May: A Retired Dream

May: A Retired Dream
In the jungle, the mighty jungle

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.  We'd grow vegetables in the home field.  And of course there'd be hives full of our friends,the honey bees, parked in the tree line.  They would visit the flowering herbs and perennial plantings.  It would be downright Eden.  It would be a place where I would be happy to lose myself in the work it'd take to tend to it.  And there would be four-season harvests to bring to market.

Now that we're eleven years deep into farm life, I realize that my fantasy farm (which I once hoped to name Full Circle Farm), it was a chimera, a greenhorn's illusion.  In my next life, when I have vast resources and don't have to expend so much energy to make a living off the land, maybe I'll meet a Rich who'll play Adam in my Eden with me.  For now, in the spring of 2022, that grandiose dream is quite exhausting and it's officially been retired to the dream archives...alongside my hope of running an ice cream truck with my childhood best friend.

In lieu of that vision, I've ratified a new and improved one which I'm quite passionate about.  And Rich has signed off on it too...a requisite for harmony here at Foxhole.  We are both relishing the small life.  For me, it's become a sort of guiding principle in the decisions that we make.  It's just the four of us on the farm.  We have not hired any employees yet, but rather have been streamlining our operation in this first chapter to test the waters and to shape our business from there.  We started with just one enterprise: vegetables.  We soon added scratch-baked goods to the menu and agenda.  Then sheep. Then plants for sale. Now shiitake mushrooms and laying hens.  And with each new enterprise we add, we start small and allow it to grow as it may: small investment of time and cash, and steady growth.  If I could invite my greenhorn self to the present , she would be chomping at the bit to double our shiitake logs in the yard and would be absolutely dumbfounded that our hive boxes are being stored high in the loft of the barn.  "We need bees!"  "Why in the world don't we have a few cattle at least for our family?"  "You haven't dug a pond yet?!"  "I see a few apple trees...but can't see an orchard anywhere.  You know it takes 6-10 years for apple trees to reach full maturity, right?"

But what that hungry version of myself didn't know was that she would be so satiated by the simpler, slow and steady life...grateful to have her work interrupted by two little ones digging for dinosaur bones in the freshly dug potato trenches.  And happy to grow enough to satisfy a collective of friendly faces at market and a few local eateries. And happy to be just productive enough to feel comfortable.  SO much of our time and energy is spent being parents to May and Jack, and so I have found an immense sense of calm settling into this new intention of ours.  In fact, I almost feel like I have rediscovered my old pair of rose-colored glasses, which got lost for a few years there in the intensity and stress of getting our engine started.  

Chitting the Potatoes

I've found myself falling into laughing fits with Jack or May lately, and it's energy-giving!  I'm taking my work less seriously and unfurrowing my brow.  I'm seemingly healing from taking a bite of the forbidden fruit...the temptation to take work too seriously and to miss life as it's happening.  And actually...I think Eden is growing in around me slowly and surely.  Just a few months ago, Rich and I were in conversations with an older farmer looking to retire his organically-managed farm.  It's a tad closer to markets and to my family.  As quickly as the conversation started, it ended when we found it wasn't the right fit.  And I was so relieved!  I love this place...I love it more and more as time passes and I feel we are enriching each other.  And how far we've come in four years...a flat, corn-stubbled 30 acres is now growing a perennial pasture and a family of sheep, hosting a myriad of wild species to boot and growing a couple of acres of vegetables which sustain our family.  And then there's our band of three with no name for ourselves in this town, who has grown to a family of four, bolstered by a large extended family: our community in Dayton...most of whom were mere strangers four years ago.  

Maybe the dream isn't retired...maybe it is being manifested as we are enjoying our life here in the garden.


In case you missed it:


Housekeeping:

-Online ordering continues :).  It's just going to get better from here with the weather being conducive to getting more and more seeds and plants in the ground.  You can check out our special Mother's Day Weekend menu if you click the link below.

-A few folks have asked...we are definitely sticking to our plan of just attending the Oakwood Farmers Market this year.  We won't return to This Old Couch and will miss our friends there...customers and vendors alike.  Of course we will continue our weekly deliveries to DLM and to Gem City Market as well.  

-Our big plant sale is coming up on Saturday, May 14th from 10-noon in the Oakwood FM lot.  We will have lots of plants for sale as well as some of our other goods.  The line up is available on our site under the 2022 Plant Sale tab.  I'll post the menu for pre-ordering on Monday, May 9th.

-We still have csa sign up slots available if you are interested.  You can purchase one on our site at any time.

-In late winter I wrote a grant proposal to OEFFA for their Beginning Farmer Pandemic Relief Microgrant program.  We were part of the 5% of Ohio farmers who applied and were awarded a microgrant! We are so thankful and will use the funds to finish what we started with our first hoop house...installing electric line to power fans so that our summer plants don't suffer from disease and overheating as well as to invest in a large shade cloth for the structure.  We will share photos and more tid bits throughout the process.  OEFFA is a phenomenal organization and we are grateful to have them here in Ohio.