harvest time

Part of the slowdown in posts these past couple of weeks has been due to my general malaise, I admit. But a large chunk of it has been coordinating the harvest from our farm.

Our harvest is different from the corn or soybeans or cornucopia of fruit that springs to mind when you mention the word harvest, but it applies nonetheless. It is hard work for us to get our animals to the butcher at the right time on dates that are made months in advance—superstorm or no. (Luckily that was not our week, but even a week later wasn't too much better.)

This year, we had the pigs and the lambs to work out. It was a finely coordinated dance of "drop this off here and pick this up here"; of "we'll take this part now and come back for this part later"; of "put this in the freezer and take this out to deliver". It necessitated dealing with the horrible yucky skins so they could be transformed into beautiful pelts. It included wonderful, but all too short, visits with old friends, and meeting new and very excited customers.

Today was the perfect example. The skins were finally all cleaned and salted, so off to PA I went to drop them off at the tannery. Tonight, our freezer was emptied a little more as another happy person picked up their meat. The pieces fall into place.

The best part, by far, is when people call and e-mail us to rapture over the meat they are eating. It makes all that hard work worthwhile, knowing that people are nourished as a direct result of what we did. It is a satisfaction of the most basic sort, the most deeply soul-sustaining.