Wrestling The Wind

Friday, July 3, 2020

Good Morning!

Here's what you need to know today:

This week's harvest:	Sugar Snap Peas, head lettuce of all varieties, carrots (only a few bunches, so come early if you want one), Hakurei turnips, zucchini, yellow squash, salad mix, and arugula.
Where you can find us:	Port Angeles Farmers Market and the Transit Center. Saturday 10-2 Sapor of PA Farmstand, 43 Black Diamond Rd. Open all day: Sunday-Wednesday
Next up to harvest:	Green beans are looking good and almost ready for a big harvest. We've been munching on them the past few days. So fresh and crisp!

This is a morning that is quite rainy and dark and hearkens back to the winter months, but let's not go there yet! Let's languish in this beautiful summer weather. I've never lived somewhere with such steady and consistent weather and I think I love it. That reliable gentle breeze that comes and visits us every afternoon right when temperatures are maxing out at 68 degrees, carrying with it that salty Salish Sea air. I just love it.

It also seems consistent that Spring and early Summer come with harsher winds too. Every place I've ever lived has a windy season this time of year - is it carrying with it the change of the season? All I know is that it is, perhaps, the most stressful weather for a farmer (other than hail). Having to stop whatever you're doing to run around chasing row cover, tie down high tunnels, put extra weights on tarps...

A few weeks ago I was out harvesting, fretting in the back of my mind about the gusts that were brewing all around me, and suddenly our huge tarp (50' x 100') that we use to smother grass and weeds, gets pick up by a particularly powerful gale and lands right on top of our 7' deer fence, ripping the netting all the way to the ground. I just wanted to keep harvesting, I didn't want to stop everything to haul this ridiculously heavy tarp up and over the fence and back to the place I want it, and then repair the fence. Oh the wind...such a harbinger of stress. I remember while living in Gallup, New Mexico, where the windy season is particularly long and maddening, being smacked in the face with sand as I wrestled the gusts to get my grocery cart across a parking lot. I yelled at the wind that day that it would forever be my least favorite weather.

I don't think the wind has taken my opinion into account, it still blows every spring! But I can't deny that my relationship with these blustering blows has blossomed into a little love, a little less hate. They do bring with them the transition into summer, and if you let go of all the worry, wind is actually quite invigorating. I can think of many mountain top summits, the wind nearly blowing me off the top, feeling incredibly filled with life and energy. And each night Andy and I spend our dinners on the back porch watching the tall pines and firs that encircle our property dance for us in the breeze. It's our own dinner and a show. The wind is also probably my most faithful and consistent reminder to take deep breaths, as it carries on it some glorious scents. On our property this smell is usually a blend of warm honey, wet pine, and salty sea air. It's honestly amazing. I'm constantly pestering Andy, "Do you smell that?!" *deep snorting inhale* "Oh my gosh! Can you smell that?!" *another deep inhale* Since moving here I've said so, so many times, "I feel like I'm drinking up the air."

I don't know if you've ever felt annoyed by wind the way I do. Maybe this could be your reminder that the wind is just a very forcible reminder to take deep breaths. It seems to be working for me!

All the best from our tiny farm,
Melissa