Blackberries are Best Fresh

Fresh country air, dirt, grass, hay and straw; sun or rain, warmth or cold, barn, yard, craft fair or cottage; garden, barn, household, finances -- this is my workspace, my work environment, and my work item inbox. 

Unfamiliar, this new found freedom for success or failure only limited by the size of our dreams, after 14 years in a grey chair, behind a grey desk, in a row of grey desks on grey carpet, surrounded by grey walls that held the pale faces of other willfully imprisoned persons like myself, who daily smiled and searched for something noble and meaningful amidst the mundane drudgery and at times torture of getting regular haircuts and working a "real" job. 

And, funny, the feeling of security that is coming with so much uncertainty, and such a leap into the unconventional. (But, that's another post in itself, for another day...)

Waiting tables, feeding plastic injection machines and measuring the end product with calibers, writing newspaper articles and feature stories, photographing local sports and events, checking in resort guests and schlepping baggage, setting type for invitations and announcements, tending bar, cleaning, sorting parts, stuffing envelopes, processing insurance audits, selling mesh satellite dishes door-to-door, wrapping gifts, and stocking candles..... Many and varied are the ways I've earned a dollar to keep bills paid, gas in the car, and food on the table over the (you'll have to guess how many) years since I was 17. 

And of course there was always, also, the constant domestic ToDo List to try and keep on top of in addition to working full time, college and community classes taken to enrich my knowledge and experience, and in fleeting, stolen moments, time for family and idle fun. 

Oh, I'm not trying to sound all-together and noble. I am well aware of how untogether I've been at more than one time throughout the aforementioned journey. 

But haven't we all, at some point, been trapped inside our own version of our life's unfolding, going about our busy business with such steeled faces, determinedly punching out an earning against that clock, and striving for a feeling of accomplishment that comes with checking off one more item on The List?

And, I'm not saying I'm completely free of the chains of that mindset yet, myself, even here on the farm. 

But, sometimes in the middle of one of these busy long days that are building this first summer of Farm Freedom since by Grace I was able to shrug off the claustrophobic confines of the cubicle this past March, as I swipe dirt from my knees and face, and try to decide which task to tackle next, I get reminded that blackberries are best fresh. 

This afternoon, after another hour kneeling in the dirt I had made it halfway down the long double row of red beets, leaving a neatly weeded path of fragile, small beet seedlings in my wake. Needing a break to stand upright again for a while, I paused to go retrieve the mail from the ragged box on the other side of our dusty dirt road, and along the way spied the first ripe blackberries of the season, that we have been awaiting impatiently with anxious taste buds. 

Transferring the junk mail from the mailbox to the trash can inside the cottage, I picked up an empty berry basket and walked back out front to the blackberry bush. I was rewarded with a pint of fresh, perfectly ripe, beautiful blackberries. Still wanting a full basket, and now completely caught up in the moment, I crossed the yard to the mulberry tree, and succeeded in filling the rest of the quart basket. On the way into the house with my harvest, half a dozen ripe strawberries from our infant strawberry patch just transplanted earlier this year made their way onto the top of the blackberry and mulberry medley. 

Popping a ripe blackberry into my mouth and savoring the unique sweetness only the first, fresh, local berry of the season can relay, I decided that moment to from now on keep berry picking, writing, walk-arounds to actually pause and enjoy the extensive flower beds that require extensive maintenance, and other "time wasters" on the "must do" portion of my List. Because The List will always be waiting (and important), but as stated above, blackberries are best fresh.