The Longest Days
Summer Solstice acts as the great turning point of the year. Summer is only at its beginning, but daylight has already reached its peak. From here, the days gradually shorten. The farm rarely moves in straight lines. Expansion contains contraction, flowering contains seed, and abundance carries the first signs of change. This season asks us to enjoy what is present while it is present.
Summer Solstice arrives when growth is no longer subtle. The careful observations of spring give way to something more unruly. Plants stretch beyond their supports, grasses lean into pathways, and each morning reveals changes that weren't visible the day before.
This is the season when the farm begins to outpace us.
While planting and harvesting holds a lot of our attention, so much of summer farming is simply keeping pace with abundance, from pruning, weeding, mowing, watering, and making space for what wants to grow.
Summer growth is not limited to the fields. As seasonal storms return, we're also paying close attention to the movement of water across the landscape. Last year's heavy rains exposed areas where runoff moved faster than expected, reshaping paths, eroding soil, and uprooting young plantings.
Over the past year, our team has adjusted drainage patterns, reinforced vulnerable areas, and rethought parts of the landscape of the farm with future storms in mind. This year, as summer weather builds again, we're observing how those changes perform under real conditions.
Like so many other aspects of farming, the work is never truly finished. Each season offers another opportunity to learn from the land and adapt accordingly.
Some of the season's best ingredients need very little from us. A ripe tomato sliced and served with flaky salt… Fresh cucumbers dressed with a drizzle of Bloom Farm yellowbud hickory oil… A simple meal assembled from whatever is ready in the garden that day.
After months of tending, staking, pruning, and watering, summer offers moments when the work becomes perfectly straightforward: pick, slice, and enjoy.
There is a particular pleasure in eating food at the height of its season, still warm from the sun, when abundance makes simplicity possible.
Summer Solstice marks the longest day of the year and a period of peak activity across the farm. This week's field recording comes from an early morning beside one of the bird feeders, where goldfinches, blue jays, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, sparrows, and countless other visitors move through the landscape as the day begins.
Recorded during the height of the growing season, this soundscape offers a moment to pause and listen to the rhythms of midsummer abundance.