And here is the latest newsletter that just went out today!
The Open Gate Farm
Camano Island, WA
August 24, 2009
How it Happens at The Open Gate Farm!
Dear Friends of the Farm:
Looked out the kitchen window this morning and there it was. Just past the raspberries looms a huge structure. White pipes bent in an arc and covered in thick plastic, our new hoop house is almost done. And we could not have done it alone.
Saturday about 40 folks we’ve known over the years…friends from the early 1980’s when we arrived in Kirkland who now live across the island in Madrona…friends from about all the churches we’ve attended in the last 25 years…friends from up the road and from down nearby lanes…friends from the produce stand…all showed up and helped us celebrate our coming of age by building a house for our plants and our future. It was very cool and a tip of the hat and a big hug of thanks to each of them. And the food they brought was pretty good too!
If you are curious, go visit our blog and there will be pictures galore from that sunny Saturday on the Island where laughter ruled and doubts were dispelled. And then when you come to visit the stand in the weeks remaining of the season, wander on down and see what it is all about. In a nutshell, we now have a 10’ x 20’ greenhouse, 9 feet tall (for growing tall plants) which will both extend the growing season for produce planted in the ground as well as provide benches and so forth for starting seedlings in the Spring.
Another dream come true at The Open Gate Farm. But you know, the real dream of Saturday was not the hoop house. It was the people. We could not have built that house alone, and that underlines that life cannot be lived alone. We must live in community to live completely. We must weave ourselves out of our isolation into the fabric of live with others, for together we can become far more than ever we could in solitude.
One person who has woven themselves into all our lives this summer has been our intern, Kathryn Norris. She arrived in May, eager and ready for learning and doing and living a great farmer’s life. She has done all that and more. She has rototilled and hoed and planted and transplanted and weeded by hand on her hands and knees and hustled up to the produce stand to meet and greet and answer questions and so also woven herself into the lives of you, our customers and friends.
You have eaten her breads, you have fed her “Snickers Snacks” to your dogs, you have teased her and laughed with her and you have accepted her. And that is what we are all about here at The Open Gate Farm. We are about encountering life and embracing it. We are about making memories for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. We are about caring for each other, for our ducks and chickens, our cat and dog. And we are about accepting each other as the unique person God made us to be and we all are the richer for doing so. We are the richer for setting aside any differences and celebrating the things we hold in common.
And we hold in common the good things of this earth, of this land, of these small fields. We hold in common the appreciation for healthy foods and happy homes, for all that contributes to keeping us whole. Whether it is Kathryn’s Molassas Oatmeal bread or the tender lettuces or the beautiful beans, it is in that finding of wholeness that we find our true selves.
When you live on the land, you learn though that there are seasons. There are seasons to the year and to life. And the season of the summer with Kathryn is coming to a close. She is heading on to AFLBS, the Free Lutheran Bible School back in Minneapolis for the winter and this will be her last weekend with us.
We will miss her, and you will too. We all will miss her big smile and her dancing eyes, but most of all, her very large and loving heart. But just as we can look out and see the hoop house that love of friends built, so also we can look within and see the happiness that knowing Kathryn has built in our hearts and that we can carry through the winter ahead.
So when you come by for your last loaf of her lovely breads this weekend, do let her know how much you appreciate all she has done. And while your contrary farmer will try to have some breads in the weeks ahead, we all know they won’t be the same. His gnarly old hands won’t fold the dough and his glaring eyes won’t watch it rise and his tired nose won’t smell the doneness the same as Kathryn has this summer. It will be bread, but it won’t be Kathryn’s.
We’ll have that sweet Italianescher oak leaf lettuce out there alongside those huge Chiogga beets this weekend. We’ll have a few tomatoes that are just coming ripe now hanging out with those tastey Muncher cucumbers. But we’ll all be wistful and wishing it were June again and the summer was ahead of us.
And we’ll all be wondering how we will make it through the Harvest Jubilee on September 19th without our good friend. Oh, we’ll get by, but it would be more fun with her big smile to greet you! But the seasons are changing and life is moving forward and we will too.
Happy Hoeing,
Jon and Elaine the busy farmers, Snickers the snack happy dog, Mystery the lap cat, Jerry and Harley and their girls who are hiding eggs in the bushes, and of course, the ministry team of Parson Dudley Brown, DD, Quackers, Cheese, and Margaret the studious ducks who all live at
The Open Gate Farm
269 Russell Road,
Camano Island, WA 98282
360-387-4449
Email: tsgjon@aol.com
Blog: www.theopengatefarm.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M19128
Open Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to dusk until September 19 or so. Or by appointment if you call 360-387-4449 first.
©2009 Internet Millennium Copywriter applies. May be reproduced without further permission if source is acknowledged.
