Experimenting
Organic farming is a challenge. Or, euphemistically, an adventure! The latest and greatest emerging organic farming adventure for us in the muggy, buggy south, is pest management.
What a week can do.
Last week at exactly this time I sat in this exact same rickety lawn chair with the sun shining on my back looking at these glorious green hills and felt an easy satisfaction with my life. As you might recall, I wrote a whole blog post about it—the post was called "confidence". That is exactly what I felt, confident.
Confidence
So far the biggest difference I feel as a farmer this year vs. last is all personal. I'm just not as terrified as I was last year.
Sheep!
So, I was going to write another depressing blog about this past week of incredibly stressful weather. I mean, look at these sad, sad, tomatoes :(
BUT not even frozen tomatoes can totally ruin spring. SO, in honor of the delightful aspects of running a farm, I wanted to record the incredible adventure mom and I had to SamNana last weekend.
The glories and woes of an early spring
The daffodils are in bloom, the hills are turning green, and I'm ecstatic to get up in the morning—it must be spring! But wait... it's only mid-March. What happened to the worrisome tail end of winter? That last snow that ruins my spring planting and keeps my heart rate up all the way to April? Is it possible that we might have a long, lovely, gentle spring?? Seems almost too good to be true.
Finding peers
There aren't a lot of Organic vegetables farmers in Botetourt County. Actually there are no other certified organic growers in this county.
Dates to remember
One of the hardest (but perhaps most important) things I want to do for the farm, is keep track of critical—often game changing—moments of the year. I love my winter spreadsheets and planning documents. But, this year when the season really got rolling and weather/pests/life crises came flooding in, the plans flew out the window. So, on this rainy Wednesday in late October I'm taking the opportunity to crawl through my memory (while it's still relatively fresh) and write down a few dates I don't want to forget for next year.