Saturdays, Continued.

OK, so I was telling you Sat. about the first Saturday of Blessing a few weeks back, when I got to spend the whole day with a fabulous group of homeschool moms (maybe I should have mentioned each of the women there I also count as friend--including my dear Becky--which, as you can imagine, totally magnified the fabulousness) being mentored in homeschooling and uplifted by the Spirit.

Then the following Saturday was even more amazing and restorative for my soul. 

A friend had told me about a "Community Farm Day" happening at a local organic farm, and so we decided to go as a family.  This is where my words are bound to fail me, as I cannot spend enough time on this post to choose all the right words and phrasings to describe the perfect, simple, heavenly goodness of that day.  Our goal was to pick organic tomatoes (at $1.50/lb, which is really good for this area), and so we did that first.  Happy was my partner, Sunny and Merry teamed up, and DH took Smiley, and we each took separate rows and had WAY more fun picking tomatoes than I ever thought we would.

The day was gorgeous--sunshiney and warm but not too hot, and in about 30 minutes we had picked about 30 lbs of tomatoes!  And we ate quite a few too--the farmers had told everyone they would be welcome to eat as much as they wanted right there in the field, and even said to bring your salt-shaker!  : )  Somehow the generosity of the farmer spread the warmth of the day throughout my spirit, and even though I have not been the biggest fan of tomatoes in my lifetime, that day has forever changed them for me.  It was the first time in my life I ate a tomato right off the vine that was warm, and perfectly ripe, and so sweet. . . I have eaten my fair share of fresh homegrown tomatoes, people, and these tasted like the day--the best I have ever tasted.

When we were done picking, we were just in time to hop aboard a flatbed pulled by a tractor, and got the tour of the farm.  The tour stopped midway at the apple grove and everyone got to pick a Gala to eat on the spot, and were invited to pick a few strawberries, and when we got back to the tomatoes, the farmer said we were welcome to pick raspberries and eat what we like while picking.  And that is when the day went from amazing to heaven for me.  I am allergic to most raw fruits, including apples; raspberries do me no harm, but organic ones are so expensive at the store, and usually pretty flavorless.  These were flat-out the best raspberries I have ever tried in my life.  No, it was not just the whole experience coloring my taste-buds--other people there said the same thing.  So to walk through the comfortably baking raspberry patch picking berries with Smiley and watching him stuff them into his little chubby cheeks, to savor the flavor of those berries and eat as much as I wanted. . . seriously, it was so beautiful. 

And then on the way home we stopped at the homes of friends delivering gifts of those lovely tomatoes, since anything that wonderful can only be made better by sharing.  Later, those friends also told me the tomatoes were absolutely fantastic--and knowing their pleasure just keeps giving me pleasure.

The event was free.  We paid for the tomatoes, but they were a good deal and so worth it.  (In fact, while I meant to freeze some for later on, we enjoyed them so much we ate ALL of them fresh over the next two weeks!) I figure we ate at least $20 of raspberries, and I would have paid them for that priviledge.  And it was me and my family out in God's bountiful creation, enjoying the sun, the flavors of summer, and one another.

It was the most fun we have had together in a long time (not counting all the fun with my family when they were here--I mean just our little family unit).  In fact, I think it is one of the most fun things we have done ever.

And the tomatoes were so worthwhile that I jumped to take advantage of a second opportunity to pick on Saturday, which was why I did not finish this post that day like I had planned!  This time it was not the whole farm-utopian event, just tomatoes, so I did not take the  whole family but just the girls--but eating those tomatoes again this week brings the first flush of pleasure rushing back.