Years ago, while I was still working in support of local agriculture and not a full-time farmer myself yet, I had many profound and insightful conversations with a wide diversity of Farmers at every Market, but one conversation has come back to me over and over again and came to the top of my mind again this week.
As I worked in the berries, surrounded by buzzing bees and lady bugs, and later in the orchard, followed around by Fred and Wilma (our two Kune Kune pigs), doing my best to make sense of the August farm and not fall flat on my exhausted ass (#iykyk), a wave of memory washed over me of this conversation.
I won’t try to remember it verbatim, but the gist of it was about the number of years this particular farmer had been farming, soil management, and how wonderful his Winter Squash production was that year. At the end of our conversation he said something like, “You know, we don’t get whole years in farming, we get Summers and season extensions. So, really, we all only have short bursts of learning what works and what doesn’t and so much is dependent on factors out of our control.”
And so I do my best to remember those words when the hail hits and the harvest is wiped out…
And when there are no late freezes or hail storms and the abundance is absolutely wild.
It’s all about trying and hoping and learning and trusting and humbling ourselves in the face of so many factors we have no control over.
And this week, specifically, it was about harvesting berries under the scorching sun while listening to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel on Audible…
Picking my favorite Crab Apples (Chestnut) and the juiciest, warmest peaches in the dappled shade of the orchard while laughing at the Kune Kunes playing Clean Up Crew around me…
And sharing the abundance with friends and colleagues who, when stepping foot on this property we call home, remind us (in the awe in their eyes and voices) just how lucky we are to still be learning and growing, during our seventh summer here.
xoxo,
M
P.S. Yes, we’re still caretaking the same 10 acre property we moved to back in 2018 and we’re still just so happy about it. It’s a lot of work and a lot of responsibility, but we still can’t imagine being anywhere else, so here we are 🙂 Read a bit about the benefits of renting a homestead here.
