapes
- Strawberries – these have been a surprising success story for us this year, our best crop ever, perhaps, from a bed that we let go. It gives one pause as to whether all this tending of crops is always the best scenario. Kind of like when we parents wonder if benign neglect of our children is better than helicoptering
- Beet greens – I had decided to let these go for another week after carefully checking our first planting, and then checked the second planting and found that they were almost caught up; these are a wonderful green for stir frying, or soups – very tender and quite nutritious; use the entire thing and cook only slightly
- Chives for some
I think we might have kale next week. Please also note, Friday shareholders will pick up on July 3 instead of July 4 next week.
Volunteering at MHOF
John was our new volunteer this week. Looks like he is a regular keeper.
Maria is a regular volunteer when she can sneak out of work.
We can always find a role for you.
Jennifer’s CSA Recipe & Tip of the Week: Preserve the Herb Magic!
One of my absolute favorite things about being part of the MHOF CSA is the glorious abundance of herbs we receive throughout the season! Every bunch feels like a little green gift—bursting with flavor, aroma, and healing vitality. From chives to mint, cilantro to green onions, each herb is a powerful punch of nutrients that transforms a simple meal into something truly nourishing.
This week’s share inspired me to make a cooling infused water with cucumber, cilantro, mint, and lime—an Ayurvedic go-to for calming the system as we head into this hot and humid stretch. It’s refreshing, hydrating, and honestly… it feels like a spa in a glass.
But don’t let any of your precious herbs go to waste! When I’m prepping meals, I often chop up a bunch of fresh herbs and toss any extra right into a halved coconut shell (you could also use coffee filters). Most herbs dry beautifully in just a day or two this way—no fancy tools needed, just air and love.
And for the next level of herb joy, I’ve been using my dehydrator to make powders from green onions, garlic scapes, and chives. They’re AMAZING sprinkled into everything: soups, salad dressings, roasted veggies, even popcorn. It’s a great way to preserve the harvest and carry that fresh, farm-grown flavor into the colder months.
Much love and endless thanks to the dedicated Many Hands Organic Farm team for growing and sharing such vibrant, life-giving food. You are deeply appreciated!
With gratitude and green thumbs,
Jennifer @JenZen Living
Some Farm Videos From This Week
Num, num, comfrey!
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What a life!
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Farm Doins
The pigs busted out of their new house on Sunday morning, not waiting for the official Monday opening. They stayed within the fence in the woods, tho. Still no escapees!
Besides picking and packing week three of the CSA, we prepped and planted cilantro, new collards, Asian greens, parsnips, and chard. We weeded and mulched 6 beds of squash and the aforementioned potatoes. While harvesting cilantro, we finished weeding that bed.
All the hay that we had cut was raked and picked up and either mulched out or is waiting at the ends of beds for mulching this week. The ground-driven rake (close to 80 years old) lost one of its tine wheels, and Dave fixed it and returned it. The Subaru took a weekend vacation in the orchard, went off to see the mechanic, and is back home with no excuses for its unwillingness to start.
The layers reached the edge of the south field in their daily moves and will be joined by the broilers on Monday to bust into the pond orchard.
Many seedlings were started and are ready to move outside, and Sophie, Devra, and I, over the course of the week, weeded and replanted tomatoes in the hoop houses. We put 20 or so big bags of strawberries in the freezer, starting the food preservation for the year and assuring the future of the strawberry pies that Brandon so enjoys.
Think of us on Monday and Tuesday when it promises to be 96 and 97 degrees.
Julie
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