So Jed and I showed up at 6:48am on Saturday to the Leavenworth Farmers Market and set up our first booth ever as vendors. The night before we cut spinach, kale, a salad mix, arugula, and Jed pulled some green onions. I finished the chalkboard sign, putting on its last coat of paint earlier that day. And we were ready to go.
I was so nervous, but as soon as we were set up and people started coming up to buy from us I started having fun. We were visited by friends, family, and regulars at the market. And I loved it!! So we'll be back every Wednesday throughout the growing season from 3-6pm, and the occasional Saturday mornings.
We are on our way to being real vegetable farmers!
Me showcasing the harvest from Mother Earth.
The newest farmers in Kansas!
Jed's explaining something about "farmin' " to our friend and supporter, Jodi.
Jed and I moved to Kansas to follow our dreams. His father gave him the okay to use a small plot of land on his 30-acre farm to grow. We would be close to family, and learning about the ins-and-outs of farming organically and sustainably. Jed's sister moved out here with her family just a few months before we showed up, her husband taking on the responsibility to manage the family farm and to grow it into a CSA.
To support this dream, we had hoped that Jed could bring in a small income while I taught art at a high school in-town. However, over the last few months, I have watched as Jed has searched for employment here in Kansas. He has talked with individuals, contacted businesses, searched Craigslist, and created opportunities for himself. He has sold homemade bread in the neighborhood, lumber-jacked on a small scale with his brothers until snow continued to slow them down.
During this time, one of Jed's older brothers came to visit our little abode above the barn. We started telling him about our dreams, but they came out unclear and with less direction that we would have liked. We had started to realize some of the harsh realities of farming (such as how to initially finance that dream), and just started to experience the learning curve that comes with starting something new, and were not yet sure how to make all of our ideas come to fruition.
That night, in the quiet of our small living room, Jed and I experienced a crucible moment. Jed's brother spoke very frankly and directly to us. He spoke as a loving, concerned brother, one who had experienced some of the ups and downs as a husband, a father, a provider.
Soon after, Jed and I came up with a plan, and as plans go, things could change. But we have hope and direction again. Jed went back to school to complete pre-reqs for nursing. He's planning to get a nursing degree and be a farmer who is also a nurse. And he is loving his classes and excited about what he is doing. He’ll start the program this fall.
For now, Jed and I are balancing school and work with our plants and garden. We want to learn as much as possible with growing, planning out our crops, and selling at the local farmers market. And we’ve spent quite a bit of time reflecting on what we have learned. It’s been quite the journey. And it’s not over yet. It’s so fun to dream with your best friend. So, I am going to share some of those “lessons-learned” below.
Lessons learned over the last few months:
·Farming is work and there is a lot to learn about growing things (which I already knew, but REALLY know now)
·Following your dreams is a long-term adventure, so I have to be patient as we build them and have them shift from time to time
·Achieving one’s dreams requires financing them (we’re figuring out how to do that and I think we have a pretty good plan—we’ll see)
·It’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them
·I don’t love pipes freezing but can live in 35-40F weather
·I love plants and am amazed by the relationship one can build with them
·There are knowledgeable individuals out there who are willing to share what they know…what great resources they are
Not the best temperature for growing plants but it was the perfect condition to grow the dream of becoming one. The 2008-2009 winter I spent dog mushing in Willow, Alaska with the Fiedler family. My dad, an Alaskan at heart, flew up to dog mush for the Christmas break. And what he carried in his suitcase would change my life forever. He brought with him a couple of Hobby Farm magazines to read on the long flight over.
Our first couple of days we spent dog mushing together but as the temperature dropped to minus forty and colder we could no longer take the dogs out for fear of frostbiting the dogs. So we stayed in the cabin watching movies and talking most of the day. We would read occasionally, so he showed me the couple of Hobby Farm magazines that he had brought. I took one and started reading. The articles fascinated me. I thought that farming was a dead end career: millions of dollars of debt with little return. But the articles talked about a different way of farming. They were farmers of innovation. Instead of selling wholesale they sold directly to the customer. Instead of using combines to harvest grains they just let their livestock loose on the fields and they did the harvesting for them. Some were even using horses as their main source of power and doing quite well. They weren’t just surviving, they were thriving. These farmers were showing up everywhere all over the country.
I couldn’t put the magazines down. My dad came to Alaska to dog mush but all I could talk about was farming. When he left I already had farm books ordered online. When they would come I would lose sleep at night because I would read them from cover-to-cover in one sitting. And through those books I became a farmer, a farmer at heart.
