Every year spring seems to start out sleepily, then as bulbs push their way through the snow and the cycles of planting greenhouse seedlings begin, I find myself stepping into a rhythm that speeds up as the days lengthen, quickening my step toward summer. And suddenly windows are open, flowers are in bloom, fireflies fill the night sky. The vibrant stems of Rainbow Swiss Chard brighten harvest buckets on rainy spring mornings and CSA bags overflow with kale and lettuce mixes, radishes and spinach, peas and herbs.

As the Solstice nears, the large plantings of potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, pepper, sweet potatoes, and onions are finally complete. Early spring crops have been harvested. First – maybe even second – succession plantings of greens, beans, squash, beets, and radishes are in the ground. Time pauses as the ground soaks in sun, and as roots reach deep searching out nutrients and sucking up water.

With summer, my focus shifts outward. Friends gather flowers and sit on the front porch with glasses of iced tea while children run through the garden, hunting toads and pocketing snail shells, their laughter filling our home with music. Summer, for me, is expansive, glittery, vocal, alive. It is a time of connection and abundance, of nourishment and work, of exploration and discovery. And the food…

Savor it.

I know I will.

Elizabeth