Fall CSA Newsletter: November 26, 2024 (Week 3)
Happy Thanksgiving!!
I recently went to the dentist and I must say I have a great husband and wife dentist team! Our whole family goes to them. They take good care of us, make sure we are comfortable and in agreement with any protocols. It feels good doing business with them. We like them as people, they are good at what they do and we trust them. (Funny too, because I met them through a market customer!) I had a nice heart to heart with the secretary just before leaving the office the other day. It reminded me how special just a moment in time with someone, sharing about your life experiences, you can learn and expand your capacity to be more empathetic. Just by a little sharing.
This is why Chris and I love coming to markets. It’s a good time to sell food and have some heart to hearts! You are special people, you Pittsburgh veggie eaters! Over the years through hot and cold temperature rain and thunder, inner turmoil or a wounded body we have had many great, silly, deep, inquisitive, thoughtful, educational and fun conversations over our tables either with an abundance of food or empty and sold out. We are grateful that food has brought you to us and that it continues to bring you back. The Thanksgiving table also does the same. We continue to come together for the Thanksgiving meal. The holiday intersections of time bring folks together who aren't always together, and even if always together, life is still fleeting and these are usually memorable elaborate formal meals, often a little different than the rest. For some this holiday will bring families together who are missing a recently deceased loved one, welcoming a newborn, a new inlaw, a new friend. These are special times when we come together to do the ancient essential act of eating together with our tribe or clan. A big part of the thankfulness are the people that make it an event with you.
“THANKFUL & GIVING”. That’s a pretty radical and wonderful title to the gathering. This collaboration of community and family that keeps the small world turning are magical and important. Why, important? Well we all eat every day, but to sit together and eat and be Thankful, feels like we are looking at our essence. We are sharing space and ingesting time and space. As we eat together, we ponder and talk… about… What is on our plate this Thanksgiving? Oftentimes we talk about the ingredients of dishes and how they taste and maybe how we made them differently or if it’s a family recipe, how we got an ingredient from a new source. What is one your noun “plates” this Thanksgiving and what is on your mental and spiritual plates this Thanksgiving?
A moment of silence...
We hope you all feel held and are in good company for this holiday. If you happen to be alone, know that you are not the only one! Remember all the individual stars are a part of a greater constellation. If you are eating Who Cooks For You Farm produce this holiday know that this food is grown with love and harvested with love, in hopes to fill you with nourishment and be in your company. Just the squash or sweet potato on your counter are a grace from the plant realm. They are in your presence, and sharing this special time with you. They grew to be here now with you!
Chris came back from Smicksburg this evening with a plastic bag full of knife sheaths he picked up from the harness shop. The harness Shop is a shop in Smicksburg, 20 minutes away that is Amish owned and run. There is no electricity in this 2 level store. We buy many things here and also get all leather goods repaired or made from scratch here. Chris asked if they had our sheaths that he asked for them to make way back in spring. Yes they did tucked in the corner without a name on them. From May - November they sat in the corner with no one coming for them, but then out of no where, they were remembered and had a home. Now we have brand new leather shealth’s for the 2025 harvest! Sweet! Knives stowed away securely is an important thing, and wrapped in a sheath of local homemade leather is all the better. Local and handmade! We hope you all have a delicious handmade meal this Thanksgiving. We hope you feel the love of your company and food, and have a bubbling feeling of champaign in your hearts from the thankfulness and giving that you share together, and let us think of those that don’t have this and make space in our hearts, dreams, and actions so that those who don’t have this peace and bliss may soon also have this in their lives.
Blessings dear friends! We are so thankful for you to have come into our lives and to grow with us!
Your Farmers,
Chris, Aeros and the Who Crew
It's farewell to this awesome crew of hard working men! Thanksgiving day they will be heading back to Mexico to their families for their long awaited hiatus! We will be excited to see these same group of guys in the spring of 2025. From left to right, in their nicknames for each other (Yoyo, Oso, Leko, Cobra, & Marquitos)
This is Rich here, a neighboring farmer who has bigger equipment than us. He's driving his huge John Deer tractor with his bale shredder on the back. This shredded straw mulch is an ideal mulch for our garlic and strawberries. It gives these crops a coat of warmth from the harsh temperatures of winter and helps prevent them from dying due to frost heaving. The kids were stolen away from their chores to stand in the rain of straw!
Klinton and Andres will be with us until we close up for the season. Mid December Andres will go back to Peru to meet his first born child, Milan. Klinton lives just down the road, so he'll be helping us with through the winter on winter projects. Here they are giggling and cleaning onions.