Saturday mornings, for the last year and a half, have been off to market days for us.  Our little town has been blessed with the opportunity to build a thriving year round farmer’s and artisan’s market, and having somewhere to bring winter produce to sell during the off months of our CSA program is really great.  Growing food year round has been a fun and satisfying part of our farm adventure here in Oregon.  And for us especially, having moved from the much colder Midwest, being able to grow so much out in the open through the winter has been amazing.

Here in the Willamette Valley, there is so much that can be grown out of doors through the entire year.  Winter hardy greens top the list, but root crops like carrots, beets, turnips, and rutabagas can also stay in the ground and be harvested from through the winter, and the really fun stuff is the overwintering sprouting broccolis and cauliflowers that are such a treat come the end of the cold season.

The only hitch, for us at least, is the space winter growing requires.  To continue harvesting in the same quantity as we do for the rest of the year, we need to have winter vegetables in a lot more ground than we need for that amount in warmer months.  Since things aren’t growing at all for a good twelve weeks of that time and growing slowly for the rest of it, we have to plan differently.  With much of our usable growing space wet (albeit highly fertile) from December through May, we still haven’t been able to grow as much as we would like.

This year we were really excited to use the dry acreage we are leasing near town to grow more for winter, but are now equally disappointed because those vegetables attracted foraging deer who ended up eating everything we planted there–kales, radicchios, chicories, red mustards, chard, perpetual spinach, turnips.  They kindly left the arugula and green mustards, but being so far away from that space, it felt hard to protect those crops and we aren’t necessarily keen on putting up deer fencing over there right now.  Here at our place, even when we see some deer activity in the winter, we have the easy protection of our dog to keep them at bay.

And so, the winter growing part of our operation is still the part we still struggle with.  Many people are amazed that we have what we do at market but we know that we could have a lot more.  And people really, really love our winter greens.  Growing them out of doors in the cold produces the most wonderful flavor, and to be eating something so fresh and alive in the coldest months is awesome, we aren’t coming close to meeting the demand for them.  Even as we get ready to put up our first hoophouses on the farm, we don’t want that to be our main solution to having more to harvest for the winter market and ultimately, for a full season CSA too.

A puzzle we are working on–just as there are always are in the farming business–but one we feel we can solve.  That is part of what keeps us on our toes and ever humble in the work we do.

This morning, the sky was on fire, Mt. Hood so breathtaking in the sky against those colors.  It will be a beautiful market day.  We are heading out now with some delicious greens, thankful for what we do have and for yet another Saturday to visit with the community and continue “farming” year round.

Today was so brilliant!  It was decidedly sunny and that sun felt so good.  The kids and I spent nearly all day outside.   We started out there this morning with songs and times tables, and after a quick trip inside to do some writing, we happily returned out of doors for picnics and stories and card games.  And although we didn’t do much in the way of farm work (the kids and I that is…the farmer was harvesting for Saturday market), we did make it out to the fields for an adventure.  After lunch, my daughter announced that we needed to go on a walk and find “spring” stuff to bring inside to decorate with, and it seemed just the thing to do–it felt so spring-like out there!

Of course in reality we are still just making our way out of winter a bit at a time, so we didn’t really find anything that satisfied her quest (no flowers!).  Things look a lot like winter out in the field and around the farm still.  There are a lot of bare trees and brown hues and winter hardy garden plants that always look a little worse for wear at this time of the year.  And so, we decided to refocus our efforts, and began instead to look for signs of spring coming. 

And even though our walk showed only the smallest of these signs, we did find some.  There is new growth on the winter greens and the very teeny tiny beginning of sprouting broccoli florets.  There is more green surrounding those food plants in the garden, too.  The weeds and grass in the path are definitely starting to grow and right now, while they are just at the starting, they are a nice sight, all green and fresh and tender!  The daffodils are popping out of the ground, the cherry buds are forming!

Small things, yes!  But small things emerging from underground, budding, and growing–all signs of good things to come!

For the last two months or so, the farmer has been sleeping in.  Sometimes just sleeping in a little compared to being up and out in the fields before anyone else is awake; sometimes sleeping way in, while the rest of us rouse, eat, and start our day still waiting at 9:00 for him to say good morning!  I am not quite sure if he has ever taken the winter months to practice this bit of extra restfulness before, or if this is just the first winter I noticed it.   I do think that up until now he most likely still had a pressing feeling  in the winter to keep busy because this is the first winter that he has been all the way through a full year of full-time farming, with the business now more or less solvent without needing either of us to work off of the farm.  I think this year he could fully relax while the sun slept in too and the temperatures were so cold.

