faces at the farm

The other day, Sydney, an aspiring photographer, brought her camera in to work and snapped some awesome photos of life at the farm. Since my own photos haven't included many faces so far, I'm posting some of Sydney's here. Behold some of the faces of Jordan's Farm:

Jamie and Emily being adorable

We've decided Jamie is very photogenic. You should see the photo of her using beet greens as bunny ears - but I won't post that on the internet...

Emily, in a hurry to get through those doors and be productive!

Jim being a hippie... The wooden doors were handmade by Emily's dad several years ago

In all honesty, we have a pretty good time at the farm. For all of us farm stand people, it seems, music can be a deciding factor in making the day a good one. Mid-season, somebody hooked up a boom-box above the sinks out back, where much of our vegetable-processing gets done. "I don't know what we did before we had this thing," Emily said appreciatively a few days ago, looking at the boom-box with all the affection you'd save for a beloved dog.

How else could we listen to the Spice Girls while we work? To Jim's reggae jams? To Jamie and Emily's favorite Disney numbers? Well actually, there's one other way: Emily's "jammy pack." Yeah, it's real - a portable radio zipped into a fanny pack, so that we can bring all Em's favorite music with us into the fields. Way back in June, long before the jammy pack made its first appearance, Jamie declared to me that fanny packs were definitely "coming back." "It hasn't happened yet, but it's going to," she assured me. "I'm just waiting for the right one to invest in."

Clearly, these two were destined to be friends.

Working in the fields with Emily, Jamie, Rachel, and the jammy pack is so different from weeding with one other person in fields that are vast and quiet. The music and chatter make the environment fun, lively, vibrant. But I can appreciate a balance between the two. Today I was deadheading alone in the flower garden - in a cold, driving rain - and although this gave me a nice couple of hours to think, I did find myself longing for that jammy pack...

As for vegetable news: Jordan's own corn is finally in! We've been stocking plenty from Gillespie's and Maxwell's, but everybody has been asking for Bib's own. We also have a second round of both spinach, from Flying Pond Farm in Vienna, Maine, and of strawberries, from Maxwell's. And try salanova - the lesser-known cousin to baby lettuce mix. It comes from miniature heads of lettuce that are sweet and crunchy and hold salad dressing perfectly. I feel the urge to put in this plug for salanova not only because people are always pulling it out from the cooler and asking what it is, but also because I had some with dinner and it's delicious!