Have you ever had a really big goal, but you didn’t realize just how big that goal was until a little too late? That is how I feel right now. Dreams Come Moo is simply put, my dream. I want to raise livestock, to garden and produce homegrown fresh vegetables, and to help others experience long lost traditions. But I find myself with this sinking pit in my stomach as the first day of market season approaches and I look at my garden. What am I going to sell??
We never planned to be spring gardeners. That is not to say we didn’t try. I planted cabbage and broccoli this year. I started it from seed, transplanted it into the garden and watched it …die. Or Bolt. Or bolt then die. I am still not sure what I did wrong outside of maybe I didn’t plant it when I was supposed to but alas I thought I followed all the instructions that I found online. So the expectation was that come Saturday I would have beautiful heads of broccoli and cabbage to sell, but instead the reality is I don’t have either. I guess on the positive side, I will have seeds from the bolted broccoli to try again this fall.
I feel like so many times when you put yourself out there to the world, the expectation is that you have your stuff together. In reality, I am learning. Everyday. Some days I think my garden is watered with tears of frustration as I can not seem to figure out what I have done wrong. I mean you put seed in the ground right? and something is supposed to be grow from it. Yeah that is definitely another example of expectation vs reality. The reality is, I am really not that hard on myself, because I know this is the first year. This is my starting point. But I am terrified of everyone’s judgement. I am worried I am going to drag my little future business down by not meeting the expectation of the surrounding community. First impressions say a lot, well this weekend I am just praying that our lack of produce doesn’t say anything but please come again. Come summer we will have all the goodies, but you have to have business to build it.
You know, maybe I should have waited another year before we decided to join the market, but it seemed like such a good opportunity to get our name out there. I am still believing that it is. I am still believing in the positive and encouraging atmosphere that our community brings. That, that atmosphere will fill us with desire to keep dreaming our little farm dream. I wish that circumstances were different, that the world was not coming out of a pandemic, so that we would have the opportunity to chat with everyone that visits our farm stand. I mean, that was what we were planning on. There I go with expectations again.
I do believe that with the turn of events that 2020 has brought us, that going into the future we will have learned so much that we can share with others as they start their farm ventures. My inner scientist has been doing so many ridiculous experiments, trying to figure out the best ways for us to do what we want to do in the most space efficient and resource efficient manner. The reality is that I am super blessed to be on this adventure, it is one of the few realities these days that match up with the expectation. I expect that 2020 will be a launching point. We have so many ideas for the future expansion of our farm, and probably a lot more lessons to learn. So the reality is, this post is not meant to be a downer, just a “reality check”. People aren’t always successful their first time doing something, but the people who are become successful, they didn’t give up. So don’t give up on whatever you are dreaming even when the expectation and the reality aren’t initially lining up.