The Open Gate Farm On Camano Island, Washington

Dear Friends:

Peanut Butter.  It’s here.  In the cookies.  And they are so large only one pile at a time fits under the clear glass cookie dome.  So if you are ready for a great gift to yourself or someone else, come on by!  The proceeds ($1 each) all go to support Agua de Vida Orphanage in Mexico so that is a good thing too!  And yes, they are the walls to the Whoopee Pies we’re offering this weekend.

Garlic.  As they say, “Eat a clove of garlic a day and you’ll sleep well, but you’ll sleep alone.”  Well, you don’t have to do that, but if you take one of our garlic plants from the stand ($1.00 per) and make it into a pesto, your pasta will be pleased and your tongue tingled and your health improved.  We even have a jar of the pesto up there for you to taste before you commit this culinary hari kari.  Folks, this is the formal announcement that our produce department is open for the season!  Our offering is limited to the garlic this weekend, but stay tuned!  The rhubarb can’t be far behind.  And just over the horizon…hmmm.

We have kept a secret here at The Open Gate Farm for many, many years.  Ages and ages, if you are a duck.  There is a reason, of course, for every secret has a reason for the secrecy and ours was quite reasonable we thought.  The ducks aren’t so sure.

If ever you have wandered down our back lane, you may have noticed a small trail leading into the woods where the lane turns it’s corner and heads past the hoop house.  Last week, Quackers, the mottled black duck, finally summoned up the courage to stand on tip toe and peer down that path.  It looked safe.  It sounded safe.  And it smelled entrancing so down the trail she trotted, ready for an adventure.

And she found out our secret.  The Pond.   An enchanting, entrancing piece of paradise that no duck had ever discovered before.  She felt like Lewis and Clarke, or one of the Spanish Conquistadores, gazing on a world never before seen by her fellow ducks.  Not even suspected.  We watched her stand and gaze for the longest time, tilting her head to check out the canopy above for danger, peering around into the bushes for trouble, and when none was found, returning her eyes to drink in the sight before her.  A pond.  A little pond in the woods, just the right size for 5 good friends.  Turning slowly, she trundled back the way she came until bursting into the sunlight she began calling the others.  This kind of really important news needs to be shared right away!

This little landscaping feature was dug by a previous owner when he had some spare time with a borrowed backhoe.  It’s about the size of a bedroom but lots more interesting.  Especially if you are a duck.  It serves as a gathering place for water draining from up hill that is guided into a French drain which is piped to the top end of the pond.  A little dam at the back, deep into the woods, gives it depth.  It overflows in winter and dries up in summer.

For several years we kept feeder goldfish in it, watching them grow and fatten.  Then a heron would drop in and the pond would be empty again.  We’ve seen raccoon tracks on the little ramp down into it.  Now it just sits, filling and drying out and as the seasons pass, becoming home to an occasional branch.  We’ve never told the ducks about it because we worried about coyotes cruising the woods looking for sandwich material.  Now, however, that was not an issue.  At least not for Quackers.  She had the news and was eager to share it.

Secrets are important, of course.  There are things in all our lives which will never be told.  But we might consider the secrets we hold and see if they shouldn’t have a sunset clause attached.  After our presence here had penetrated the woods and coyotes had changed their travel from the back lane to beyond the neighbor’s fields, we didn’t really need to keep the pond a secret from the ducks.  We could have told them years ago.  And while they will expect us to keep it filled in the hot days of summer, it will be worth it to see them swimming in the shade and bathing in the water they love so well.

Now in the mornings, when we open the gates to the chicken run and their big coop, the ducks have taken to shooting past us in a hot foot race out the door and down the back lane to the little trail to paradise.  They pick up their skirts and hustle like matrons at a church picnic racing to see who can ring the bell to call the men and children to lunch.  And once there they dive right in, splashing and laughing and drinking deeply of our secret; they are delighted with life and all it holds for them.

So the ducks want you to know, if you have any secrets, this might be a good week to consider them and if they are old and out of date and no longer needed, share them.  It may well bring a duck in your life more joy than you realized.

Happy Hoeing,

Jon and Elaine, the secretive farmers,  Snickers the all knowing dog, Mystery the wise cat, Ben and his flock on non-swimming chickens, and the Parson Dudley Brown and his flock of delighted ducks, all of whom live joyfully at The Open Gate Farm.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 4:59 pm and is filed under News From the Farm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.