Vegetable Love = Growing, Flourishing
Mid-February greetings from Henry’s Farm!
And since it’s still Valentine’s Day weekend, we open with a little “vegetable love” from Henry and his carrots, inspired by the famous lines from the 17th century metaphysical poet and satirist Andrew Marvell in “To His Coy Mistress”
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow
Scroll down for more info about “vegetable love” and other things, including:
A big Thank You to everyone who has signed up already for Henry’s 2025 CSA
It’s not too late for you, or your vegetable loving friends and neighbors, to sign up via our NEW website
Mark Your Calendar for the:
New CSA Member Tour/Orientation Sat., May 10
First CSA pick-up Tues., May 27
Testimonials! If you’re a fan of Henry’s CSA, please send us a sentence or two to post on the reviews page of our new site. (We will use your first name and last initial, unless you prefer otherwise.) Thank you in advance!
MORE REASONS TO JOIN HENRY’S CSA
No inflation worries! You lock in Henry’s super-low price for the freshest, tastiest, most nutritious vegetables every week all season long.
Say hello to the JOY of eating vibrant, just-harvested produce — and goodbye to insipid greens and tasteless tomatoes.
Great flavor = Great nutrition!
A genuine relationship to your farmer (Henry!) and the others who work from sun-up to sun-down to grow good food in a way that is also good for the soil, air, water, and every living thing — including YOU!
NEW CSA MEMBER FARM TOUR + ORIENTATION
Mark your calendar for Saturday, May 10, when we will welcome you, your family, and your fellow CSA members to Henry’s Farm! You’ll tour the newly verdant fields where your vegetables come from, then we’ll sit down in the packing shed to talk about how the CSA works. And of course we will answer your questions about the CSA, the vegetables we grow, climate change, and anything else!
We serve drinks and snacks during the orientation, and new members are required to attend. (For returning members the tour/orientation is optional.)
That’s Armando, a former intern who found the perfect heart-shaped potato as we were planting them on a March day nearly 10 years ago.
As everyone knows, potatoes are vegetables — but I only recently discovered that the word "vegetable" used to mean so much more than it does today. It comes from the Medieval Latin vegetabilis, which means growing, flourishing, continually alive. And it had that same expansive meaning when the word vegetable was first recorded in the English language in the early 15th century—referring to something that was vigorous and capable of continual life and growth. So it makes complete sense that in the 17th century, Andrew Marvell wrote, "Had we but world enough, and time / This coyness, lady, were no crime. ... / My vegetable love should grow / Vaster than empires and more slow."
He’s not talking about love of potatoes or lettuce or carrots (although those are fine things to love, especially when Henry grows them!), but rather about a love that is always alive, always growing, like a vigorous and vibrant plant.
It was only some 250 years ago that the meaning of vegetable narrowed to our current definition. But now every time I say or write the word, I will remember its original meaning — which happens to fit Henry’s vegetables perfectly — of something truly alive, vibrant, and flourishing.
