This week, Caitlin and I opened the stand and stocked it with greens and tomato plants. I get some sort of cheap thrill from watching our little cooler empty of bagged kale throughout the day, of seeing which tomato varieties are the favorites (sungold is, of course, a winner). Harvesting and stocking is a big addition to an already full slate, and I’ve been getting up earlier and working later, trying to keep up. Sometimes with two people I just feel so puny. May and June are rather tricky in that you often seed, transplant, and harvest all in the same day. You have different varieties at a wide range of maturities, all needing immediate attention, and the switching from task to task takes time. August may be exhausting, but it’s rather straightforward – go harvest, and when you’re done with that, harvest some more, maybe check on the irrigation, or once in a blue moon pull a weed or two.

That being said, I am no longer bereft, without a harvest. We are producing, in the true sense of the word.

I took a long weekend and went off-island, for a few reasons – to drive my little bro home from college, to pick up my pet rabbit, to spend Mother’s Day with my family, and to generally take a deep breath before the season picks up.

In a fortuitous stroke of timing, my family finally found a new dog in the days I spent at home. You can’t tell in the picture above, but he’s got the oddest proportions – a long daschund body, stumpy little legs, a foxy pointed face. But he’s also got a gorgeous coat and a winning personality to boot. The shelter days are over, Rennie.