After months of going off-line, I'm happy to be writing again. I didn't intend to stop. I just knew it was one more thing I couldn't add to my already-too-full plate. Plus, I needed the sleep. This whole market garden thing was exhausting. But, do I ever regret not writing all the stories that came out of this summer.
One of my last posts was right after our first harvest box pick up. We are now less than 2 weeks away form our final box and all the way through our boxes have been full with AT LEAST 12 different kinds of vegetables each week. Hard to believe. I am in complete awe that the garden grew and produced so many different kinds of vegetables.
One of the few things I learned over the summer was not to fear, as I've stated so many times before. One example was not being afraid of the weeds. That might sound funny, but weeds really stressed me out and made me feel like a bad gardener. I would go out each day and see how fast the weeds were growing, and of course, always faster than the vegetables, particularly in our mesclun mix bed. We overseeded several mesclun mix beds and the weeds just freaked out. But knowing I wasn't supposed to be afraid of anything, I just stopped worrying. I knew I would get to them eventually and if I didn't what was the worst thing that could happen? A weedy lettuce bed? Who cares?! The irony is that in a very strange way, the weeds protected the lettuce that was growing. The weeds helped slow down the growth of the lettuce, allowing it to grow at the speed I could handle. Without the weeds, the lettuce would have grown too quickly. It made it possible to have lettuce in our harvest boxes longer than I anticipated. It was another amazing example of how learning not to fear and seeing how even thanking God for weeds could be turned into a bizarre blessing!
Another fear I had all summer was would the garden provide enough vegetables for the boxes week after week? I knew I had enough for week one, but what about week 14? We were super ambitious in promising so many weeks of vegetables. What were we thinking?! But, without being an expert gardener, I just relaxed and trusted God week by week and day by day. Those first few weeks were just basically greens, such as lettuce, microgreens, kale, swiss chard, spinach and radishes, but just when people were kind of getting sick of those, another vegetable would appear, like zucchini or turnip or cucumber or some other amazing surprise. I always, literally every week, had a new vegetable to introduce to the boxes - you would almost think I planned it, but I never did. I ended up having enough for extra boxes to sell and I always had extra food to give away to friends. Even in the final weeks, when I thought "Oh no, the garden is slowing down, I won't have enough", a new vegetable would appear like tomatoes, potatoes or carrots and beets. I know that even when the CSA is done, I'll still have vegetables for ourselves for the winter and I can't believe it. In fact, my freezer is quite full already and I've managed to can quite a bit.
It was a hard summer as we worked a lot, yet it was a good summer. My "middle" kids were the most helpful. My younger ones mostly ran away from me whenever weeding was necessary. My older ones were busy a lot of the time, but I had regular help from the middle guys and it was super fun hanging out with them listening to worship music and just always talking, talking, talking. That'll be a great memory for me.
I loved the connections made with customers and as I've talked with them, most of them want to do it again - oh no. On weekends when they couldn't make it, they would send neighbours to pick up their boxes, this in turm made more customers for me next summer! Oh no.
In May, June and even part of July, my kids would say, "Why can't you just be normal? Why do we have to do this dumb garden? We are NOT doing this next summer?" But then, by August, we were already talking about next year's garden......and so were my customers. They are expecting it! Oh no.
But then, July 9, our daughter got engaged. Oh my goodness, so many blog posts missed on that one. She'll be getting married in June next year. Right in the middle of gardening season. Oh no. We have a problem. But, not going to worry. If it's meant to be, it'll somehow work out. I'm barely done this one.
If you were to see my garden now, it is covered in weeds. I had to let it go due to school starting, but the vegetables are still there, just have to hunt a little. I'm still in shock that my little garden business succeeded. We spent so much money on an irrigation system. I think I turned it on twice. Every time I was about to, it would rain and always just enough so that the garden would get what it needed. That was amazing.
While I was busy in the garden, RM was in the vines, designing equipment for the winery, doing his actual full-time job, or farming hay. He was on one side of the farm and I was literally on the other. I would walk past him carrying a load of vegetables and he would walk past me carrying equipment for the winery. It should have been a documetary. Our life was hilarious. All the while, kids, chickens, cats, a dog and two rogue horses were running around in between us. Our children will never be able to say their life was boring or that their parents were boring.
Then, at night, many nights, RM and I would sit and say, "What have we done?" or "Forget it, let's just sell the farm" and we would look online for fun to see what was out there, but after our short mid-life crises, and there were many, we realized time and time again, that yes, our life was a little nuts, actually very over-the-top nuts, but it was exactly the life we wanted and the farm we live on is exactly where we want to live.
Because of what we took on, on purpose, all entirely self-inflicted, once again, our house was ignored for another season. It continues to get more and more worn down. I used to just long for cosmetic changes, but now I'm the one hoping for a new roof, a new septic system, new eavestroughs....what's happened to me? Our vehicles are barely alive and we have little things that need fixing literally all through our house. The list is so long it's laughable, if it weren't so serious. This summer, as I saw this list getting longer and longer, I struggled, so as our anniversary approached, I once again attempted a type of fast where I prayed specifically for contentment. What came out of that was a reminder to wait and to be silent. These are all things God knows about.
While I was fasting for contentment, RM was fasting "laziness". He is hardly lazy, one of the most diligent men I know, yet he knew he could do even more in this area of surrender. And though our anniversary has come and gone (that's when we stop the fast), he has continued to amaze me. Instead of buying a whole new roof, he went up a put a few shingles on where they had blown off. Instead of buying a brand new truck, which he wanted to badly, he fixed the wheel bearing himself and found a set of used tires for a fraction of the price. The septic bed got another year of life by getting it pumped out last week. I keep cleaning the house though it is unfinished in so many ways. I try to overlook all the broken things and wait in silence until RM can get to them. Winter is coming, the farm will go to sleep for at least a few weeks, though the wine will still demand his attention, and then maybe we'll get to that long list. But, even if he doesn't, it'll be ok. We have a roof over our heads and food in our stomach and a freezer full of even more food.
Every day is full. I will have no shortage of things to write this year.
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