Love Note from the Farm

One cool morning while receiving the produce delivery I reached into a crate of Bloomsdale spinach and pulled out a love note from Ted and Denesse Willey of T and D Willey Farms. I tucked it into the pocket of my French apron; pulling it out some hours later to read.

“The Valley had no calendar. Time in California wasn’t measured in months; it was by crops. Spring meant strawberries, then apricots, cherries, peaches, and it was summer hot as fire; tomatoes, squash, plums, Thompson seedless, fig. Fall, still blazing hot was cotton, persimmons, pomegranates, walnuts, almonds. Winter was oranges, tangerines, and lemons. The dead time arrived, tule fog like a thick spread of moonwash hiding the sun, and you couldn’t be sure you were awake or alive, everyone laying low, waiting for the first almond blossoms in February, when time started up again. Clocks were just ornaments here.” (Ernest Finney, California Time, Univ. of Nevada Press)

I love the quote this note contained. I have hung it in numerous kitchens not far from my cutting board for the last eight years. As a third generation Californian, my family is rooted in the farming community that once thrived in Gilroy and Morgan Hill. In my heart I am a farmer.

Comments

[OpinionAddled]

This quote is lovely! Thank you for sharing it.