With the wrap up of the spring CSA this week, I feel a slight lifting of pressure in my workday, even though I know in the back of my head that the weeds are shooting up, there are transplants that need to go in the ground, and projects that must be finished before the summer CSA begins in two weeks. I push those tasks to the back of my mind for the day and focus on some good old fashion food processing. Rufus and I are trying to improve our food stock habits this year by doing more canning, freezing, pickling, and processing with our leftover veggies. On Sunday we pickled ramps and today I am pickling carrots and making carrot top pesto. I thought this would just take the morning, but it ended up consuming the entire day, which was actually a nice change of pace. I listened to music, scrubbed the dirt from the carrots, chopped, measured, blended, and jarred as the hours ticked by. I thought about my grandmothers, great grandmothers, and beyond whose lives were filled with kitchen tasks such as these (minus the nifty food processor). In between batches, I catch up on the laundry and hang clothes on the line. I think, “Now I feel really old timey”. In my past life, I would have taken the interstate of speed and convenience, bought my groceries from the store and thrown my clothes in the dryer…and I still drive that way sometimes. However, today it feels good to walk barefoot down that old familiar dirt road of history, tradition, and old school living.

~Joy