first fruits, sepiessa

Nathan and I went down to Sepiessa late this morning, to harvest for tomorrow’s market. I set him up picking pea shoots, which he gamely consented to – as any field worker can tell you, picking pea shoots is perhaps one of the most annoying and unfulfilling harvest tasks around. You feel like you’re going blind, looking for the telltale curlicues amid the thickets of green, and after half an hour or so of focused work you’ll have a few ounces to show for your labor.

I went out among the tomatoes with a paper cronig’s bag in hand, partly to avoid picking pea shoots, and partly because I am an eternal optimist regarding those plants. We fertilized and mulched and watered our little guts out over them, and whatever we can get out of them, however paltry, however woefully short of our expectations, I am going to collect every last freakin bit of it.

To my surprise, there were a decent number of fruits to take away – maybe ten pounds or so. Nothing to call the bank over. But still not bad for July.