I, too, have noticed that even though I wasn’t sleeping in, I was feeling more sleepy when I did wake in the mornings.  There was a subtle difference–less get up and go and a lot more snuggle under the covers than jump up and greet the day.  Since neither of us have changed our sleeping routines, I can’t help but think that this extra sleepiness has something to do with the season.

And then this morning, I woke early to the sound of the farmer leaving the bed.  I could see that there was a faint change in the color of the sky, but really, it was mostly dark and dawn was barely on its way.  After falling back asleep for a little bit before getting up, I went out to find that this morning, all of a sudden, the farmer was back to work.  He had finished his tea, organized seeds, and was heading out the door already, practically bristling with excitiment.  He said something about so much to do! and was off to the greenhouse.

At first, I was surprised at the sudden change, finding myself equally bristling with excitement at early morning work and all that it implied , but nevertheless, not fully there myself in that get back to business mode.

And then I was struck by the significance of this shift happening today, the day pagans used to celebrate as the halfway point between the darkest day of the year, winter solstice, and the first day of spring.  Imbolc, an ancient holiday, encompassed in modern times by little more than a groundhog peeking out of his whole in Pennsylvania (tomorrow), but still a nod to the fact that spring is, indeed, on its way.

The energy has shifted outside as it will continue to shift throughout the month and on into the heart of spring.   And without skipping a beat, the farmer, so very connected to this land and his work, experienced that same shift.  Just like that, he shed his winter slumbering and awoke with excitement and enthusiasm–it is the perfect energy to jump start the season.

And so, early on this Imbolc morning, some seeds were sown, the first of 2012.

yo-yo’s

keeping warm with new Christmas hats from Grandma

sunny (and wet) winter harvests and yummy winter meals

rain and rain and floods

wet explorations, loads of splashing, and oh so much puddle jumping

baby goat joy and tragedy

and many hours of learning, playing, and loving with this silly crew, the youngest of whom was not happy to be slowed down by big sister for this photo!

What else?

We are mixing potting soil to start transplants, ordering greenhouse supplies, tinkering with the tractor to make sure it is running well when we need to start using it this spring, finalizing the fruit orders for the year, and contemplating a week’s vacation before we start to get busy again.

January is such a sweet, quiet month.  It is usually sunnier than the months to come, so we try to get outside to soak it up as much as we can, all the while itching to be doing more work with the ground than we actually can.  It is a month of dreaming big and filling back up after the drain of a whole busy season.

It is one of the best, don’t you think?

(but really, I do love them all)

This year I think I’ll throw my lot in with the Chinese calender and call this the start of a (great) new year.  I am a dragon child after all;  according to the eastern skies this will, indeed, be a year meant for me.   There was a part of me itching to go right after Christmas, ready for resolutions, goals, plans.  But there was another part of me right in the middle of serious pain, pain that began the day after Thanksgiving as what seemed like a sore muscle and turned into a misplaced rib and tightened shoulder/neck muscles causing nerve pain through my whole arm and hand, lasting through the holidays and into the start of my fresh, new year.

So, I just gave in, finally, to my body’s cry to slow down and practice some much overdue self care.  Part of that meant a few weeks of mellow.  After a busy and stressful year of adjusting to the new family size and the growing business pace, it was really what I needed.   At the start of last year, when I was riding high on the bliss of a very relaxed and positive year on the farm and a brand new baby, I intentionally didn’t set any goals for myself, wanting to just be with that new little guy as he grew that first year.  Still, there was such an ominous feeling to the beginning of 2011, I should have been a little less shaken by the stress of the little dip we took in our roller coaster ride, a little more prepared.  Instead, I just pushed through making sure to take care of everyone else.  As for myself, I certainly didn’t get enough sleep, and I drank way too much coffee!

But now our little guy is so solidly rooted in the family, another wild and wonderful sprout toddling along with his brothers and sister and making just as much mischief and laughter in our home as ever.  And I think that as much as last year was one with growing pains, this year is a year to grow, stretch, and work hard too, but without all the worry and feeling of being busy.  I had to stop drinking coffee and modify my diet as well as take myself to get a massage, a few chiropractic adjustments, and some accupunture (which really rocked the pain!).  It feels good to spend a bit of time mothering my own body a little, and I feel refreshed and ready to take on the year.

