It has been a crazy couple of weeks since I last wrote. Thelma is all better from her emergency. We have been hustling to get the chicken coop ready for its new occupants and are pretty close to having it finished, just a couple of cosmetic things remain. We got our newest zebu herd member, Anna. She is bursting with personality and its so interesting the similarities and differences between her and Thelma. Our gardens are doing well, we have hit a few roadblocks but that is to be expected with everything going on. All in all, we are watching this place become what we imagined it could be.
The learning curve associated with this mini farm has been anything but mini. Some days it feels like we are drowning in projects, while trying to make sure that the every day items don’t fall behind. We sat down and wrote out a list of nearly 30 projects we would still like to complete by the end of the year, thats more projects then there are weeks left. But its 2020 and I don’t know many people who are really going to miss this year. It is probably a good thing that we didn’t know what 2020 would look like, otherwise, we all might have decided to wait another year to start some of the adventures we have going on. So what have we learned this year so far?
1.) Talk to other farmers, homesteaders, or gardeners. They are a wealth of information. Sometimes, the information is not what I was actually asking but its in those moments where you often get some little nugget that might help you with another project. We have learned that most people involved in agriculture or animal husbandry have no problem talking with you. Not only have I learned a lot about practices on other farms but I have had the opportunity to visit some of those farms. Like most things though, the more you ask, the more you learn and sometimes you learn things you wish you didn’t know, but I will save some of that for another day.
2. It is not about looks sometimes. We had a family about a month ago come to the farm and one of the first things out of their children’s mouth was “Eww, there is poop in the field”. I think we all got a good laugh out of that. Its one of those things that is often forgotten. We have watched television with shows that display perfect barns, manicured landscape and freshly groomed horses and we have applied that to all farms. All barns are fancy equestrian barns, all homes are landscaped, and all animals are fresh and clean. Sorry to disappoint you if you come here, because you will most likely not find that.
3. Regardless of what type of business you are in, being the new business is hard. This year we have a learned a ton about selling vegetables at the market. We have learned that people have no problem telling you their opinion. We have learned that the market vendors are like grocery stores, everyone has their favorite and sometimes its hard to be noticed if shoppers are set on going to their favorite. We have learned that there are going to be good weekends and bad weekends. We have made friends and been encouraged by other vendors. All in all the market has been a good experience, but with that said, we have got to grow (pun intended). So we are already starting our plans for next year.
4. Sometimes you have to suggest to people how to use your vegetables. This is not always the easiest thing, because I am a vegetarian and I know most people are not looking for vegetarian meal ideas. I could be wrong about that though. We do our best to give you ideas on how we use our veggies and if you stop by the booth we share any ideas we have with you. We don’t want to encourage people to buy things they are never going to eat because food waste is way to real, but we do want people to step out of their comfort zones and try new things.
5. You have to believe in yourself. This has been the most difficult and profound thing that I have learned during this process. No one is going to believe in you, if you don’t believe in yourself first. I had a good job before we started this adventure. I was good at my job, but if you are not careful, people can tear you down to the point that you stop believing that you can do something. Most people have been and are encouraging of what we are doing. However, there is always going to be that one. The random person that tells you to get a job, or tells you to go work for the big farm because you can’t compete. It was never about competition for us. It is about feeding our family a wholesome dinner, where we know everything that was put on our food. It was never about making tons of money, our prices reflect that, it was about doing life differently. At the end of the day though, its not about convincing someone else about my place in agriculture, its about believing that I belong.
Isn’t it crazy that fall vegetables are already in the ground or going in the ground? It seems like January happened and February, but after that it appeared more like Marapmajunjuly…..it was just one big jumbled blur. There is so much still to come this year and hopefully now that the coop is almost complete and Anna is settling in nicely, I can share more from our crazy adventure. Until then, I will be the girl on the farm playing in the gardens, chatting with the animals, and dreaming of slightly cooler days.