Fife farmlands revisited

Saturday, April 21, 2018

You might remember my post from a couple of months ago talking about a November, 2017, drive through the farmlands around the small town of Fife.  During that adventure I saw two types of commercial crops I’d not seen before … Leeks and Fennel.  Two readers commented and shared how they each use those plants in cooking.  I have now tried using both plants, and I love them … sometimes cooked and sometimes raw, just depends.

A few weeks ago, I remembered that day drive and I began wondering about those fields and how they might look early in the spring.  So … you won’t be surprised … I went for another drive to the same place and looked at the same fields.

This second, recent outing was about a month ago.  Here’s what I found … wonderful, lovely dirt.

So nicely plowed.  And ready for this year’s planting.

 

 

 

Who knew that tractor tires could create art?

Back in my truck, I started down the road but didn’t get even 50 feet.  Raspberries!  Yum!  Well, they aren’t quite ready for harvest yet, but my mouth was already watering.  The photo below shows about 1/2 of the field of raspberry vines.

 

 

Each vine is woven into the supporting wire structure by hand, and then each vine is tied to the wire … all by hand.  Think about doing that to this entire field of raspberry vines!

A future raspberry … in fact, if you look closely, there are
a number of future raspberries in the photo above.

About two blocks further down the road, I could see a field of “something” that was down a side dirt road.  What could I do but turn down that side dirt road and go exploring?

Rhubarb!  A field larger than the raspberry field was … full of delicious rhubarb.  I can smell the pie cooking right now.

 

 

 

 

What an interesting plant.  The field didn’t appear to have been harvested, but the plants appeared to be blooming, or going to seed, I’m not sure which.  Are those seeds in the photos above, and does the farmer let the plants go to seed before the stems are harvested?  Maybe some of you readers know more than I do about rhubarb plants.

I know the stems are delicious in pies and cobblers, and that’s an excellent thing to know!  🙂

And I know that the leaves are poisonous, and that too is an excellent thing to know.

Down the road a little further and around the bend, I came upon these folks below having a little siesta.  I wondered why all of them faced the same direction.  There was no wind.  There was no sun.  They weren’t near a gate and so weren’t waiting to be let through the gate.  They weren’t near the road and so probably weren’t avoiding noise or movement of cars.  In fact, I used a fairly long zoom to get these photos.

I began to yawn and think about having a nap too.  But then I noticed on the far left side of the pasture, the two folks below … mom and her offspring.  They were surrounded by another group of cows, adults and youngsters, all of whom were lying down and sleeping or at least resting.

Wished I had taken a video.  Mom kept bumping the kid and I could just hear her … “Junior, lie down.  It’s nap time, lie down and go to sleep.  Look at everyone over there, they’re all sleeping, go to sleep.  Junior, it’s nap time … lie down and go to sleep!”

Junior was having none of that.  The world was just way too interesting.  I swear I heard mom sigh in exasperation.

Not too much further down the road was this house (above).  It was much larger and more intricate than any other home out there.

Heading back towards home, I came across this beauty below.  Although the house was interesting, I found the barn to be more attractive.  Part of me would rather live in the barn than in that house.  Well, ok, just part of me.  🙂

It was yet another interesting day out and about, exploring and enjoying.

Do you sometimes get in your car or truck and just head out … somewhere … with no real idea of where you’re headed or what you’ll see?  Maybe you haven’t for a long time, but you used to?  I highly recommend the activity.  If you have done that, where did you go and what did you see?