The farmer, too, was feeling really tired by the end of the season; but two week off of market and a new season to plan and he is as fresh as spring and ready to go!  The beauty of farming is that the end of the cycle–the winter, the death and dying part–it so quickly becomes the start of new! hope!  growth!

So–2012!

I am sure we will be just as busy and we have lots of plans, lots!  So there will be the balancing of the farm and the family, as always.  But it is the year of the water dragon, a year of good luck, prosperity, a year of flowing and flying high again!

Here is to a very happy new year!

Things are winding down for the year just in the nick of time.  As the farmer harvests these last few CSA shares in the brisk window of time between defrosting and dark, washes them in the cold in spurts while alternately coming inside to warm his hands by the fire, he is all the while saying he is ready for a break.  This man loves what he does, there is no question about that; still, the work he does is both strenuous and consuming from the first tipping of the scale toward the sun in late winter until now, when we are blanketed in darkness.  He is busy and working hard and loving it, but after next week’s final CSA harvest for the season, he will thoroughly enjoy two full weeks off for the holidays.  The darkest days of the year, the brightest in the home; this will be the farmer’s respite.

After that, we of course will be harvesting again every week through the winter for the Saturday market.  We will also be busy filling up the CSA for 2012, ordering seeds (which we usually do some of in those last few weeks of December actually), and after just one month, the quiet month of January, he will be back at it again, in the greenhouse, starting the cycle of a seed’s life again.

Time is unruly in many ways.  Each day spins by a little faster than the last, but at the same time the beauty and pain of this life equally intensify.  The faster things move along, the more tightly I try to hold on to the amazing journey we are on.  I know that a lot of spiritual work is devoted to the idea of letting go of that grip; but for me, this life, in this body, with these people, in this place–I love it, perhaps more dearly than I should.

So with two short weeks of celebrating on the horizon, two blissful weeks that are ours (mostly), I will try to slow things down the best I can.  The farmer, who is equal parts husband and father and musician, will probably not do a whole lot of anything related to Growing Wild Farm the business.  He will come back to those duties refreshed and ready and the plans for 2012 are big and exciting so that is a good thing.

And in light of this short, short window he has to rejuvenate, my main goal for the holiday season is to keep everything simple and meaningful and purposefully relaxing.  These times of good cheer, with friends and family and each other, not only lighten our hearts in the darkest days, they energize us, breathe fresh life into our spirits as we continue moving along this path of time into another year.

These are the things I try to keep at the core of all that we plan and do during this month.  Next week, when we arrive at market with the last harvest of the year and wish everyone happy holidays, my  hope is that we all fall gracefully into those weeks of bringing joy and light to each other.  I know I will do my part to make this farmer’s spirit bright so he can continue to shine in his wonderful role as tender of the earth in the coming year, the seeds of which are already starting to germinate here within us.

It has been harder than usual to sit down and begin the process of clearly bringing to the light the specific things I am grateful for this year.  Although this task is meant to remind us that we usually have so very much to be thankful for and the act of giving that thanks builds up our spirits and reminds us of all the good that abounds, it can also make one wonder why others in the world find themselves suffering at the same time we are feeling so fortunate.  I felt quite a bit like this last year too, although I can’t help smiling when I look back at this list.  I think there are two things at work causing this feeling and one is just the simple fact that life contains both tremendous joy and tremendous sorrow and there is no logic to the wheel of fortune.  The other, less existential, piece of the puzzle is that there are simply a lot more people right here that are having a hard time.  Growing up from 1976 on, I have always felt like the really hard stuff was happening to other people in other countries.  I really felt like prosperity was there for all but for the taking (or the making might be more accurate).  I can’t help but feel that even though there are still places in the world living in situations that make everything we are going through here look like a walk in the park, that there is less assurance now that all will fine.  How does one count their blessings without realizing that there is always a part of our good times that is riding the roulette wheel of chance and circumstance, when friends and neighbors are on the flip side?

But in the thick of these thoughts, this one really does shine like a beacon for me; I am quite thankful for a whole lot of things, and with compassion and concern for others ever present, I still don’t want to let this Thanksgiving pass without bringing my attention fully to my blessings.  I think this year I will spread them out over the course of a few days because today, I really just want to focus on how thankful we are for our CSA members and regular market customers and the gratitude we have for this work we do.  This farm provides our family with so much more than just income, and without our wonderful farm members and customer base, this wouldn’t be possible.

So here is just a small bit of what we are thankful for, things that all of you have helped our family enjoy:

• Being connected.  In one sense, the mere fact that we operate a small business whose customer base is solely our very own community connects us to our community more than if we worked with a different business model.  All of the buy local hoopla is certainly not hoopla!  Aside from the responsibility generated between consumer and producer when things are kept face to face, there is just something so awesome about getting to know all hosts of people who share the same town or valley as you do, who you will talk with each week while doing business but will also see at the park with your kids, the library, the festivals, and out and about at the other local businesses in town.  And often, farm members and customers are other local business owners from town and often other vendors at our farmer’s markets.  We get to see first hand the truth behind the significance a thriving local economy can have and our farm opens the door to this interconnectedness,that given the instability of the world market, gives me hope for our own smaller, community marketplace.  But this community connectedness is just one side of the coin; being able to farm for a living has allowed for our family to enjoy a really wonderful lifestyle of connectedness.  For goodness sakes!  We live, learn, play, and work altogether on this farm, everyday (aside from market days I suppose, when we get to come live, learn, play and work with all of you!).  Family togetherness has always been one of our main hopes for this family, and we feel truly blessed to be able to see this achieved while we do work we find so satisfying.  Some years the farm is in a growing stage, and we all feel a little flustered about whether we are balancing business life and family life well.  This was one of those year…but nevertheless, we still ate almost every meal together at our table and made time for the small things that define enjoyment for all of us (you know, strawberry desserts in spring, the creek and a picnic in summer, hot tea and gathering leaves in the fall).  We are so thankful for this, more thankful than for almost anything else.
•  Being nourished.  Being able to grow delicious produce for a living has allowed our family to eat like kings.  We fill our plates with the same beautiful, tasty produce we harvest for all of you and even in moments of business motivated crisis (these happen, although not too much!), I always remind myself of this added richness we enjoy.  The food we grow, or any other local farmer grows, is so superior in flavor and offers so much more enjoyment in the eating that we really do feel like we eat lavishly, especially when we couple our products with the wonderful products others offer at market.  We know that eating so many well raised vegetables also acts to keep us strong and healthy.  We are nourished both by the experience and in our bodies.  Coupled with the fact that doing work that we feel is important and that we feel makes the world a better place has been another one of our main hopes as a couple, so we are nourished in spirit by having the opportunity to do so.  We are so thankful for thriving in the most important ways.
• Being challenged.  This is a double sided gratitude, because although our business has grown every year and we are still moving forward, starting your own business can be extremely challenging and starting a farm business comes with its own set of challenges.  Nevertheless, all challenges present an opportunity for growth, and I can say that without a doubt, we have both grown so much in this process, all in positive ways.  There is the simple way in which we are challenged to constantly learn the intricacies of our craft and to learn new (to us) things about farming and living on the land.  We must find ways to adapt and solve problems.  But more significantly, the process has challenged our humility, our physical and mental endurance, our kindness, our shyness, our relationship skills, and our sanity!  And along the way, we find ourselves so happy to be here, to be the people we are, the family we have made, the life we have created in the process of creating this business.  Living your dreams is not easy, but the truth is that it is the act of pursuing them that is the real deal.  That is the stuff that makes our stories and we are so thankful for it all because it is our story!
• Being free.  This one I know will sound silly, but I can’t help but relate to the words of Almonzo’s mother in Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which I can’t find right now, but basically express the feeling that Almonzo won’t be free if he takes an apprenticeship in town and doesn’t pursue farming.  His father is worried whether farming will provide him with enough security, enough money, and knows that it is such hard work; but his mother simply can’t stand the thought of him not being free!  Now, this freedom is kind of up to the individual, and I am not saying that one can’t find it doing just about anything;  but for us, living on this farm and working with the land, for ourselves, we feel free.  Not unencumbered, because the farm ties us to it with pretty tight binds, but as others have worked out before me, we can’t really be free without fitting to ourselves the right strings.  For us, the bounds of farm and family life give us the freedom we need, the freedom to pursue all those things I just wrote about, and we are ever thankful for that.
• Being thankful.  Ultimately, without all of you finding it beneficial and important to participate in our CSA and to visit us at market every week, we wouldn’t  have all of this to be thankful for.  This farm and this business is really such an integral part of our lives, connecting us to this place and the wonderful people we share it with, to each other.  It shapes our days and our time, our health and our lifestyle.  It gives us so much more than just a livelihood.  This Thanksgiving, we can’t help but say, repeatedly….thank you!!!

I actually shudder to admit that this great slowing down time on the farm, the wonderful quieting of that raucous din that is summer around here, is proving to be neither quiet or slow after all.  September came, and suddenly I am so busy with homeschooling and activities for the kids and trying to squeeze a little bit of time out of all of that for taming the wildness that summer inevitably created inside our home while we worked and played outside for a season (which doesn’t make sense when you think about it, does it?),  that I have had little time to give to my “office” and “writing” duties for the farm.  Ideas come and go, poignant and thoughtful or just simple and funny, but I rarely have the time to sit down and put them to pen (so to speak!).

I keep thinking that with just one day to get things organized, a day to breath so to speak, I could get on top of this schedule and find the missing time; but the reality is that this  life will always be busy, or rather full, what with six of us and a farm in the cards, so the busy part all comes down mostly to a state of mind…and then just a little bit of good planning.  I am making a point to find the moments to breathe, and learning to live with certain piles until that grand day of organizing comes.   In the meantime, we take the time to stop a day of cleaning and wood chopping to carve those pumpkins with the small folks, we scoot the pile of school stuff out of the way and gather around the first fires in the woodstove with our board games and our books or various musical instruments.  I say the heck with it all and pick up the knitting basket instead of the vacuum, because life really is short, and the days, even shorter.  This fall has been glorious, with so many perfect, shiny golden days, with the bold colors of trees exploding before they go to bed reminding us to celebrate it all and the less showy but equally soothing colors of decay all over the farm our companions.  Busy isn’t going to cut it anymore.

Maybe this winter will bring with it some quiet?  Or more likely than not, it won’t, and so we will just have to continue practicing our graceful walk though this life one day at a time…with just a bit of stumbling along the way.

This morning the farmer gently nudged me awake at 6:00 but getting out of bed was the last thing I wanted to do–it was so darn dark out still!  The days are getting shorter by the minute.  A relief in many ways.  Last night I had help with the dishes while I managed the bedtimes of four sweet little urchins for the first time since March, right around the time of the last Equinox.  Day length is such a huge part of our routines, the seasons so wildly different in how our family operates and what our days look like.  As hard as it is to take the very full and long work days of summer, we gain equal measure of respite in the cooler, darker months.  That is a blessing.

All of our space for planting is planted, aside from the ground we will plant garlic in.  Of course, the weather has to challenge us in one way or another, and so just as we transplant very heat sensitive Asian and mustard greens out in the fields, we get the hottest days yet of this summer.  Some had already bolted in the seed tray, I am sure some will bolt after this weekend too, so depending on how they look, we may replant from seed some of these greens.  Still, we managed to get the farmer away to a picnic and to the creek in the early evening this week and we are headed to the beach to camp this weekend.  After an especially busy year, our family is happy to watch the sun set a little earlier.

That sunrise, however, could stay just as early as in summer I say– I do loathe waking up when it is still dark!  Some things don’t change with the seasons, and a mama has to get up and start the day at about the same time the whole year through!

After a really lovely few weeks of hot weather came along to wrap up August and summer it seems, this week brought with it a definite chill to the air, the seeds of autumn flying in on the breeze, ready to fully bloom sooner than later by the feel of things.  Are we ready for this shift;  the shorter days so noticable already, the extra blanket on the bed?  I’m not sure.  Breaking 90 degrees felt good and a series of nights too hot for blankets went a long way to help, but I have to admit the feeling of an especially “short” summer is still here with me, even as we lovingly ready the house for more inside time, plan and dream about our homeschool year, and talk excitedly with friends about what we will be making for the kids for Christmas this year. 

This week, the farmer felt the beginning of the slow down too.  His window for planting most things is past, he will just be sowing more winter greens–seeds of arugula and Asian greens, transplants of mustards and some kale.  That is about it besides the big garlic planting.  As always, we were behind with some plantings and the time to plant things ended before we had it all done.  This has just been the way of things with the limitations one (very hard) worker and a (very hard worked)  homeowner’s rototiller have brought to our operation.  We feel like we have done an awesome job building the business with our bare hands so to speak, but we are really looking forward to how much more we will be able to grow next year and how much better our timing will be with the help of our beautiful Ford 8N. 

The kids are harvesting overgrown Romanesco zucchinis, carving faces in them with jackets on in the early morning this week.  They still want to fill up the mud pit/swimming hole Luca so expertly dug and splash around, but they realized on Monday it was just too cold.  It looks like it will warm to the high 80′s again this weekend, and seeing as how our first and last trip to the beach of the summer isn’t happening until the weekend after that, I have to say I am hoping for more warm weather then, too.  Otherwise, I realize it is time to settle and embrace the inevitable.  The moving of the circle around to the next notch again.