If you think you are paying too much for a pint of cherry tomatoes, rest assured that you are not. I can attest to that fact after having picked 8 of them today. It took me one hour to pick tomatoes just to fill eight pints. These were very small cherry tomatoes, mind you, but still, everyone of these little morsels had to picked by hand, by someone that is not you (when you buy it from a farm stand, or a grocery store). But was it fun? Yes, it was. It was an hour of peace and tranquility. It was an hour of being with myself and the bees and one of the best fragrances of summer, uninterrupted.
Ellery also assigned me to pick flowers and make bouquets for the farm stand. It was like telling a kid to go to a candy store. I loved it. I loved the picking, the bunching, the making of the bouquets. It is amazing how flowers can make a place come to life. Just a few vases around the produce transformed the farm stand into a rather magical spread. A couple customers actually bought the bouquets I made: instant gratification! And I didn't even get paid. It goes to show that money is not everything.
What else did I get to do? Dug. I got to dig into such fertile soil to find potatoes. This is yet another little factoid that most consumers don't think about when they are picking out pounds of potatoes for their dinner. From a small scale farm like Blue Heron, each potato is dug by hand (no machines involved). And let me tell you, sometimes it feels like digging for gold, because some potatoes hide, and some rocks look and feel like potatoes. If you ever get a chance to dig for potatoes, I recommend that you do. It's fun, it's satisfying, and it gives you an appreciation for the little farms like Blue Heron that dig.
Three hours on the farm flew by. And I already look forward to my next visit to Blue Heron.
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