This Week's Denison Farm CSA Share

Dear CSA Members,

A rather long verse this week, but each time I read it, it soothes my soul. Enjoy!

"What I Am Telling You, Jessica, Is That Those Chickens Are Fine" by K.T. Landon
You say that a poem that contains a fox
and a henhouse must, at some point, include
a slaughtered chicken, that the rifle on the mantel
must go off in Act Three. But what I am telling you
is that my neighbor has built his coop to last
and surrounded it with a sturdy double fence
of chicken wire, and that the fox is out of luck
this time. I know that good news for the chickens
is bad news for some vole or field mouse or hapless
housecat. So maybe all I’ve done is point that gun
in another direction or into another poem, but this
is a poem in which no chickens will die. A rabbit
will bound across the road and the car will slow
in time. The fox will discover the trampoline behind
the house next door and, with it, the wonder of flight.
Everyone I love will live and call me after supper
to say goodnight. My neighbor is a good man,
a minor god who has brought forth a paradise
for chickens. And I know that those chickens, clucking
contentedly in their self-important obliviousness,
are too foolish to be a metaphor for hope
(though isn’t hope always foolish?) but in this poem
the chickens stand for joy — for feed scattered
with a free hand and fresh water in the trough,
for a swept house and a warm nest, for the sun
and the breeze and friends to admire your glorious,
feathered self and this single, glorious day.
And we’re in pretty deep now, aren’t we,
speculating about the Inner Life of Chickens,
but can you doubt, watching them watching us,
that they have one? That they, too, understand
the urgency of this still and incandescent moment
that is here and leaving already? I know
it’s not always this way. The gun goes off
eventually. One night the latch will fail to catch
or a hinge will rust through, and the fox will bring
terror and death, as foxes do. Every story ends
with a corpse. But, Jessica, it’s not Act Three yet.
My neighbor, the chickens, the fox, you, me —
we love what we love for as long as we can.
Right now, in this blue and breathing hour that
shines inside us all, those chickens are fine.

Wishing you the Best - Justine

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Just a Few Notes:

• Remember to take a photo of the list to bring home with you for when you unpack your weekly share!
• Please take one box from the top of one of the stacks and check your name off on the sign-in clipboard. The boxes (eggs and fruit as well) will all be the same and will not be labeled.
• Egg and fruit shares are only for those that purchased those shares with their order.
• The fruit share will begin later in the season, and those members will get an email with updates at that time.
• Please visit Facebook/Instagram and our website for updates.
• Please have a neighbor or friend pick up your share if you cannot.
• Please be responsible for your payments/installments.
• Please return and flatten the boxes and leave in a neat pile from week to week.
• Sparkling Meadow egg cartons can be returned each week.
• Please add our email address to your contact list and check your spam/junk/promotions email folders for CSA newsletters and updates.

>> View this week's newsletter, with recipes. <<

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This week in your CSA box, you will most likely find:

• Swiss Chard
• Onions
• Lettuce
• Potatoes
• Bok Choi
• And a few additional items that we have not yet harvested!