Sam Wickham

Planting with the Glow Worms

This week I realized that our hive is buzzing with an energy that won't decelerate until we turn our calendar to October.  On Tuesday I spent my first night of the year in shorts and a tshirt until the sun was well below the horizon with the plants.

Stay at Home, Mom

If a kid is lucky enough to have a good mom, I'm pretty sure they have this plea running through their head: "stay at home, mom".  I grew up in a pack raised by a 'stay-at-home mom'...a woman who was putting

May: A Retired Dream

In our fledgling farm years, I wanted to be everything for everyone...I was determined to raise all species of pastured and woodland livestock on a piece of land, allowing them to intermingle with the living system...a mutually beneficial experience.  They would graze amongst fruit trees interplanted with flowers.

Bumper Cars

May is coming 'round the mountain and that's about the time that we get caught in the current of our season.  Though there was snow accumulation last Monday, we have been busy getting the farm engine started since early March.  It reminds me of the gradual progression

The Threat of a Midwestern Spring

Earlier this week I was reading my current fling of a book: All the Light We Cannot See, attempting to curb my anxiety over the raging wind.  It hissed and screeched, testing the solidity of our mighty 100-year old fortress.  I imagine its joints ache during those windstorms of

Slim Pickings-Early April on the Farm

When the tips of the grass start to green and all of town is talking about spring and all the spring things, that's just about when we get the most interest in our produce that we get all year.  Chefs and home cooks alike are just absolutely burning

Why we grow vegetables

Out of all the things in the world we could do with the farm, why do we grow annual vegetables?  No-we are not vegans.  And no-we do not think vegetables are THE answer to climate change.  Well, let's start at the very beginning, it's

Someone Once Did Me a Kindness

I remember watching Pay It Forward in class during the Catholic schoolgirl chapter of my life.  We digested the movie as a group, hearkening back to Matthew chapter 7...the home of  the Golden Rule in the bible: In everything, do to others what you would have them do to

March: Resuscitation

Could there BE a more welcome time for the return of the sun?  The promise that the greening of spring brings is invaluable, especially while our world weathers a rather tumultuous time.  Remember the first March of the coronavirus pandemic?  If it was bound to strike, I was so grateful

Country Culture

If someone gives you their morel foraging spot, there's not much more to give.  Like a good fishing hole, it's a place tucked away from the world and full of treasures to be found.  The other week, I crossed the field and hopped the fence to

Couples Farming

I've met more than one person who thinks Rich and I are crazy for working, living, raising hellions, and sharing one bathroom together.  But that's the only way we have existed since crossing paths...morning to sunset with each other.  Like stars, we collided at the

Wards of Old Man Winter

The lamp over the leather couch is on and it's nearly noon.  Soon enough this will be unthinkable when the farmhouse is well lit by summer sun.  Thick clouds are blanketing the sky, and somewhere within those fluffy masses, ice particles are accumulating hastily.  Snow will fall again

The Remedy: A Quiet Life

I remember the first year we started Foxhole, I got the chance to sit down with the produce manager of our local market in Dayton, a potentially big account for us.  I was amped up and primed as if I was heading into a big game...clean flannel shirt, chinos,

A Week Without Rich

A lot of people ask how we do what we do: farm for a living with no crew and two little ones to keep up with.  The answer is that we rely HEAVILY on our synergy.  It's a very specific and unique life we live and it'

What in the CSA?

Years ago Rich and I managed a farm on the tip of Michigan's thumb.  Being in a seasonal lake town, we got to know the year-rounders pretty quickly.  You were part of this 'tough enough' club if you stuck around the lake when inches and

Our 1st Debt-free February

How are you? I've been asked that question so often lately, it seems the universe is looking me deep in the eyes...now is the time to answer that question.  Don't even think about mindlessly spitting out a "good" and moving on.  It'

Coyotes in the Kitchen

In contrast to the crash and burn of our summer evenings, Rich and I find ourselves awake in the twilight hours this time of the year.  Whether we are reading or writing from within a nest of blankets, indulging in Sailing La Vagabonde (the number one reason for turning on

Our Mighty First Generation Farm

This is our first publication to be published in the Foxhole Journal!  Newsletters will remain free for anyone to access.  Future weekly writings and how-to's will be available to those subscribed to the Foxhole Members and Sustaining Members only. It might have been the morning when I

January 2022- Going with Grace

Like folks flooding out of a subway car, through the turnstile and up the chute of a stairway to spread out into the light and space of the cityscape world above, we made our way through the narrowing pass of 2021 into the new year. :) Happy New Year :) Let me

December: Forgone Forks in the Road

This Thanksgiving we traveled way way back in time. All four of us packed into the car, dropped the farm dog off at my parents to realize her dreams in the suburbs, and headed east. We traversed the Allegheny Mountains, following signs for New York City. This is the drive

November: Preparing for Torpor

TORPOR...that phenomenon that I am so fascinated by.  It’s a state of existence that mice and other animals engage in to survive the cold of winter among other stressful times. When mice torpor, they go into a deep sleep in which their respiration and heart rate slowwwwww, conserving

October: Renewed

Did that change in the weather last month breathe new life into you like it did us? Last month proved to be quite metamorphic...I might remember it as the September of deep slumber. As I see it, we all shoulder our share of burdens. The last thing I want

September: Where Are We Going?

It’s about this time of the year when we set our plans in motion for the overwintering of the farm.  Now is the time to seed and transplant the last outdoor rotations and to ask ourselves…where are we going? It’s been an unprecedented year for us.  One

August- A Love Letter

Dear Friends, I’ve been steeped in a pool of love this month.  A few of our closest friends got engaged.  And while basking in the goodness of it all, a sacred feeling bubbled up in me…one that I had when Rich and I decided to commit to each

Summer-A State of Mind

From the day it all began Yeah, you were there, you took my hand And when I hurt a bit too deep You watched me as I fell asleep And when my head was in the clouds You found a way to pull me out You picked my heart up