It was time to un-spile the trees this week, wash the buckets and sap collection jugs. The evaporator was hauled back into the corner of the garage. Notes were made on the repairs that Harvey Frey, a local Amish tinsmith, will have to make before we boil again. I'm actually glad there are repairs because I love driving out to Mesopotamia where he lives. I feel as though I am in another world altogether when I go there, because in fact, I am. He remembered me from 30 years ago (no kidding) when I bought this evaporator in the first place. I took him a sap bucket to solder because I did something dumb involving a freezer and a sap bucket, forgetting that ice expands. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the cutest little backyard-sized evaporator in his workshop, which I ended up putting into the back of my station wagon and the rest is history. So this winter when I needed to have a new finishing pan made (this time out of stainless steel), he remembered that I was a teacher, that Terry was a landscape architect in Chagrin Falls, and that I wanted my children to have something better to do than watch TV. I don't remember saying that 30 years ago, but I'm sure he is right.
Last week Anne and Terry transplanted broccoli and cabbage seedlings and started some kale. Part of the badminton court was tilled to make room for more vegetables.
This year we are going to market our vegetables locally, most likely from a roadside stand. We applied to the South Russell Farmers Market, but as of yet, do not have a definitive answer as to whether or not we are in.
We were thrilled to find a neighbor on Music Street who raises 40 chickens. They produce the most beautifully colored eggs I have seen. It is going to be an exciting year for the garden, changing our focus from wedding flowers in '09 to vegetables in 2010. There will be a small section, of course, for Laura Hall's August wedding flowers, though!
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