Sam Wickham

May-When I Say Jump

Now's the time of the year when Mother Nature says "jump" and we ask "how high?". Our growing hardiness zone has climbed in recent years to where late April presents like Mid-May used to. Though still on the lookout for sneaky late frosts as

An Undefeated Season

A little bit of the athlete mentality still runs my mind. It was developed during my days back on the soccer team, then the volleyball team, and the tennis crew too...Encouraged by Friday nights in the midwest spent rooting on the boys (and one girl in our school'

April-Blank Slate

The colors are beginning to trickle upward into the picture we are painting this spring. Playing the annual agriculture game, we begin with a blank silty-clay-loam canvas every year. With seed beds prepared, rather fluffy ones considering the humus that we've accumulated after seven years of feeding the

A League of Their Own: You

Nothing exists in isolation. All living things are embedded in a sea of other, interrelated things. Ideas are in that dynamic soup, brought to life by a person, two or more. They can be a product of passion, necessity, ambition, even fear. And the animate idea evolves, as if by

A League of Their Own: Local Food Champions

There are so many parts played in a success story. The glorified protagonist shines bright for an idea hatched or a journey taken. So brightly so that the supporting characters' contributions tend to dwell in the shadows. All the while, the leading lady is a product of her relationships

March-There IS Another Way

Rich and I live in a precious bubble which floats just beyond reach of the pricklier realities of life and the darkness of our world. Anytime we drift a little too close to the sharp edges or far enough from the light, we seem to be blown back into the

A League of His Own: Craig

At the point that I switched gears from chefdom to greenhorn, I was feeling rather lonely. I had just called my boss back at Jaleo, the restaurant where I had interned during culinary school, to let him know that I wouldn't be accepting a sous chef position at

A League of His Own: José

Enrolling at the CIA back in 2008 (not that CIA...the Culinary Institute of America), I knew that I would have the chance to apply for an externship at a restaurant anywhere in the world at the start of my second year. Not that just any restaurant would take a

February-Back to the Wild Rumpus

Every so often Rich and I conspire to get away with the kids. Whether it's to catch up on lost time with our New York or Michigan family, or in the rarer case to see someplace new, we endeavor to adventure. But every time, some part of me

A League of Their Own: Lou and Robin

So many of the characters of our story remain on the pages in the chapters they occupied in our lives. Neither Rich nor I is any good at long distance and tend to get swallowed up in the 'here and now' of wherever we are. While complimentary in

All the worlds

In the true millenial way, Rich and I have a history of 'worlds' we've been a part of. To start, we were born into the age of ubiquitous internet, which means that our world was larger than our immediate existence. Beyond our tangible community of classmates,

Inextricable

It's all tangled up. The roads that led us to where we are now, were riddled with clues of what was to come. A book given to me in my teen years,unbeknownst to me at that time, was one of those clues. This New Year's

January-Turn Up the Volume

Looking out over the great unknown of 2025, I can't remember a year during which I have felt more compelled to live loudly. So long as my motivations are born from the deep well of love within, not the dark cavern of fear, it's a year

Happy Holidays

If this time of the year is good for anything it's for cherishing the people who make your world go 'round. And so, I'm writing to tell you that you are one of those people to us. Thank you for reading and for being a

December-We Didn't See It Coming

It's no wonder we found ourselves a quarter of the way into December before I was able to sit down and write my monthly "newsletter" with my contemplation on what's in store. We're a week in already and enough has unfolded to

"Thank You," Said the Crazy Pie Lady

I tucked three large vats of my pumpkin pie filling into the walk-in refrigerator last night to marry flavors overnight and then sat down with Rich to debrief on our day. We have mouths to feed this week, produce to harvest and wash, pies and rolls and breads to bake.

Bump Ahead

I went to a high school where football was more important than history. The varsity coach, doubling as our history teacher, dictated years of world history to us from his yellowed and uninspired notes, then instructed us to highlight which dates and names we would fill-in-the-blanks of next week'

November-Doubling Down

I exercised my democratic right and now I'll wait to see which administration will steer the ship next. But more importantly, I will return to my tangible world that I inhabit to double down on my contribution to it all. Because that, in fact, is within my control.

Something's Coming

The trees lining my ride home from market yesterday were so exuberantly generous in their colorful displays.  How they had anything to give after the punishing weather conditions of the past few months is beyond me.  I thank them for their service as they beckon in the wistfulness of the

October-No Matter

How many weeks did it last? The drought that is...It's easy to forget the drought as Helene came on its heels, ripping through with enough force to erase the memory of it. But we didn't forget. In fact, the first precipitation to fall in earnest

Hanging In

The stress over this drought lived in my subconscious until last week when I started dreaming about it. One dreamscape was on fire, the cornfields to the south of us ablaze, dense smoke obstructing the sun and challenging our breathing. At this day and age, that's someone else&

September-Provided For

These are the months when we provide for our winter selves. Late August always has us feeling high on the hog as our farm cooler and dry storage overflow with a fortuitous harvest. In such a seasonal business, you could think of this feeling as an illusion. For the time

Give Me My Market People

Every Friday we pull out all the stops to reap the rewards of a spring and summer spent seeding, feeding, and cultivating our acres of Brookville Ohio paradise. By evening we are spent, ready for a day of rest. But of course, Saturday follows, which brings a 4:30 am

The Thief is Back At It

An unprecedented time is upon our family. The other day we trucked it down to Cincinnati for a visit to the zoo to make a summer memory off the farm. I glanced at the kids in the rearview miorror to see May deep in a chapter book, lost in another

Gesturing August in

Something rather special happened at the close of July. A friend of ours invited his love to Foxhole under the guise of touring the veggie field. What appeared to be a sweet Sunday afternoon stroll, amounted to one of the grandest gestures of love. At the tail end of the