The true way to live is to enjoy every moment as it passes, and surely it is in the everyday things around us that the beauty of life lies. Laura Ingalls Wilder
The light flickered and filtered its way through the trees on a late August evening. The sun was setting earlier, the buzz of school in the air, the garden was lush with a late season bounty. I found Karsten getting cozy on the parked Grasshopper mower, Hazel snuggling a soft barn kitten, and Ryan raking a bounty of windfall apples for the hogs. Sarah grabbed her woven baskets, a pair of scissors, and led the way through roaming chickens toward the garden. Hazel snipped towering, brightly colored flowers, gathering and arranging them as she went. Karsten finally cut loose the watermelon he cultivated all summer, carried to the edge of the garden, and then went back in for heavy, silky ears of corn.
We moved into the barn, where Hazel placed warm eggs in a cool, steel bowl.The twins look out of the barn. Summer saturated blues and greens and yellows are deliciously layered and textured below.Ryan takes the crab apples out to the hogs.In the upper garden, Sarah & the kids harvest tomatoes, peppers, and basil for dinner.
The twins alternate between having quiet time in their rooms and helping with dinner prep. Hazel listens to Ryan tell stories of shucking corn as a kid.
Their amazing summer feast included freshly picked corn on the cob, peppers, tomatoes, grilled eggplant, basil, cheese with from-scratch mayonnaise all on homemade bread. Sarah weighs Karsten’s watermelon, which comes in at a whopping twelve pounds. One last walk around the farm before the sun dips. Hazel takes a picture of two cuddly barn cats.Please check out Odyssey Farm, LLC for more information about Ryan’s heritage breed hogs! You will not be disappointed by the dedicated care, organic and environmental approach, and superior quality of his work.
xo, Jen
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