Hi everyone,

I was just about to sit down and write this email when I got a text from Jesse that on e of our baby lamb's had died. This is the first time since we started the farm that we have lost a lamb and it was very sad. This is one of the lamb babies that was rejected, but she seemed to be stealing milk from other moms successfully and she didn't like to be caught by us. We caught her a couple of times when we first noticed she wasn't being fed by her own mother and gave her a bottle. But we couldn't quite train her to come and she would run away so we assumed she was healthy. 2 month later we saw her looking pretty scrawny and we started catching her again. In fact it was Megan, our WWOOFer (first WWOOFer ever who is now back with us again this summer, yay!), who wanted to spend more time taking care of it. So we've been taking care of it for the past week or so. She had been seeming slower and slower over the last few days. And yesterday she wouldn't eat. When Jesse went to feed her this evening, he found her dead. We have no idea what happened. But when you're running a vegetable farm and have over 60 sheep, it can be tough to put the love and energy into every one.

I am telling y'all this story because we really care about every animal, their health, and quality of life. And this little lamb seemed good till the last few days. We respect these animals and what they do for us, the meat they provide our family and community and the peace they bring us when we are with them in the field. We try to do best management practices by rotating them often and always providing shade, water and plenty of space and grass. We always thank our animals for the sacrifice they give us in providing meat. We use a processor that is educated in low stress animal handling. We decided to bury her in between the house and the garden so that we would see that spot often. In the exact location we chose to bury her we noticed there was already a hole. I then realized WInnie, our dog, had dug earlier this morning. It was either a strange coincidence or our dog was showing us where she should be buried. We had a little ceremony with Devan, Nico, Megan, Jesse and myself. We put flowers in her grave and acknowledged that she is now at peace instead of struggling.. Here are some photos of the little ceremony we had. Be warned there is a photo of the little lamb in slideshow. But she is resting peacefully with flowers. We want you to experience very real life on our very real farm so that you know what and who you are supporting. If you don't want to see her then don't go through the slideshow.

In other news, it's hot and we're tired and the work never ends. But we were able to go to oxford, MS to hang out with my mom and Price for two nights. They gave us their old couches which are orange! not bright but burnt orange, earthy color. Nice and warm and cozy for the living room. Tony, Gabe, Megan and Austeja covered for us and we are etermnally grateful that we got to take a very short but very needed vacay from the farm. Gabe and Austeja left last Tuesday and we are so grateful to have had them! We wish them the best. So here are some photos from the week for your enjoyment.

Finally, I didn't have time to take photos of the CSA during week 9 or 10. So, I decided to retroactively photograph the last two shares. I had a lot of fun with them!

AND NOW! without further ado, here is your CSA for this week!

CSA week 11!! Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, garlic, watermelon, potatoes, squash, basil, Thai basil, okra or eggplant, a hot pepper, perhaps a flower or two!

New stuff this week includes watermelon (yay!) and okra. There will be tons of okra later on. But please let us know if you have a preference between eggplant or okra. Also please let us know if you would like a small (sugar babies between 2 and 6 pounds, medium (from 6 to 11 pounds) or large watermelon. Otherwise we will just pick for you.

I'm not going to include any recipes tonight because it's late and I haven't stopped since Monday evening when we got back from our very short vacation. but I insist that you email if you are stuck with anything. I know squash can get old after a while so I will include this really delicious recipe from my mom:

And a pretty photo of our lunch the other day!

Lunch yesterday included corn on the cob, roasted okra, carrots and spanish black radish, peppers and squash, some of the last of the beets, and fresh sliced tomatoes, cucumbers and onion. It was amazing, thanks to my husband,

Hope everyone is doing great!!!

Love, your farmers,

Lizzie, Jesse, Tony, Devan, Nico, Megan, Winnie (intuitive one), Stormy, Sheep, Ducks, Cows

CSA week 11!!