#WeekendCoffeeShare, Spring Farming

February 25, 2017 — #weekendcoffeeshare, Arizona, farmer, Scottsdale, Tempe, travel, wildflowers

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

Desert Botanical Garden

If we were having coffee I would invite you to once again sit by the wood stove, which has been cranked up for a couple of days. This short cold snap may be the last time we need to burn wood this year. The quick warm up has caused all the trees to go into blossom mode. My peach tree is in bloom, and the apricot and grapefruit are budding up. Since I still had a large crop of ruby-red grapefruit on the tree I needed to act quickly to get them picked. It stresses the tree and the fruit will start to lose weight if I leave it much longer. I picked about 100 pounds, and took them to the farmers market. I am a member of a coop sponsored by our food bank that allows us to drop off our produce to be sold at the coop table.

It is great because small growers who do not produce enough to want to rent their own table use the coop to sell their fruits, herbs, and vegetables. I joined last year when I had too many grapefruit at the end of the season, and think it is a wonderful service to the community.  I take extra herbs and citrus that turn out to be more than we can use.  Others are doing it to increase income from home gardening.  I came back to the market at the perfect time!! Tomorrow there will be a party at a brewery downtown hosted by the Arizona Small Scale Farmers Alliance, a ranger and farmer meet up.  This will be a very fun event for me.  I plan to attend and find out what is happening in local farmer land.  I have also made my plans for wildflower safari to Tempe and Scottsdale in the beginning of March.  One of my Air bnb hosts up there has a miniature farm with free range chickens and organic gardens.  Guests are invited and encouraged to eat the produce and eggs.  That will be interesting to see as well as taste. I want to see what farmers do in Scottsdale.

My trip to Maricopa County will include the opening of a new butterfly pavilion at the Desert Botanical Gardens for which they are having a party.  It will be wildflower as well as citrus bloom season up there, so the sights and scents will be very exciting.  On Sunday I will visit the Museum of the Musical Instrument, where I will see the exhibits at leisure the attend a classical matinée concert by the Phoenix Symphony.    There are special exhibits about 20th century guitar art, and another about Woodie Guthrie. I could easily spend an entire day there.   I am enthusiastically looking forward to my weekend away, not very far from home.  I plan to purposely take some botanical/architectural images to use later as prompts for poetry or fiction.  There will be plenty of subject matter from which to choose.  I am still writing fiction once a week to Sue Vincent’s photo prompts, which gave me the idea to capture a few of my own for future use. April is poetry month and I always use an image with each of the 30 poems, so might as well prepare.

If we were having coffee I would be seriously pushing the grapefruit juice, and sending a few fruits home with you when you go.  I want to hear about your week and writing projects.  I know many of you are still in winter, and are probably getting tired of it.  My early spring farming issues might not inspire much sympathy if you are still snowed in.  Think of it this way.  Soon you will be able to enjoy the blaze of color and flash of Phoenician spring without leaving home.  I will bring it to you on coffee share. I only wish I could transmit the amazing aroma of citrus in bloom.  It is sweet and uplifting beyond measure.  Thank you for visiting this week. Take some spring vibes home with you.

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