I volunteer for Drumlin Farm’s CSA, community supported agriculture. Last year I helped with packing and preparing the vegetables that members would get. This year I am handling distribution, which I love. I get to meet all the various members who range from the elderly to parents with very young children. Sometimes I get to spread the joy by stopping a sobbing child with a gift of a brightly colored cherry tomato or by giving an especially kind member something extra to take home. The work can be physical and this summer has had it’s challenges. I hurt my back and then was suffering from an infection that was likely Anaplasmosis (a tick infection similar to Lyme). Despite being sick and injured I have managed to use my vegetable share each week. Having a new refrigerator that actually works has probably helped.
Now in addition to vegetables I pay extra for a flower share. I love fresh cut flowers in the summer and I knew I would miss Lindentree’s flower garden when I switched to Drumlin so paying extra for the flower share was a no-brainer. Plus I like to pick flowers that I can dry and use all winter. This summer was a challenging summer for flowers because of the drought and Drumlin’s lack of irrigation. Some flowers never really took off. But I managed some very beautiful bouquets. Last week after preparing the bouquets and changing the water we found on our counter a caterpillar. Roy quickly used an ID app and determined that it was a monarch caterpillar. It was dinner time and the sun was setting, but after putting it in a jar we decided to head out to hunt for Milkweed in our neighborhood. We knew we had seen it nearby. Roy remembers showing Roen the milkweed pods last fall. But we could not remember where. On our way out I tripped and fell on my side on a large metal globe we have bruising my rib….OUCH. So I limped in pain as we walked around the block and finally found a milkweed plant. We brought the leaves home and put one in the jar and the caterpillar almost immediately started munching and pooping and munching and pooping. Over the next few days the caterpillar tripled in size and went through a large milkweed leaf every day. It grew and grew and I swear one night I went to bed and thought it was going to grow so big it was going to attack us in the night.
The plan was to bring the jar to Bedford for Roen but alas they had colds this week. Then Friday afternoon I noticed it was hanging upside down with it’s bottom curled up. It was shaking and Roy came to see it and wondered if it might be suffering from one of the many viruses that attack caterpillars. We both went back to what we were doing and I swear only 5 minutes passed and I looked in the jar and I could not find the caterpillar. Looking more closely I saw a small green chrysalis hanging upside down . Since Friday the chrysalis has become more jewel like. There are gold and yellow dots on it. One can almost see what looks like wings inside. It is truly miraculous.
