Enough time thinking leaves me feeling inadequate as a farmer. Whether it’s comparing my current progress to our last garden or those of California and Mississippi friends or other WA farmers with better setups than ours, it seems obvious we’re painfully behind. Then I head down the path of doubt, shame, anxiety, or the other emotions du jour.
Social media is especially “good” at stirring up those feelings. Some friends are posting images of a rainbow of gorgeous blooms, while my flower seedlings taunt me with their small green stature. Other Lewis County farms parade their piles of peas, kohlrabi, and monster greens...while I’m wait, wait, waiting. Worst of all, my Facebook memories often taunt me with images of our lush San Leandro garden, where I could plant in the ground in March.
Planting tomatoes in the ground in CA in late March. Also, my beloved lemon trees!
But there is one comparison I should concentrate on: the growth and learning Bryon and I have accomplished in our less than two years on the farm. Even though our original plans didn’t pan out, I was still able to start seeds sooner than I did last year and pot several tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers in the greenhouse at the end of April. Therefore, I already have small cucumbers, along with tomato and pepper flowers, in early June, whereas last year I was not getting those plants into the ground until then. The new field plot has had onions, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, and peas growing for weeks now, along with newly sprouted beans and potato plants. We’ve been eating salads from spinach and lettuces, just enjoyed our first artichokes and garlic scapes from the garden, and peas are on this week’s menu. And if I can keep the many pests and weeds under control, it looks like we’ll have plenty of food for ourselves and the animals, with extra to sell/share.
This time last year we’d had our dozen chickens for only a few months and were impatiently waiting for eggs. By early June, we had just acquired two geese, with plans to get turkeys soon. Our current roster includes about 60 chickens, 9 geese/goslings, 7 turkeys, and 13 ducks/ducklings. We have consumed far more fresh eggs than I can count and sold chicken, duck, turkey, and goose eggs. Thanks to an incubator, we’ve hatched our own eggs. We (er, Bryon) have butchered three turkeys, several roosters, and a few ducks and can attest that store-bought birds don’t hold a candle to farm-raised poultry. This past winter and spring, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor in the shape of canned/frozen veggies, berries, and jams. And somehow, we both lost weight, even though we are eating more pasta, potatoes, and baked goods than we used to. (Somehow=lots of hard work and constantly searching the property for a puppy who always runs off!)
Despite all that, I still worry about our progress, about money and our future, and how to get more people to read these posts* we go to the effort of creating. But I vow to make a conscious effort to not focus on how our endeavors compare to other people’s. We’ll just keep sharing the good, the bad, and the very bad…as we continue to learn and grow at our own pace.
*Please feel free to share our journal with anyone who might be interested. And huge thanks to those of you who already have!