Frog Log

Yeah, Spike Spinach here. I'm back and I guess I'm stickin' around for a while. That frog lady's been kinda low since Mr. Frog Farmer got harvested and she don't do much with her little bump on a frog log. Sheez, she missed th' whole spinach season and a lot of good material as far as I's concerned.

But I can kinda understand. I liked that guy too - man, he could really hoe a row. Shined us up mighty fine when he was done. And remember when I was educatin' you good folks 'bout how spinach gets planted practickly in th' middle of winter while all them little hothouse seedlings is cuddlin' up to their energy-hog "germination mats?" Awww, ain't they cute? Well, somebuddy has to plant us spinaches out ther in the wind and snow and it was always Mr. Farmer frog. Th' weather just didn't faze him. Come to think of it, there must have been a little spinach in him.

So I thinks to hitch a ride over to the memorial a whiles back to pay my respects. Like I said, I liked that guy. So I made it to the church and stopped off at the food hall first. Steered a wide berth 'round the dude puttin' spinach leaves on th' radish sandwiches. Guess I'll let the spinach crew at Community Farm get that glory.

Made it into the hall where they was doing the memorial and scooted next to this guy who was blubberin' - figgered I could freshen up my leaves a little with the fallout. Like I said, I miss the guy, but I don't make no scene. Us spinaches know what goes around comes around. We know we is all headed for someone's plate but it evens up in the end. We always make it back evenchu eventchull eventually and there was someone there who really got that. It was this guy who sent a song - not much of a singer for my taste - but the words was all right. I speshully liked that line about recycling me as best you can.

Cuz ya know that's about all we can do - be the best we can whiles we're here and let the good folks that is still stickin' around make the best of what we leave 'em. And I know he'll be back. I seen him on the farm and I can tell that guy put down a mighty deep tap root - ya can't just pull them things out.

And ya know what? When I see Mr. Holler frog again, I'm gonna ask him to be on my crew. And I'd be honored. I really would. Cuz, now that I think of it, an' I don't say this lightly, that guy didn't just have a little bit, that guy was pure spinach.

So here's th' words to that cool song - check it out!

Ken King: Earthling (Channeled by Nat Needle)

Mr. Frog Farmer Spinach


Been an Earthling all my life, always kind of loved the Earth
Don’t know how it came together, but some fine Earth woman gave me birth
Got to know the soil, the songs, the plants, the people, got to be a real Earthman
Now I’ve moved on, so won’t you please keep recycling me, as best you can
Had a notion to be a healer, to live on Earth and do no harm
Came to be a pioneer, made this sweet lush organic farm
Farming’s hard work, not something, any Earthling, does by his lonesome
Found my mate, grew three big sons, whole family worked, now they own some
Organized a Farmer’s Market, down in the city, some miles away
Trucked our good food to the people every Wednesday and Saturday
Farmers made money, made new friends, got ideas, got a voice
People got beans, squash, tomatoes, cauliflower; best of all, got a choice
Don’t you imagine that growing farm and family’s all there’s been to me
I’ve been a man of deep convictions and abstruse philosophy
Built a barn for folks to gather in great joy, beneath the stars
Dance around, drink some beer, sing some songs, and play guitars
Now the guy who wrote this song, he had to channel me, so to speak
If he left stuff out, or got things backwards, it’s ‘cause his reception’s somewhat weak
I told him “Get someone else to perform this song, at least get someone who can sing”
And I said, “Keep the title simple, just ‘Ken King: Earth-ling’”
Been an Earthling all my life, always kind of loved the Earth
Don’t know how it came together, but some fine Earth woman gave me birth
Got to know the soil, the songs, the plants, the people, got to be a real Earthman
Now I’ve moved on, so won’t you please keep recycling me, as best you can
Now I’ve moved on, so won’t you please keep recycling me, as best you can
Yours forever: Ken King, Earthling.
Oh, yeah.

You know those kid's pictures where there are a bunch of items hidden in a bigger picture? The instructions are something along the lines of: "Find fifteen monkeys in this picture of Johnny at the beach". Or something like that.

When I took a look at an enlarged version of the photo above, I thought, wow, there's a lot of Frog Holler history hidden in that photo. Can you find it? I'll help you!

First off, did you know that by clicking on the photo, you too can make it bigger?! I just found that out a little while ago and it's very satisfying!

So...where are we? We're up at the top of one of Frog Holler's higher hills, planting a potato patch where no patch has gone before. Last Fall Farmer Ken was on a mission. Determined to find new ground for an expanded garden, he surprised everyone by selecting this spot 'overlooking' the front garden (by about 500 feet!). This area had actually been planted to dwarf apple trees thirty years ago, but that's another story. To garden at Frog Holler is to grow on the slant, so finding this spot of fairly level ground had its appeal, despite being a bit removed from the lower gardens.

It was late in the fall, and with a sense of No Time To Waste, Farmer K. roared up the hill and tore into the root-filled stony ground. He worked by day; he worked by night - don't ask me how he saw with no lights on the tractor. At one point the tractor started smoking and he tore back down the hill to get water for the radiator and then back up when the smoke subsided. On a mission he was and the result was a really big new patch of ground, kinda rough but definitely opened up. Oh, and one tractor in the repair shop (see photo in previous post).

So this spring Son B. headed up the hill to see what he could see. The patch needed a little more work; after all, it was dark when some of it had been plowed! But soon we all headed up the hill with 200 lbs. of potatoes to plant. It was still a bit rough, still rocky, and that's why you see Edwin, Elisabeth and Jana raking away. But the potatoes went in and as we stood up and turned around, the view looking down over the entire front garden was pretty darn sweet.

So thanks Farmer K. for your vision and mission. And the tractor needed fixing anyway.

More Hidden Picture History to come....