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January 23, 2008

Paper Whites in January

The Paper Whites in our garden just had their first wave of blooming. They are such a beautiful flower. This weekend I plucked all of their white flowers from the garden bed and consolidated them into a vase, which now sits in the middle of the dining room table. The fragrance they contain is intoxicating to the point that I am convinced there is some small piece of our mind that is addicted to the smell of these flowers and it is for this reason that it never gets old to put your face to the bouquet of flowers, letting their soft white peddles tickle your nose while taking a deep breath through to maximize the effect of their fragrance.

I honestly was surprised to see that they had started blooming so early, but I can’t say that I remember when they bloomed last year. Farming is interesting in that regard - you can be around the seasonal behavior of different plants for your entire life but you may not remember key traits of a plants behavior until it makes that one impression on you that lasts for the remainder of your life.

Growing up on the farm I had been around fig trees since I was old enough to walk. I knew that every summer around my birthday (June) they would have huge black pieces of fruit that were comparable to gold at Farmers Markets. However, I never really understood the fact that their leaves fell off in the fall. It was not until the summer that my mother passed away and I was, for the first time in my life, in charge of the farm – the kind of in charge that you just don’t get when you work for your parents.

Late in the summer I was walking out to figure something out and I noticed that the entire fig orchard was turning yellow. My first reaction was to panic and realize that I obviously had not watered the trees enough and now they were getting ready to die. It wasn’t until I consulted Ricardo (who has been running our farm’s operations since I was five) about the water issue in the fig orchard. Never had I been so relieved to hear him laugh at me and explain that every fall the leaves fell of the fig trees and not to worry, they would grow back next spring. I often think of that story and now I am relieved to see the fig orchard make that change in color because it is an indication that fall has arrived and the crazy summer season is over.

Time will tell if this year’s impression from the Paper Whites will stick with me. As farmers get years of experience they take all of these little observations and try to turn them into some way of predicting the future. It is very possible that in a few years I may be saying: “Every year that the Paper Whites bloom in January it is going to be an early spring.” Isn’t that so human of us - trying to condense something as complicated as the weather and the cycle of the seasons into a catch phrase that will predict the future? It happens all the time. The Farmers' Almanac is an entire book based off of these whimsical observations...and how can we forget Ground Hog's Day?

In conclusion, humans are strange and habitual creatures.

Enjoy your box this week - Thaddeus

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