Spring is here and the warm sunshine has my farmers heart in a scurry. I want to get everything done, RIGHT NOW. Plant the garden, shear the sheep, start grazing! But the soil is too cold and the sheep still need their sweaters. The grass is not yet growing.
To farm is to coax life and a living from things mostly outside human control; to farm is to cede control. Sometimes it makes me think of a mouse riding an elephant; the mouse just has to hang on and hope the elephant takes it somewhere favorable.
Farmers can't control the weather, we can't control the markets. We certainly don't control our animals. (Although fences, generations of domestication, and good treatment encourage them to cooperate with us.) Nature is so many elephants and as farmers we are along for the ride, eyes wide with equal amounts exhilaration and trepidation.
I guess I never really know what's going to end up in my messages. I sat down to let you know what's up on the farm but now I'm going on about...mice? It kind of baffles me too. Just know that when this happens it's usually because my heart has something it needs to say. And so I follow where it leads...rodents astride elephants and all.
So where was I? Spring. Spring is here. The songbirds are chirping, the breezes and soils are softening. It is the season of renewal and awakening. It is also a season of anxiety.
Let me explain - for farmers this is the time of year where our metaphorical elephants all take off at a sprint. Ready or not, the ride starts NOW. So we clamber aboard and hope for the best while we head off into the unknown.
While we are up here busy with our work, the elephant moves beneath us and we know we will have to make the best of wherever we end up. As farmers, we do this year after year after year and it's always a little terrifying. The one thing that makes it all okay is the support we receive from our friends, families, and customers.
To have a sense of community when we can't have a sense of control is what keeps us on the elephant.
So, Spring is here and we have three huge projects to tackle right now:
1. Pay a fellow organic farmer for the load of hay he brought us to get the sheep and cattle through until the grazing season starts.
2. Provision the hens and pigs with their spring/summer load of supplementary grains.
3. Finish covering the up-front processing costs for the beef and lamb we recently sent to the processor. This will make Easter roasts available and allow us to continue having a wide inventory on hand for everyone.
These things add up to thousands of dollars and we need support to do them. We would welcome help in whatever form makes sense for you - maybe that's ordering some food or signing up for a CSA share in the next few days? Or maybe it just means sharing our story and bringing new friends to the fold. Simply cheering us on is wonderful too!
We have a good variety of meats, eggs, potatoes, and special bundles available right now so if you have some funds to spare toward groceries from our farm, we'd be very thankful and it would all go toward the projects above.
Thank you for being here, for following me on my flights of fancy, and for all your support. It's so very appreciated.
Peace, love, (and maybe some thundering pachyderms too...)
Kelly
