Special thanks to Intern Jane for contributing her third post as we move past greenhouse tending to field planting.

Here we find ourselves face to face with summer once again! I approach this season of abundance with both joy and caution. There is little better than hunting for ripe strawberries in the gentle sun after a full morning of planting with rolling golden hills in the background. But with abundance comes the turbulence of harvesting, selling, planting, and dodging the scorching sun.

Despite increasing heat, I personally have been relishing the next stage of the farm; Planting!

The seedlings we have been nurturing and protecting for so many months now finally are being released into the comparative wild of our neatly shaped beds. With each plant going into the ground, I feel like we are freeing them, metaphorically sending them off to college. We still love them and support them, but they are out of the (green) house.

Today, we planted a bed of beets. It sounds so simple to say, but you remember when I described mixing soil for seed trays, and the hours of dropping little seeds into holes. Now, we have taken those trays, popped out each individual plant, and placed it carefully into its very own hole. 

That bed of beets has three long lines of beets, watered by the drip lines we carefully laid. Even though they are still small, you can see the rainbow of colors hinting at the wonderful variety of vegetables that will emerge from the soil before long.

Each time I return to the farm, new fields have been planted. I am eager to see what the farm will look like with all its fields filled. And I can barely comprehend the amount of work that requires, after four people spent 3 hours this morning planting just one bed of beets.

There is so much abundance to look forward to, and every harvest tastes sweeter knowing the care so many people have put into making it happen.