We are in those baking hot, long sun days now, the hard drought time of the early summer when even the wild plants wilt and long for rain.

At my new farm, the dry afternoon wind blows through the herby meadows and smells fragrant and good from the wild croton and the skullcap.

This year the coreopsis I had seeded right after the land was cleared bloomed in full abundance, bright as the solstice sun.

Some of the fruit trees I planted last year are bearing – I was amazed at the abundance already. I tasted mayhaws for the first time ever. They are deliciously tangy and apple-flavored.

Everything in my life these days feels always shifting, but blessed along the way. I am working very hard to move my garden, which was on a different piece of land several miles away. I was always split between working here and working there, and I felt very stretched thin.

There were also issues working on someone else’s land – things here were getting neglected, and I found it difficult to properly design the garden and save seeds,  and just have sovereignty in making decisions about everything.

It has been a slow process – I spent a week designing and building out the necessary irrigation. Now i am clearing the land by hand and heavily mulching it, and I have a beautiful load of composted mulch from Tom Workman off of Lakeshore Drive. I am planting directly into that and using my fish and kelp emulsion and a huge load of manure to boost the fertility.

The soil here is very, very new, and not built up like at the other garden, but there are significantly less pests, and the plants actually look much healthier – less pumped up perhaps, but stronger and more sure of themselves. The soil I’ve been working on has fungal mats – unlike the other garden that is constantly being mechanically tilled.

I know it’s an enormous task to take on to run a commercial garden with no tractor, but i think I can do it. I think back to all my huge, gorgeous gardens of the past….I know that I can. I have my pigs, I have a batch of chickens i just got in the mail yesterday to help scratch up the weeds and fertilize,  I have my shovel and pitchfork and hoe, I have a wheelbarrow and rake, and lots of good mulch and compost, which is all I ever had to create my gardens before, and best of all, I have the help of other people, which is new in my life and makes such a huge difference in the work.

It feels so good to spend the day just working here, and not having to get everything together… I feel like I am at last getting grounded and sinking my feet into this new place. I am falling in love here.

The parsnips grew enormous this year – all the root crops loved the well-tilled soil at the other garden. Clothilde and I found ourselves eating so many parsnips,we even ate them for breakfast!

This recipe has a very “French” amount of butter. All I can say is that the parsnips soak it up and get toasted up so beautifully this way.

BREAKFAST PARSNIPS AND BACON

3 slices of bacon

3 tablespoons of butter

2 cups parsnips, chopped into chunks

Salt to taste

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1. Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in a wide frying pan until the fat is fried out, but before it gets hard and crispy.
2. Melt the butter with the bacon (this is the step when you can tell you are going to have a great breakfast).
3. Add the parsnips and stir-fry for 3-5 minutes on high heat. Lower heat and place a lid on and cook for about 10-15 minutes until the parsnips are tender. Take the lid off and season with salt and pepper. Continue frying for 5 more minutes, stirring often, so the parsnips brown on the edges.