Strawberry Joy

The Barefoot Boy

Blessings on thee, little man,

Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!

With thy turned-up pantaloons,

And thy merry whistled tunes;

Wtih thy red lip, redder still

Kissed by strawberries on the hill;

With the sunshine on thy face,

Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace;

From my heart I give thee joy, --

I was once a barefoot boy!

By Greenleaf Whittier, from Haverhill, MA in the 1800s.

This Spring we joined a local CSA (community supported Agriculture) farm called Simple Gifts Farm, as part of an effort to help preserve local farming business and to enjoy fresh and affordable local foods. The farm is very near where we live, and they grow organic veggies and other products. We are totally new in this farm share thing, so we are just getting half a share. Every week the kids and I would go to pick up our share of food that the farmers pick in the morning, and on Saturdays Mark would join us for an afternoon walk to pick up the other part of our share: one quart of strawberries from the farm.

Fei and Jun absolutely loved the activity, despite the long walk to the strawberry field that is labeled "better strawberries" then the one closer to the farm shed for share pick ups. We would walk over to the farther field, passing the pigs rolling on the mud, the rows of veggies growing to our left, the greenhouse tomatoes growing vibrantly to our right, the cows mooing in the background, and eventually arrive at the right picking spot. My kids usually get right into business. Jun can now tell the color red instantly to spot bright red strawberries; Fei stoops down to find the bottom branches that have the berries hidden; Mark and I usually hunt for the largest ones that are usually missed out if you don't carefully. And often I would remind Jun not to step on the branches or pick any green ones.

The better field of strawberries. Our farmers, Jeremy and David, live in the houses in the background with their family.

I found a hidden red treat!

Mark got the biggest of all!

Very happy customers on the way home

Tonight as we came home with fresh strawberries, Fei created her own quesadilla recipe using strawberries for dinner, and it was delightfully delicious!

Fei's strawberry quesadilla:

fresh strawberries

whole wheat tortillas

cheddar cheese

raw honey

cut up / put shredded cheese in a whole wheat tortilla wrap. Fold in half.

heat it up on a flat pan over low to medium heat. Turn couple of times to heat evenly.

remove from heat. put ripe strawberries into the wrap.

spread some raw honey over the wrap. cut up and serve with a cold soup, salad or a chilled drink.

We ate the quesadillas tonight with butternut squash soup, baby carrots, tomatoes and drinks. I asked Fei if I should share this recipe with our farmer, she said, as a matter of fact, "no mama, they should come up with their own recipe for making the quesadilla."

Square Gardens

I have been so inspired by many of my friends who grow their own vegetables at their backyard, so in April Mark and I also built our own two square raised beds in the backyard. I did something I never did before: working with soil. I found out about compost in UMass from a friend, so I made several trips over their to bring home buckets of rick black soil with my kids, and Fei was such a good helper with shoveling and cheering. Over April vacation, at the end of the month, I planted the first seeds in the beds, and at the margin of one of the beds Fei wrote the names of the vegetables: lettuce, spinach, beans, sugar snap peas. In the other bed I planted more peas, as well as some Chinese vegetables that were from a few years ago.

I was very skeptical about the growth of these seeds. I had tried to plant flowers and vegetables before, but none grew very much, and everything eventually died. I had resolved that I don't have a green thumb. Our two raised beds are very small, for I was thinking that in case everything fails I wouldn't lose too much. Every day the kids and I went to check on the seeds. Fei heard from Mark that if one sings to the plants, they will grow very well. So sometimes when she went to check the seeds with me, she would sing and talk with them softly.

About two weeks later, little baby leaves started to show up. I was so excited to see their green heads coming out of the dark soil. And gradually the seeds we planted were just popping out like magic. I was like a diligent mother with many babies. Every day I was checking on them. I watered them and made sure no weeds were around. Fei kept on singing her songs to the plants while Jun loved joining the watering crew. I would teach Fei the mechanism of plant life and leave shapes, and it was refreshing to dig out books about plants I used to read long ago. I feel like something so exciting is returning to my life again. The love for the outdoors, for nature and all things green and beautiful is returning again.

Fei and Jun helping to water the plants

Jun insisted that he was big enough for the watering can

By the end of May, the lettuce were completely grown! Fei helped picked them off, and she tasted the first piece of lettuce and loved it! (This was also my scheme to encourage her to eat more vegetables :) Between the end of May and early June we had a great harvest of our first crop of seeds: lettuce, Chinese vegetables (Choy Sum, Bok Choy), and spinach. It felt like an incredible abundance that I never experienced before. Since we started a half share with a local farm near our house, we were all of a sudden overflowing with greens: salad greens, stir fry greens. We were giving them away because there was so much. It was such an illustration about abundance: you have so much of something good that you just have to give them away, because if you keep holding onto them they will get bad and won't benefit anyone.

Baby Bok Choy

Red leave lettuce, Chinese choy sum, spinach

Fresh from the soil

Now I am in the yard all the time, tending to the second round of seeds (cucumber, tomatoes, Chinese Tong Ho, Hong Yin Choy, lettuce, broccoli), while working with the beans and sugar snap peas to help them stay upright. The beans and the peas already have flowers now, and the peas are extremely tall, almost up to 6'. I am so inexperienced in growing these that I have to figure out solutions to help them along as they grow. I went into the woods on our property and used branches (I read this suggestion from a book) to build support and climbing structures for their endless climbing tendrils. The end result of it, according to Mark, looks like a piece of rugged art.

Lesson 1: Next time I will build a climbing structure for them before I put the seeds down.

Lesson 2: Read about the plants I am about to plant before I plant them.

I am so thankful that with the rich soil and plenty of water, the vegetables were growing so well for a first time grower like me. Today I checked on the peas. There were 4 little pea pods out! I can't wait for the flowers to bear more peas. They are so sweet and stringless, and my kids are eating them up because they are fascinated with the fact that they come out of a plant.

We are dreaming to plant some fruit trees in our yard too. Ever since Fei studied about polar bears of Greenland for her Geography class, she has been thinking about planting more trees to help the polar bears to not have to lose their ice. We would love to get some pear trees and some cherry trees. Perhaps in a couple of years we will have some homegrown fruits to share with friends. I can't wait.