Thoughts about rain…Try mixing some mud into your life
Rain sometimes has quite negative public relations, and, in my mind it is unjust. Rain means making sure my kids wear jackets in the morning on the way to school or kindergarten, even if they really don’t feel like it; Rain means running to rescue the laundry; Rain means so much mud will get in the house. I, farmer that I am, embrace all of these problems warmly, with a smile and a laugh. How great! You can dress the jacket backwards on the kid, like a stray jacket, and turn him around himself and cover with hugs and kisses until he complains he’s dizzy, forget about the laundry, it is endless anyway, and the mud, the mud… All these workshops and retreats to which people come and pay their best money to feel a little less in control – you know what I mean? I would recommend them to play in the mud. It is so pleasant, takes you back to childhood… a piece of land with rain sauce on it, sometimes that's all it takes to start smiling in the middle of the day.
When we congratulate someone and are happy for them, we say "Mazal tov". Meaning good luck. To me it sounds like we’re actually wishing that good will pour down on them, a kind of good liquid that will cover them (the original idea is not mine…). As far as I'm concerned, rain is exactly that – something good that starts dripping, a bit on the forehead, one drop that rolls to the lower lip, a bit of rain lands on the nose (if you raise your face to the sky, of course). And then – the water begins to run down, on the neck and the back of neck, from the top of the head down the back. Cool, refreshing and fresh, straight from the nearest cloud. How good it feels to stand under the pouring rain… Sometimes I stand inside the lettuce patch and feel both of us spread our hands to the sides – I spread both my hands, and after me all the lettuces spread their fresh green leaves.
Rain is the best metaphor for realizing a potential. For processes that sometimes occur below the surface (or above, in the case of rain) and discreetly evolve and that cannot be quantified until the moment arrives and they break out. The rain actually begins during the heat of the sun, which beats over the seas and oceans while we enjoy a chilling watermelon in the summer, many days before the rainy season begins. Slowly, from far away and nearer by, the drops begin to collect in the sky, and no eye can see them and no one feels that any process has even begun. Only later does it cool down, the wind begins to blow, and the smell of autumn creeps up the nose. The droplets begin to gather and crowd into the cloud, hints of gray begin to crawl into the sky, and it is still not clear whether they are real rain clouds or something else. There is real tension music in the background, like in action films, where the action will soon begin, but not yet, just some clues scattered in the plot. Then, at the right moment, drops and drops, followed by the rain that begins to fall. The rain, the fulfillment of potential that becomes so material – quenches and fulfills.
Why this long story about how the rain was conceived? Because many other processes, that we plant, cook and summon begin this way, from afar, without us seeing it, without being able to put a finger on what has really changed, and slowly evolve, gather, change, and then when it’s the right time to ripen – begin to trickle in and flood the world.
May we be blessed with rain upon us, to quench, renew, soak thirsty earth, and carry out everything that awaits for the right moment.
To health!
Yours,
Maggie and the garden staff
We can expect in our organic vegetable baskets:
Mizuna
coriander
lettuce
Potatoes
Butternut squash
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Radishes
pumpkin
Lemons
In the large organic vegetable baskets, also:
New Zealand spinach
Sweet potatoes
Rocket
Dill
Organic fruit baskets:
Oranges
Clementines
Sweeties
And bananas
In the large organic fruit baskets, also:
Granny Smith apples in the conversion
And more oranges (they're great!)
