Solid Ground

I visited our friend this week with a trunk full of food. I felt that this was one of the best gestures of my love, as homecooked meals have the dual-action power to soothe a soul while satiating the body. Our friend's farm, forty minutes down the road

Reading the Room Now

The perennial chives that grow in our home garden, just for us and for the lady bugs who crawl at their feet, they are ten inches tall already. It's St.Pats...not Mother's Day! But I'm reading the room and our sentries of spring

I wish you love

Rich and I did what we should do more often and stepped out of our well-worn routine to experience live music, one of life's greatest pleasures. A few good friends and people who remind us to look up, gifted us tickets to see the exceptional Jon Batiste. Those

March- Coexistence

In the middle of February I planted the first seeds on my list for the year. It always starts with chives. My quiet work was accompanied by the beeps and booms from a few properties over where General Motors is building their second facility. This time last year, Rich and

Setting the Field on Fire and Other Adventures

Today on a still and sunny afternoon, we set our western field on fire. Spring showed her face mid-February and we answered her call with a much-welcome sunkissed, spring cleaning day. Rich lit our old christmas tree ablaze in the designated bonfire zone and we tag-teamed reloading the fire with

February-We Never Said We Were Good Farmers

Rich and I never said we were good farmers. We'd be daft to say we were, being first generation agricultural pioneers. Maybe, just maybe there's inherent generational instinct embedded in our beings from great-great grandparents past who worked the land. Maybe that's why we

Choose Your Own Adventure

Answers to life's challenges seem to lay themselves out in front of you. So often blinded by tunnel vision, they are missed as we go-go-go through the motions. The universe offered a hand recently when a recurring idea presented itself in conversation with three random people in my

January- Like a Thief in the Night

A week into January and we have chicks promised for February, a season's worth of seeds in transit, and a clock reset and already ticking down the minutes of another year here on the farm, tocking away the hours slipping into the past. There's much promise

How About it, 2024?

Every 365 days, those of us who observe the Gregorian calendar celebrate the chance to renew ourselves. Despite anyone's belief in the tradition, we'll step into a new paradigm together as 2024 is born. Our life revolves around this calendar year...new trends announced by the

Wishing you Love

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays from the four of us. Grandma sent an email out to all of her family and concluded it by encouraging us to 'keep loving one another'. In my life's book she is one of the sages, an ethereal sort of character who

The Wild World Will Find You

A not so gentle reminder to unplug shot across the sky outside of our picture window the other night. Unbeknownst to me, caught up in the current of our December hustle, the Geminid meteor shower was on night two of its epic show. Immersed in a movie with Rich after

Time to Pay our Dues

Under the guise of deja vú, our bodies have come seeking what they're due. This is NOT new; it is not a familiar feeling from a past life...it happens every year. And I'm so glad we have recognized it. You see, our lives since starting

December-Take Your Time

Last week Rich, May, Jack and I rose under a fantastically full moon. The beaut lit our way across the George Washington Bridge on our road to home. May called our attention to the moonshine glittering on the Hudson River, which flowed beneath us and into the city that never

Dear ____,Thank You

I didn't know it was Thanksgiving time because we haven't entered dormancy yet. In fact, we have had more engagement than ever this November in large part due to mild weather conditions, but also thanks to increasing interest in what we do. Each week, I'

Seeking Closure

Sometimes you don't get to tie up all your loose ends. It seems that the child in me comes out when one of those loose ends is a character in my story. And I find myself having lots of childish thoughts...namely, 'it's not fair&

November-While it Lasts

Just last week, we shed layers that we cling to on most October days, letting the sun lap our bare arms on a nearly 80 degree day. Goosebumps of pure pleasure riddled our skin. Even today my skin thirsts for that sunshine, as if our day in the sun was

Build it and They Will Come

Pop up farmers markets are not a good idea on paper. An incredible amount of energy is expended to bring one to life weekly. A band of vendors all show up within the same half hour window to snake in between each other with trailers and vans packed to the

Submit

This weekend I stopped by a familiar place where I worked for a year while we were getting settled back in the Dayton area years ago.  I walked in with May Rose who was two months old when I started to leave her in Rich's care, only to

October-Peg and Roux

Today, on the other side of the harvest moon, it's October.  Foggy mornings have set the stage for fall.  The rising sun burns off the haze just in time for the school bell to ring, or for the first market-goers to mosey into the Oakwood Farmers Market on

Autumn, Don't Pass Me By

The local restaurants, cafes and coffee shops are presenting their fall menu specials.  My friend Lily, a regular at our market booth, has pulled out her sweaters and is beginning to load up on late season tomatoes for canning.  Since returning from our getaway to Montana, we've been

September-In Sickness and In Health

We're wed to this place.  In both the good and the bad times, we rely on it for much more than one might imagine.  For as independent as I am, I really enjoy companionship and maybe that is why the binding nature of farming is appealing to me.

Starburst

Once in a while I chance upon someone who absolutely illuminates my life.  I hope that everyone gets to meet at least one such light in their lifetime.  Early on in mine, during a particularly lonely spell when I was getting acclimated to culinary school in the Hudson Valley of

It's Time for August

The sweet peppers are finally turning color, so I know it must be true.  August is at the door and if I don't answer the call, he'll let himself in.  The relativity of time plays its devious game in the summertime, when one day quickly fades

Enraptured

Ambling back up the gravel drive after a hike down the bike path, Jack asked, "are we in a story?".  After giving him a nod, he asked if our story would 'never end'.  "It will go on and on" I replied, to which he

July-Ride It

The other day while waiting for a tornad0-toting storm system to envelop us, I manicured the pepper patch, freeing our shishitos from competitive crabgrass and opportunistic chickweed.  The peppers tended, I slipped back into the farmhouse as winds started to swirl through our fields, testing the flexibility of the trees.