Who helps who

Last Sunday, I paid a visit to Boyles Family Farms to pick up a couple of chickens I ordered and also to volunteer a couple of hours because they had experienced some flooding and were behind schedule a little. Claire and Matt's farm is one of the newer CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the area.

Why am I not a member of this CSA? Well, I had thought about signing up, and in the end, it's too much food for just me, especially when I'm growing food in my garden this year. That sounds lame. I also suffer from something vegetable-related that makes me lose my taste for anything that I HAVE to eat so it won't go to waste. That's lame as well, but it is true. I talked about splitting a share with a co-worker and I think we'll do that next year (I think it's too late for this year).

Nevertheless, I want to support them somehow. I've signed on to buy eggs if they have enough, and will also make arrangements to get out there a few more times to see if I can help out. On Sunday, I helped transplant zinnias. It's a three-person job, and it just so happened that me being a left-handed person was an advantage because it's set up for one of the two transplanters to load plants with her left hand. I felt so useful. That's what I mean by who helps who here. Feeling useful was motivation to do it again, AND I ended up getting one of the chickens for free for helping out (thanks, Claire!).

And can I just say that I love the idea of having a flower farm? You can keep your livestock and your vegetables. If I farmed, I'd grow small fruits and cut flowers. I was excited to hear Claire say that there is actually a market for cut flowers around here. Not that I'm rushing out to do this, but it does my heart good that people are willing to pay for something I think would be satisfying to grow, and that I feel adds a bit of nature and beauty to our lives (sorry, that's a little sappy).