Bryon and I want more than anything for Star & Sparrow to do well, but we expect some failures along the way. In fact, we’ve already seen a few. While I hate not succeeding at something, I am going to view these hiccups as learning moments for ourselves and others.

In our two months living in Curtis, we’ve already learned a few lessons:

• Corn does not take that long to ripen. Unfortunately, we missed out on rows and rows of corn because we didn’t think it was ready yet. I expected the ears to have kernels all the way to the top, which isn’t the case. Now we know to pick when the silks turn brown, and a pierced kernel produces a milky substance rather than clear liquid (not ripe enough) or no liquid (already past its prime). Luckily, the previous owner planted way more corn than we needed. Despite our loss, we were still able to share and enjoy ready ears fresh off the grill, in salsa, in salads, and as fritters. Plus, there are more than a dozen bags of corn in the freezer to use as needed.

• Be ready for the first frost! We kept saying we needed to prep for the weather dip, but it came in hard before we finished. I missed out on a mess of green tomatoes that I was intending to pickle, along with a few for frying. But now we’ve covered our lettuces and cruciferous veggies (kale, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) just in case, and set up our small green house to protect the succulents, orchids, and olive trees we brought with us.

• Don’t expect perfection. This one is really hard for me, since I like things to be just so. (I still lament that one B+ my senior year that ended my years-long straight A streak…) The other day, I grabbed a half dozen large onions to make an onion jam recipe that I had made a small batch of a few weeks ago. This time, because I had so much more, the onions never really caramelized, even after cooking them down longer than instructed, and at higher heat, and even after adding in the Marsala. I still filled my six half-pint jars and canned them. It tasted okay, even though it lacked the golden color and depth of flavor from my initial batch. But hey, add it to some goat cheese over crackers, and it’s all good!

At the end of the day, as long as we are producing and learning, we are growing. Now is the time for Bryon to figure out his best method to make cider, time for me to figure out what skills I want to learn, time for us both to experience our first southwestern Washington winter. We are excited for our journey, obstacles and all.