Our well has dried up. Not the well that supplies water to our house. That well is filled by a Roman source the flows from deep in the ground and that source has never, in Raphael's lifetime, dried up. This is the well that supplies water to our garden. Yes, this year we planted a vegetable (and some rather wimpy cantaloupe and a few better looking watermelon) garden. It's about a third of a football field in size and requires as much work and upkeep as a small child. And it is Raphael's baby at the moment. He wakes at 6am or earlier (even on the weekends) to water it and work it. And he makes plans for its future. We share it with some friends and so they do half the work but Raphael can never let the farmer in himself rest and so usually joins the friends to 'help'.
I picked the first of their labors yesterday. I actually love having a garden and wouldn't mind doing more of the work but it's not near the house and the few times we brought the girls along we ended up with smashed plants and gifts of green tomatoes. So, I'm the designated babysitter. Even when we do take the girls, I have to follow them around and find projects to keep them busy and off the plants. They get to help with the watering. Armed with their little yellow watering cans they water thenearest plants over and over again. Until they get bored and begin watering each other. Angeline doesn't like getting dirty and it's not long before her shoes are caked in mud and she's fussing out in the middle of a row of eggplant for me to come haul her out, rince her off and plop her near the hose to survey the watering can fill up. We don't, as yet, have a sprinkler system. Raphael rigged a series of hoses from the well, which is equipped with an electric pump, to the edge of the garden. The hoses don't reach much beyond the edge so we are required to water each plant with a can. The entire garden takes and hour and a half to water, and the potatoes, which we have the most of, never need to be watered.
As our well is currently empty, this morning Raphael met our partners at the garden at 6 with a tractor holding a large tub of water for the day's watering. Although as I write, thunder is circulating outside the window and if we're lucky, this evening will bring a nice downpour to fill the well and Raphael's on the phone with our friends insisting that they shouldn't have gotten up at 6 to water. He, a peasent farmer, knew it was going to rain.
But I love eating the results. Today we had sauteed yellow and green zucchini so tender it melted in the mouth and the cherry tomatoes never even make it out of the garden. We all snack on them as we go. There are some pear trees, a plum tree and a wild cherry tree on the field and the girls pick fruit randomly to munch on. Not to forget the token grape vine of which we'll be kind enough to let our friends reap all the fruit.
lucky you! My garden is two square foot garden boxes and two rows of tomatoes. To have a huge plot...sigh. Maybe it's the peasant farmer in my...:)
Posted by: Gilbert Galvan | July 07, 2009 at 07:45 AM