This is what asparagus does to you when you get home too late to cut it on Saturday night and are too exhausted to get up early and cut it before church on Sunday.

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This is what a hard freeze does to potatoes in the spring.

The first photo is after the April frost; the second is April 27, four days later.

This post is in honor of Jim Thomas, Sr., born December 16, 1933, called home peacefully September 30, 2021, surrounded by family at the farm in rural Marshall, after a short struggle with cancer (obituary here, funeral video here). Jim was a fast picker of potatoes and strawberries. “He loved to pick ’em, and he loved to eat ’em,” his son said this morning. “I never could pick as fast as he could, though I tried.” His back couldn’t take picking and potato digging anymore, recently, so he instead took on the work of washing and bagging and prepping of the kale and other produce. Next to church, the activity Jim lived for every week was going to the Farmer’s Market. Even in the winter, when the market starts an hour later, the lights in Jim’s house would be on at 4:00 a.m. “I had my alarm set anyway,” he’d say. Farmer’s Market days were long days for Jim, as the family often didn’t get back home until 5:00 p.m., and the ride in the back seat of the truck was uncomfortable, but coming to market was one of the activities he loved the most, to the end. Every Share-Life customer and fellow vendor is already missing his smiling face, and his straightforward, kind, dedicated and devout nature behind the table Saturday mornings. His spirit will never be far from us at the market.

–R. Brekhus, webmaster & longtime customer