"Garlic is its own food group!"

And yet another great quote from one of our customers at the local farmers markets we attend with all of our locally-grown organic garlic. I could not say this better myself. I am simply not clever enough with words to think up these quotes on my own. Therefore I am always scribbling down what people are telling us, because our 40 varieties of garlic both surprises people and apparently makes them happy and makes us chuckle over and over again. :)

More great quotes, farm updates, garlic recipes, and a photo of Phoebe (our dog) in this week's farm newsletter. Only two more weeks of selling at markets 4 days/week and then we can go back to just "24 hour days" :) with only one market per week through October plus starting to get our garlic planted for the 2013 harvest. A 'normal day' (instead of always feeling like we need to get 36 hours of work done in each 24 hour time frame) will almost feel luxurious after the marathon pace we have been on since the first week of April. :)

In the newsletter is a link to a recent article about our farm in our local on-line newspaper. The article was well written but the photos show how tired we are, especially me. However, we are not alone. All of our farmer friends are feeling like they need to be propped up right now, at the peak of the season, as we are all experiencing the crescendo of the harvesting, the selling, and the processing (and us, the 2013 planting still to go).

If you have a favorite farmer, please ask what you can do to help them. It may be something very small like sweeping out the barn or something that requires more effort like taking them a meal. Personally, I'd be really grateful for a meal versus barn sweeping or even garlic cleaning, which also needs to be done! I cannot remember if I have mentioned that I hired a personal chef this summer to cook for us two nights/week, with all locally-grown organic food, to help sustain us so that we can keep up this pace! What a difference that has made for us. :)

"Support your local farmers by feeding them!" - now that is a funny bumper sticker. :)

Back out to the barn to finish getting ready for this week's markets.

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD