Harsh Winter, Lush Summer

June 11, 2022
Owl Feather Farm, San Juan Island

An old farmers’ axiom says a harsh winter leads to a bountiful crop. Hard winter: We certainly had that. Record rain, record cold, record wind. Spring was gnarly, too—wettest ever in Seattle; incessant windstorms continued here. Just two weeks ago 50mph gusts blew through the farm… and then things settled down. Not warm yet, but not foul. Sunny, 60-degree afternoons. Real spring.
garlic plants in garden

The stronger the plants, the better the garlic to come.

And what about that old saying? Not all folk wisdom is true, but there seems something to the hard winter/rich harvest idea. The garlic is taller, stronger and lusher than ever before. Blooms all over the apples and cherries, and on the tayberries, loganberries and marionberries, whose blossoms look bigger and more numerous than usual. Corn seedlings have grown 6 inches skyward, and baby green strawberries clump in the beds. Our wild roses flash pink beauty in the brush. The world outside is… troubling.
Last summer, after a hard winter, turned out to be hotter and drier than ever. If that's our future, at least the pond is full, the groundwater in our well is high, and the hay meadow's eye-high grass is almost too thick to mow. So, harsh winter, lush summer. But right now, the interlude.
Flowers in garden after winter

Wild roses are the flashy jewels of June wildflowers.

Give us pleasure in the flowers today/And give us not to think so far away/As the uncertain harvest; keep us here/All simply in the springing of the year. —Robert Frost

Peace be to you and yours!

—Eric Lucas

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