or through the right lens, it all looks so bountiful,
and beautiful. 
And it is.
The farmer looks so happy. When not drop dead exhausted, he is!
But there is a reason that organic vegetables cost more than conventionally grown, and that the farmer has to have his back adjusted.
Without chemicals, there is a much greater use of the hands and the back.
For every row of tomatoes (or beans or peppers or potatoes) that beat the disease and the insects, there are often one or two rows of those that don’t survive.
Behind every tender okra lies a plant that itches the farmers so badly that they have to wear long sleeves in the heat in order to pick it.
Beneath many of the beautiful butterflies and moths lie their progeny – caterpillars that eat great holes out of the plants:
I remember the first time that I bought an organic pepper. I was flabbergasted by the price. It was soon after falling for Nicolas, 15 years ago. I went to the Dekalb Farmers Market to buy food for a party. It was in December so, duh!, pepper was not in season, not available locally and the one I chose was orange, so had stayed on the vine a long time to turn that color. I didn’t think seasonally or locally then. I hadn’t yet farmed in the middle of winter (hands freezing in the outdoor sink’s water to rinse the greens) or in the dogs days of a Georgia August.
Now, I get it.
This post resulted from Nicolas mentioning that some new customers don’t want to pay for the tomatoes. All he really wanted to point out was that the heirloom tomato at your local farmers’ market was not picked green; rather, it was allowed to ripen on the vine. Faster methods of ripening the tomatoes wouldn’t allow nature the time it takes to bring forth the best quality. I just wanted to add that it isn’t just time, but also loving, back-breaking, slow attention that has gone into bringing forth this fruit.
This summer, we had more sweet corn than any previous year. Gillen did most of the work to make it happen. He made some money on it too! But it is never enough corn. We love it so. In the end, the worms took over and we didn’t have as much as we had hoped. Next year, we plan to grow three rounds of it, at least.
These are the fruit of Helen’s passion for beautiful flowers.
Helen has many talents. One of them is seed saving. I took several pictures of her process with the tomato seeds over the past several days and will post that tutorial soon. Right now, we are getting ready, the kids and Nicolas and I, to go to a showing of 
Then, there’s the many kinds of tomato sauce. Here, I was preparing a lot in order to freeze some for the winter. I boiled a big pot of water and submerged the cored tomatoes for about thirty seconds in order to easily peel off the skins. But this was before I got a powerhouse blender. I am curious to see how we like it with the peel left on. I hope we like it. It sure would simplify the process.
Sliced with “stuffed burgers” (stuffed with chopped herbs, english peas and carrots; invented and built by Jesse):
Salsa! Here, just with cilantro (not from the farm, unfortunately) and garlic:
The guys were off the farm and joyfully waiting to be served many courses of good local food. It was a good time. Last night, Nicolas was invited to speak at 
The beginning of a bouquet:
Carrots:
Recipes, tutorials and the Belgian farmer to come soon. My hot weather swoon is over. I’ll be posting more regularly. Truly.
This seed company has been growing organic seeds for twenty years. Though we do also buy lots from High Mowing Seeds, from Johnny’s and from other smaller companies, Seeds of Change currently has “the largest number and variety of commercially available seed.”
We love salad with just a vinaigrette. But often we also add some radishes,
some baby turnips (my children’s favorite vegetable in a salad), and whatever else is freshly picked and sounds good – like green garlic, carrots or turbinado onions.
Crystal Organic Farm 