Bedlam Farm Blog Journal by Jon Katz

The Cambridge Food Pantry
7 April

Sarah’s Food Choice, Cambridge Food Pantry. Let The Sun Come In

by Jon Katz

It’s finally a beautiful day here. I hope this is true for you all. If you feel low or itchy about helping someone else, there are two ideas for you today. One Wish List item is Sarah’s choice, and one is mine.

(Above, Sarah Harrington, 24 E. Main Street, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816.

The good goes to people struggling to feed their families. Every bit helps. She needs everything on the wish list.

Sarah chose Campbell’s Chunky Soup, Steak and Potato Soup, 16. oz. can (Case of 8), $23.34. This is the first item on the Wish List.

The second item on the list, my choice, is the second item, Pampers Aqua Pure Sensitive Baby Wipes, 99 percent water, hypoallergenic, Unscented, 6 Flip-Top Packs (336 wipes total, by Pampers Health and Beauty.) $17,97. These items are in great demand and low supply, if any.

I can’t afford to donate daily, but I love donating when possible. We do the best that we can for as long as we can. Thanks for your excellent response and your kind messages; I appreciate them. The Army of Good shines bright.

Many pantry guests need help to afford these items, especially diapers.

( Above, pantry volunteer, I don’t usually use names; this way, I can’t misspell or get them wrong.)

Sarah says she is out of salad dressing. On the list is Kraft Thousand Island Salad Dressing, 16 0x bottles (Pack of 6), $20.94.

Nobody expects or is asking people to donate every day, but I can testify that it feels awfully good when I do. We aren’t wealthy either.

These are just some thoughts on a weekend that looks like Spring. We are putting smiles on many faces and food in many bellies, young and old.

If you need or wish to send donations through a source other than Amazon, here is the correct address. Sarah Harrington, Cambridge Food Pantry,  24. E. Main Street, Cambridge, New York, 12816.

Thanks. See you tomorrow.

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Flowers
7 April

Welcome Dave, A New Friend And Guide For My Flower Bed And Photos

by Jon Katz

Dave and his family have opened a beautiful and colossal flower, plant, and greenhouse operation just down the road from the farm. It opened a few years ago but has mushroomed into a beautiful flower and garden center.

Last week, he invited me to come into the greenhouse as often as I wish to take photos until my raised beds are full of flowers and beyond.

This is excellent news. Just down the road is Sue Lamberti, the owner of the Cambridge Flower Shop. She has sold some beautiful flowers for me to photograph now and well into the summer. She is open all year. Dave is open from April through Christmas.

This new community will be an enormous help and inspiration for me. Every time I talk to Dave, I learn something new about flowers.

My camera almost melted down in Dave’s greenhouse.

Dave and his family have done a fantastic job building their Greenhouse and Garden center. He has thousands of plants growing in the greenhouse (he has more than one), and I stopped in today to check it out. He will see a lot of me, as Sue has and will.

Dave is well-known in town for his good deeds and generosity. It will be fun to work with him.

I’m not planting seeds this year; I’m only planting plants.  I won’t have to go far to find them. Dave and I are already talking about the best possibilities for the raised beds.

Dave loves to talk flowers, and I’m happy to have connected with him. He is warm, easy to talk to, and helpful, as is Sue. Good people sell flowers. Good people garden, I am learning.

Coral’s is already an acceptable source of photographs for me, and I got these flowers below today.  I took the Ranunculus home, and in a month, it will be in my garden.

We’re getting some pansies to put out on the porch in a week or so. Dave has a lot of them growing in his greenhouse.

 

His greenhouse is deep and inviting. I can get lost in there with my camera.

Ranunculus from Coral’s Corner. It came home with me. I was going to the garden bed.

Succulent from Dave’s greenhouse. I don’t collect succulents, but Maria does. She has no room for more.

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Bedlam Farm
7 April

Blessing The Sunshine, Bedlam Farm, April 7, 2024. The Peaceable Kingdom Came Out

by Jon Katz

Finally, the sun came out without hesitation or thick clouds to break through. We all went outside at Bedlam Farm to commune with our animals, soak up the sun, and liberate our gardens from winter.

My raised bed was liberated, I found a new and nearby source for some of my flowers, and Maria dug out her garden, still frozen in parts and full of dead stems.

(No farmer’s market today, I got the dates mixed up.)

Zip took in the sun, and so did the donkeys. A photo journal of our celebration of Spring. It was a return of the Peaceable Kingdom; Zip joined us in the pasture with the donkeys; they have wholly accepted him, and he has returned the favor.

He is central to the farm and almost everything that happens here. I’m getting ready to choose the plants I want to put in the garden bed just before Memorial Day next month. Today, Spring was here; no earthquakes, floods, downpours, or snow.

Time for the raised garden bed to thaw and freshen up. Planting is a month a way.

Maria and the donkeys have a great love for one another, seeing the three of them sitting out in the sun together makes my heart sing.

Zip took in the sun from his wicker chair on the back porch. He loves to nap in the sun. I got a cat brush, am brushing him.

Getting the gardens ready, shoring up some fences in the back pasture.

 

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Books
7 April

Bedlam Farm Book Sale: Five Good Books. $10.

by Jon Katz

Maria has offered five good books in wonderful condition for sale as part of the continuing Bedlam Farm Book Sale.

Maria is handling this program, she does the work and gets the money: [email protected]. If you want to purchase a book, please e-mail her, and if the book is still available, she will explain the payment process.

If you’d like to see a review of each book, you can go to her blog, fullmoonfiberart.com.

Book One is The Wind Knows My Name, a novel by  Isabelle Allende, whose books have sold more than seventy million copies worldwide. It is a story about family.

Book Number Two is the novel Mercury Picture Presents by Anthony Marra, a funny and moving story about some brilliant women – European Immigrants who flee World War II and end up in the movie business. The story focuses on Maria Lagana, who came to Hollywood to escape her past.

Book Three: The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson is a nonfiction study (more than 500 pages) of Nobel Prize Winner Jennifer Doudna, a Gene Editor who may have made a discovery that might change the future of the human race.

Book Four: Martyr by Daveh Akbar is funny, chilling, and gripping all at once. To me, it’s an astonishing first novel from a brilliant young poet. The story is about martyrdom, loss, violence, and redemption. Akbar is a much-decorated poet whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and the Paris Review.

Book Five: Yesterday’s Spy by Tom Bradby is a mystery about a tired British Spy who returns to dangerous Tehran, where he was once stationed, to rescue his journalist son, who has disappeared and is believed to be a prisoner of the secret police.  It’s very well done and skips pointless violence and gore.

Please e-mail Maria if you want one of these books. They are all in excellent condition. Rather than having our books gather dust in our house, we like to see them go to people who read our blogs and follow our work.

If you want to purchase one, they are $10; you can e-mail Maria at [email protected].

Please wait for her response before sending any payment. Also, please don’t send the payment to me. Thanks.

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Bedlam Farm Journal
7 April

Bedlam Farm Journal, Sunday, April 7, 2024. Good Morning, Rumors Of The Sun. Heading For The Farmer’s Market

by Jon Katz

I’m heading for the Farmers Market. The sun is stirring to break through the clouds. I’ve got a fish-eye lens to test for 30 days. It’s old and scarred, but so far, so good. It’s another trade,  but an inexpensive one. I like it; it has a whole different feel and look.

 

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