A Day in the Life of a CSA Farmer

So the title is misleading....all right, all right.  Clearly this is not a "day in the life" since he was giving me a tour and farmers don't typically do THAT all day long.  I had SO much fun touring the J&W Freshwater Produce farm and went a little crazy with the photos.  I'll only show you about 345 today....come on over if you'd like to see the rest.  I should probably put a SLIGHT disclaimer on this post at this point.  The farmer is my brother, Mike Walters.  He he he.  But I STILL had a ton of fun seeing all the parts of the farm.   We live far apart and I don't get over there as often as I'd like.

First we checked out the cows....isn't the one in the middle a gorgeous lady?  She was just about to have a baby...now that's something I'd like to see once.  Probably only once.   

I wished I had a video recorder with me....so you could hear this cat.  Funniest.  Meow.  EVER.  It REALLY sounds like she's talking. Oh, and she has no tail.  Strange breed that's been wandering around this particular farm for decades.  It would totally freak you out if you were out there in the dark.  Okay, I'm a scaredy cat. (no pun intended) 

And what is possibly my favorite part of farms?  The junk.  You got me. 

And more cool junk. 

We checked out the ducks....who run this way (except for a couple smart alecs running the wrong way)....

....and that way.  All in a pack.  They are really fun to watch....and I think they know that...look at the smiles on those faces....er...beaks.

Mike chased down the prettiest rooster ever so we could take a closer look.  He was really not interested in being photographed. 

 Ha ha....gotcha anyway Mr. Rooster.

Mike showed me his super cool compost tea dispenser.  I'm sure he used a more technical term than that, but I was busy taking photos. ;-) I think I need one of these.

He pointed out that it kinda looks like sewage...umm....yeah it does.

But it's really super awesome for your plants he explained.  Snap snap snap.

 FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING GOOD AND HOLY IN THIS WORLD STOP TAKING MY PHOTO!!!!!!!!  snap snap snap  I PROMISE TO SHOW YOU INSIDE THIS COOL BUILDING IF YOU STOP TAKING MY PHOTO.  snap snap snap

 He loves me....I'm his big sister.  So he tore the door off and showed me inside anyway.

Just look at that awesome junk!!

Moving the chicken tractor.  This is REALLY neat (and Mike built it by hand).  If I was a chicken I would TOTALLY want to live in a chicken tractor. 

Strangley enough, the chickens were about as interested in being photographed as the rooster.

 Are you lookin' at me?  Are YOU.  LOOKIN'.  AT ME??

I like to tease Mike that my garden is bigger than his garden. He he he.  Um...my garden would fit approximately 300 times in this garden. LOL  He and my sister in law, Michelle, are growing ALL KINDS of wonderful ORGANIC things here.  All the shares are purchased for this year....but if you're interested for next year be sure to give them a holler. You can also catch them at farmers' market if you're lucky.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  Those are seriously THE BEST looking carrot bundles you've ever seen. It's okay, I know.   I MAY have been in charge of bundling carrots.  Just sayin'. ;-) 

The day I visited, the full share CSA members were getting deliveries.....they got swiss chard, kale, strawberries, carrots, lettuce, arugala, snow peas and sugar snap peas.  Um...JEALOUS!!  I did make off with some strawberries though....that promptly found their way into my homemade strawberry ice cream tonight. ;-)



And finally, I left.  And took Puffer (and my husband and kids) home.

You can check Mike and Chell out on their blog http://freshwaterproduce.blogspot.com/

or on Facebook!