At Home on the Farm

Over the weekend, I took a little blog vacation while the DH and I visited his sister and brother-in-law. They live outside Hermiston, OR in a town called Stanfield. It's beautiful country. They live on the outskirts of town with proporty along the river and plenty of space for the chickens to roam and to have orchards and more garden than anyone I've ever seen without having a full-fledged farm.

The area is surrounded by fields of hay and alfalfa. They grow tomatoes, potatoes, squash, cucumbers, raspberries, peppers of all sorts, apples, and pears. While we were there, we spent most of the time just enjoying each other's company, but we also got some time out in the garden. I enjoyed picking rasperries (at least sort of) and was reminded of how poorly I do it. My mom used to go out after I said I'd picked all the raspberries in the back yard and then come back with half again as many as I'd picked in the first place. I love being out in the garden and seeing everything growing. I think I could really enjoy the rural life in a lot of ways. Then I think about all that work. I'm not one to shirk the work, but I'm no good at bending over picking weeds, thinning vegetables, and harvesting produce all day. I was good for more than an hour, but not for the day and certainly not long enough to be of great use out there.

I think I'd be most comfortable as the one taking care of all the produce when it's brought into the house. I had a great time last night cutting watermelon and canteloupe, grating zucchini, cleaning berries, making more zucchini bread, and trying out a new mini-cobbler recipe with some raspberries. Today, I'm looking forward to processing some tomatoes (after eating a few of them). I'd be happy to make a nice lunch and dinner and lots of yummy treats for anyone with the stamina to work all day in the garden. Doing that, I'd feel right at home on the farm.