The Best Day Ever! -Rapunzel

Do you remember a recent post about Amy's Farm? It's... baaack!
We made the long drive out to the farm again, but this time it was to volunteer.
Now for a couple days before us heading out and all during the drive I heard about who was going to help feed animals and how Kaeley was going to harvest all day long and how they were all anxious to do whatever the farmers asked us to do. When we got there? Yeah. I lost three of the children to the goats. Nathan was the only one really willing to help. Farmer Amy showed us how to weed the spinach beds.

After weeding the spinach we moved on to harvesting the dinosaur kale. Simon visited us on and off. Now when we were to harvest the good leaves in one container and the bad (holey or discolored) leaves in another one. These leaves would be saved for the animals. So here comes Simon. He begins ripping leaves and saying, "Bad!" over and over again. He wasn't much of a help, but he was super cute.

Doesn't all that kale leave you wanting a salad?
Here's Nathan's behind. He was fishing for something and I figured I was losing his attention span.

Nope. The beauty of organic gardening. This grasshopper was so darn huge I could see his mouth open and shut! On the outside this nature-loving mother admired the beauty of this marvelous find. On the inside this city-living mother was screaming for that boy to stay on his side of the kale and I'll stay on my side!
Blech!

Here Nathan follows Farmer Amy (the best looking farmer I've ever seen) to the broccoli.

This is a variety of heirloom flowering broccoli. You can eat it raw - stem, flowers, and heads. Nathan tried it an just couldn't get enough of it! He was like Little Sal eating more broccoli than he put in his bucket.
Picture #1 of Nathan eating broccoli.

More eating.

Kaeley eventually tore herself away from the animals to do her dream... become a farmer.

Nathan taught her all about harvesting broccoli. He continued eating the leaves. Kaeley liked the stems. She said (proud Mommy moment) it tasted like candy! Woo hoo! They were like a match made in heaven. Alynna was just hungry enough to nibble on the leaves.

Simon tried the broccoli, but his response was to spit them out as soon as possible and exclaim, "Yuck!"

And Nathan's still eating.

After the harvesting we had to wash the vegetables and get them ready to sell in the store.

One look at the animals and I lost the kids again. 

Here was Simon's highlight. He was screaming, "Meow!" for quite a while after we got in the car to go home. He studied this cat quietly and intently.

I tried taking a picture of the very dirty Alynna, but she wouldn't  go for it. Take my word for it. The girl was dirty!

Meet Farmer Randy. He's Amy's father. He's sixty years old and planted his first seed five years ago. He says he found his calling at the age of fifty years old. He was an inspiration. 

Farmer Randy was wonderful with the children. There seemed to be no ruffling his feathers. I kept telling the children he had a hearing problem so they had to look him in his eyes and talk loudly. Nathan was the only one Randy could hear, because talking super loud just comes naturally to him.
While I was harvesting snap peas Alynna went to talk to Randy. She talked so quietly I don't think Randy ever knew she was talking to him. They were a match made in heaven. He weeded a bed of cilantro as she talked about her ladybugs, who was born first in the family, and who knows what else. I couldn't hear her.

We came home with three large bags of organic produce as a thank you for volunteering. I'm ready for a bumper sticker that states "Will Work for Kale".