Finally, a Break in the Rain

Just when we thought it would never stop, it did. The rain ceased and the sun burst forth, trees in the orchards dripping water like jewels. We got the tractor going, started a burn in the lower orchards, checked on vegetable beds. Then we just stumbled around, punch drunk, in this green and glistening world.

Across the valley neighbors were emerging like we were, surveying the damage, getting on with the work of spring. Up here on the ridge rivulets on the road had turned into gullies, there was much planting to do, row upon row of apple trees to prune.

But when your cup runneth over, you stop to drink.

This Week at the Barn and the Farm……

Sweet peas on mulberry coppice, Calypso Orchids and Black Trumpets in the lower forest, Alcosa Cabbage shoots in the beds; a burn. We stand around, warming our hands, watching the unusable bits of last year’s projects go up in smoke, plannng new ones.

Shae plates Chef Noll’s ethereal coconut milk carrot cake, bursting with dates, nuts and cognac poached raisins. Garnished w/ a carrot gelée, a scoop caramel ice cream and candy glass. Isabel harvests violas for cocktails from the beds behind The Gallery.

Dan feels out the space where guests will pose before a poloroid floral wall he will build for The Pink Party, now just weeks away. Randy gives the staff a taste of The Gallery’s octopus and ceci bean dish at line up. It goes on the Sunday Supper menu this week. Scotty cools a quiche on the windowsill, offering a thin slice for one hungry photographer.