How Far We've Come...

When mapping out this summer's plan, I ran across this image.  It was taken in July of 2013 according to Google Maps.  I often tell people that our "jungle gym" tree that has the bench around it was so covered with kudzu that we didn't know what kind of tree it was when we bought the property.  And it was also  much smaller five years ago.  The property was so overgrown, we had no idea what we would find under there.  And we have found a ton of odd things since buying it.

I was recently dreaming of where we will go from here.  Farmers are often called the biggest dreamers.  We put tiny specks of seeds in the ground hoping that it will feed us for the next year.  In our case, we are looking to the future and what we want our farm and family to look like in the next three, five, and ten years.  
Those tiny seeds seem to take forever to break the surface as a cotyledon and then an eternity until that small plant bears fruit.  Our farming dream is very similar.  It took years for us to decide we needed more space.  And since purchasing these two acres, in many ways it's felt like forever to transform it from an unruly kudzu patch to a fruitful garden and orchard. 

In the past twenty-four months, we have mowed, hoed, and mulched our way to a functionally garden.  We are no where near finished with what we want to accomplish on our homestead.  He hope to double our raised beds this summer and erect a pole barn and makeshift farm stand.  We also want to increase the area we call the experimental garden and see what all we can get to grow there.  We currently have potatoes planted there to break the soil up.  We've been dutifully digging up raspberry starts to increase our berry patch.  We want a greenhouse to start our own seedlings and I would love to have a gazebo or pergola to have special events at our farm.  And I secretly wish to host families looking to create a sustainable homestead themselves on our farm as a teaching farm.  Like I said, farmers are by their very nature dreamers and our dream is just beginning.  We could never do all of this without the love and support of our family and friends.  Thank you for all for walking with us on this journey.  

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To quote The Grateful Dead,
"Lately it occurs to me
​what a long, strange trip it's been."

With dreams of ripe tomato sandwiches, 
​Brooke and Vasek