How Do You Swim in a Garden?
With a Butterfly stroke? 😉
July is winding down, Friends-
And that means we’re swimming in garlic, beets, herbs, the last of the green beans, and other treasures. We sure could use some rain though; the shallower of the two hand-dug wells has dried up. We are so grateful for the deeper (65 feet!) unit which is a marvel of perseverance, engineering and the generosity of the Earth.
In this week’s newsletter, you’ll find:
Reminder of Sunday Lunch, 1pm
Frolic and Dinner Invite
Gratitude Feast Update!
Lovely Generous Gifts
Keeseville Hope Kitchen News
Sweet Pics
Sunday Lunch, 1pm As Always
Rain or Shine, we’ll be serving lunch downtown at our site near the Community Garden, between the hardware store and the bank. Come join us at 1pm and bring a friend; look for our tent and table! This week we’ll be serving up a freshly made batch of Tomato Basil soup (thanks to our bumper crop of basil!), our fantastic Corn Bread (made from corn we harvested last year) and a Salad of garden-fresh green beans, summer squash, fennel, basil, and of course those lovely sweet golden beets. All you need is your appetite- and a smile! 😊
Frolic and Dinner Invite
As is happening with most local gardens, ours are exploding with bounty… and so is the need for helping hands to handle all this wonderful abundance. Come join the Sunday afternoon Frolic at 3pm to help with Farm chores and make new friends! If you need transportation, just come to the Community Garden parking lot between 2:45 and 3. We’ll offer a Shuttle to the Farm, and it will return to downtown Keeseville after the Frolic Dinner.
At the Frolic there will be indoor (processing a whole lotta basil!) and outdoor tasks, like harvesting our first tomatoes of the season!
We’ll finish the day with our Sunday Dinner at 5:30, comprised of that above-mentioned soup, salad and cornbread. If you’re inspired to bring any other side dishes, we’ll happily sample them with you! And if you aren’t able to work but just want to join us for Dinner, please come to meet, dine with, and thank the good folks who help us maintain the supply of food that we give as gifts.
Come “Fly” with Adam
If you’re not able to work at a Frolic, perhaps you’d be interested in helping Adam “Fly”. On Saturdays, he winds his way around the streets of Keeseville with Flyers, inviting people to join us for our Sunday Lunches. He would love to have some company to help in this venture to make a personal connection to neighbors and spread the word about the Farm so that we can feed more hungry people. If you’re interested, please RSVP in the comment section of this newsletter so we know how many flyers to print up. You’ll meet at 2pm at the Community Garden, and it only takes a little more than an hour or so, depending on how many folks participate. For those who can’t contribute manual labor, it’s a great way to help the Farm on a different level!
Gratitude Feast News!
Inquiring Minds have been wondering for months; will we ever see another Gratitude Feast? The answer is YES!!! Anyone who attended a Feast in the past few years knows that they were the equivalent of presenting a wedding reception every month.
The summer workload and limited resources have obliged us to re-evaluate presenting those monthly gatherings, as wonderful as they were. However, we miss them too! And so, SAVE THE DATE of SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 14 for our Big Blowout Sand River Harvest Gratitude Feast! As it has always been offered, this Feast will be a Gift to anyone who is hungry, for any reason. And it will, of course, include tables full of delighted diners, platters full of all kinds of delicious food courtesy of the bounty of the Farm, and will wrap up with an epic Barn Dance. More details will be released in the weeks ahead, so mark your calendar, tell your friends, and stay tuned!
Lovely generous gifts
We’ve been the grateful beneficiaries of some fabulously generous gifts these past few weeks. A few examples: our neighbors Laurie and Aaron are conveying extra water to us for watering parched crops. Adam has been gifted a much-needed pair of sneakers from the Keeseville United Methodist Church Thrift Shop (see below).
We have three gorgeous young calves, thanks to the generosity of North Country Creamery (see further below). Jane has been sending summer work pants to Adam. North Point Community Farm and Juniper Hill have been transferring excess harvest to us, to feed others. Dr. Hannah has donated preventive meds to Maizey. And of course we couldn’t even continue our work to feed our neighbors without our Awesome Frolic workers! These intrepid, dedicated folks show up on Sundays and dazzle us with their willingness to do all sorts of tasks to keep us moving forward. Thank You seems too small a phrase to convey how much we appreciate all these treasures- we hope all of you are receiving as many blessings as you give!
Keeseville Hope Kitchen Tonight
This Friday, July 25 the yummy menu includes stuffed peppers with brownies or apples for dessert! (Note: this meal contains dairy.) Eat in or takeout. Join us from 5 to 7 pm at 124 Hill St in Keeseville. All are welcome and there is no charge to eat!
Note: Keeseville Hope Kitchen will be closed for the month of August, and will reopen September 5.
Sweet Pics
If you thought last week’s photos of our handsome calves Giles and Hank walking with a halter were adorable, look at what they are up to this week; they have already graduated to a real big-boy style yoke!
The charming duo impressively demonstrated their grasp of “gee” and “haw” as Adam walked them around the grassy lawn and down the driveway. They are learning super fast and will only get better as the weeks pass.
And what’s cuter than two beautiful calves? Why, more calves, of course!
Meet Theo, our newest sweet boy who has joined the crew. The barn is a busy and joyful place when these three guys decide to sprint around their stall. Come visit them some time; they love having their chins scratched!
That’s it for now from (we hope) your favorite farm; we are SO Grateful that you think of us and send us your kind thoughts and support in so many ways. We send them right back, and we’ll be in touch again next week. Until then, stay safe and cool!
Love and Peace,
Allison