Farming plants is a rhythmic craft. Some of the rhythms are quick: Shovel hits earth: Ding. Slices earth: Scrape. Heaves up. Plops down. Repeats… Ding, scrape, heave, plop!
Some rhythms are daily: Rise, open greenhouses, water at 10, work, water at 3, close greenhouses, sleep. Repeat...
Some rhythms are a year long and a little harder to hear. Plant garlic, wait. Garlic spires emerge. Winter becomes spring. Spring becomes summer. Garlic scapes. Garlic swells. Harvest garlic. Eat lots of garlic. Save seed. Repeat...
Some rhythms are many years long and can only be heard by the oldest trees...
One of the coolest things about all these rhythms is that they mark time, they weave time together. Like the holidays, you can remember back to where you were, who you were with, how you were feeling, the last time you were at that point in the rhythm.
Last year at this time we were just on the down beat of our first full year as a farm and feeling giddy. We had never planted garlic on this land before and picked the nicest spot we could.
We started the garlic planting drums on Nov. 5th, 2017: Prepped beds, called friends, popped cloves, readied mulch, planted, mulched beds, prayed. That little rhythm set into motion all of the garlic we've been munching this year.
This Sunday we’ll strike it up again, with some of the same friends, and put a prayer in the ground for 2019's crop. We hope you'll join in!
Ding, scrape, heave, plop…
See you in the garlic field,
David & Kayta
