Hi all,

Firstly, thank you to our Spring CSA members and everyone who’s visited us at the Hingham farmers’ market this past month– your enthusiasm has amplified my own, and it’s awesome to see you enjoying our many different types of salad greens!

May was a challenging month on the farm – cool temperatures, frequent rain, and less than half as much sunlight as the historic average. Weeds didn’t want to die, vegetables didn’t care to grow, and some parts of our fields were mucky and inaccessible. Putting on my ran suit every morning for yet another wet day was becoming downright disheartening, and in years past it would be enough to make me ponder whether I was crazy for choosing a profession reliant on something as inherently unreliable as the weather.

Yet almost as soon as my need for help coping with the weather appeared, so did a timely quotation from one of my books. Speaking on the fact that everyone has distinct goals to accomplish in life, the passage goes, “Sometimes we can even negatively guess what our goal might be before understanding it positively, through the sheer repetition of the same difficult circumstances… as if we were endlessly revolving in an oppressive circle, closer and closer to a central point that is both the goal and the opposite of the goal.”

Independence from the weather – in fact of all external circumstances beyond my control – that is the goal. I don’t mean this literally, to suggest that all farmers should start growing in climate-controlled, hydroponic greenhouses whose goal seems to be denying the very existence of weather (as well as anything beyond their control). I’m talking about emotional independence, like not breaking down in tears when staring at a late-May forecast that calls for a week of cloudy, rainy weather in the 50s. For how would I know the perfection of a sunny day in the mid-70s if a rainy day in the 50s wasn’t there for juxtaposition? And what good is feeling sorry for myself going to do anyways? Regardless, I’m happy for the warmer weather this week, and you’ll see its effect in our market tables!

MARKET NEWS

The Braintree farmers’ market opens this Saturday, and I’ve grown hundreds of herb plants that the Braintree Cooperative Bank will be handing out for free (first come, first served)! The market runs from 9am-1pm in front of the Braintree Town Hall. You can also continue to find us at the Hingham Bathing Beach from 10am-2pm.

We hope to see you at either location, with cucumbers, beets, garlic scapes, and giant heads of lettuce!

Thanks for reading,
Adam