We are fully immersed in planting....and taking care of baby plants. Farmers are like new parents each spring. The hope of the gestation, the nurturing, all the preparation for receiving the gift of new life! We are so immersed in it, we've become, ourselves, like seeds. The camper now resides beside the greenhouse and it is a miniature version of our new home at the farm. It has everything we need - in miniature! Yet we must prepare for when our seeds need new homes in the field.
The field has been plowed and we're waiting for it to dry out again so it can be disced and tilled and then we can plant there, hopefully by the first of April, a certain somebody's birthday. The Moon will be in Scorpio then so we'll be busy planting, and hopefully celebrating a little too : )
Gabe got the greenhouse working: that was an immense task! We cleared out all the tall weeds that the house was full of, and Gabe and Wayne built benches to hold the flats of seeded trays. Gabe got about 2/3 of the house ready and today started to make benches for the rest of the trays we'll need to seed to be ready to plant into the field. I planned, mixed soil and filled trays, and seeded trays.
When Christa and I went to Greece I experienced a moment in Crete that I knew I had been waiting my whole life to feel: shopping at an outdoor market by the Mediterranean. I've been shopping at tailgate markets in WNC for 12 years at least, but there was something about participating in that ancient tradition of gathering your food in an agrarian society that coaelesced so many desires for me in that one moment...and this weekend I had that same experience. I have been preparing for this farming thing my whole life. And I am finally here! WE are finally here, as we have both been preparing to be our whole lives. Selah!
A month ago I felt like I was running as fast as I could to board a farm train - buying seeds, fertilizer, getting the business part going, planning, networking, at the speed of light. Now I feel firmly on that "train" and it's traveling as fast as I thought it was when I first spotted it. But now it's feeling easier in a way. We're still planning, but when in doubt we just plant seeds and say "we'll figure it out". We are on this train and it has its own momentum.
We couldn't be happier, really. We're working as hard as we ever have, but we're working for ourselves. "Noone's breathing down my neck" says Gabe. Except ourselves. And we work ourselves harder than any other 'boss' would.
So: we have planted these, and more - broccoli, kale, 10 kinds of lettuce, tatsoi, echinacea, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, leeks, chives, marshmallow the herb, elecampane, foxglove, artichoke, parsley, orach, purslane, statice, strawflower, valerian, hyssop, and that's all I can remember.
There are so many we'll be direct-seeding around the first of April: carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, chard, spinach, lettuce, kale, collards...
Wish us well. Better yet, come visit!
We could always use some help too. There are so many things to be done! We are so blessed to be working with Wayne, and he having a 40 yr old working farm, yet there is still so much basic, beginning stuff to do it is sometimes overwhelming. It's fun to help : ) The joy and satisfaction of immersing yourself in assisting the plants' work is incomparable. I'm sure animal farmers feel this way, I'm just such a plant lover that this is my paradise...especially with my pod-mate <3
Spring is this weekend! Oestara Oh Lovely One! She Returns!
In Grace,
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