an epic day in the life of a promiscuous* gardener.

*i am a promiscuous gardener because the garden in which i spend the least amount of time is my own.  rather i find myself happily weeding, watering, tending to the beds of other folks.  promiscuous.

that being said, most days this week have begun with me on the road at 6am heading out to the home grown farm to stand waist-high in an epic acre of okra - alongside another 3 or 4 agrarian-minded gals, doing the bidding of farmer brandon and his epic acre of okra.  this morning - however - i was butt scootin' along the rows, thinning out that epic acre.  i might add that i only worked one double row out of a total of 83 rows composing the epic acre of okra before having to scamper off to four more gardens.

which brings me to my harvest total for today:  purple figs.  gypsy peppers.  sweet bell peppers.  jalapeno peppers.  chocolate cherry tomatoes.  mexican mint marigold.  boxwood basil.  sweet genovese basil.  lemon balm.  apple mint.  lavender (with buds!)  sage.  peppermint.  and bouquets of wild sunflowers.

champanel grapes and sunshine.

but my favorite of all to harvest were the champanel grapes.  today was my first time to eat a real grape - fresh plucked from the vine, still warm from the mid-afternoon sun.  my mouth exploded in flavors that can only be described as juicy velvet (setting aside all preconceptions of velvet as an awkward fabric worn by awkward people).

if you have ever eaten a ripe cherry tomato in the heat of the summer day - you know the pure joy to which i'm referring.  except it was a grape!!  i have now come to term this experience of such deep gratitude and elation (perhaps obscenely as i am prone to do) farmer-gasmic.  please let me know the next time you have a farmer-gasmic experience - and then i won't feel like such a dork . . .

the beautiful bounty from woodway elementary.

anyways, i harvested many a basketful of grapes - uber-jazzed on my creative high - and decided to harvest native perennials into bouquets for the market in the morning.  thus, i will be carrying flaming canthus-turk's cap bouquets and trailing rosemary-crepe myrtle bouquets with me to market.  (in my mind, i imagine that beautiful women who bathe regularly smell of rosemary and crepe myrtle blossoms . . .)

days like today make me feel like i live a fantastical life of flowers and farms and fresh-cut herbs.  but that also might have been me becoming ever more hysterical after so many hours in the texas sun.  (disclaimer:  i started holding conversations with chickens whilst working the epic acre of okra during the 7 o'clock hour of the morn).  i did start to notice that by 3pm i could smell my flesh burning - under my glistening gleam of sweat.  smelled faintly of bacon - which made me oddly hungry . . .

napping beneath the grape arbor.  and yes, i am wearing cut offs and boots.

all that to say - i am epically happy.  i shall soon by removing all the dirt from betwixt my creases - and all the brambly twigs and crepe myrtle blossoms that have woven their way into my braids.  for not only am i epically happy, i am epically dirty.  and then i shall sleep and epic sleep before rising once again with the sun to go to market.  o life.