When we bought our 100 acre farm we realized that it would be a lot of work to plant and harvest. We had been warned. We knew that it would not be easy. We have never been adverse to working hard and have always welcomed new challenges. But, did we ever learn FAST about the difficulties of farming!

First of all, timing is everything. Knowing when to churn the fields (“cultivating” in farm world speak, “prepping” in my food world speak) is key. This sets the stage for the planting to come and determines how much weeds you have, how well conditioned the soil is and what the chances are of the seed growing (which by the way, seed is expensive!!!) or the weeds from winning the horticultural war.

So how do you know when to do this? Well, you look to the skies, understand and contemplate past weather conditions, get your equipment running in good condition (note to self: BEFORE the last snowflake has melted) and hope that the weather and tractor gods will help you out.

As you can see by the pic, we waited a bit too long (due to the breakdown of ALL of our equipment and our need to purchase vintage pieces to supplement what we had)…so  our uber-green pastures are now being cultivated versus tilled black earth. I think we were about 3 weeks too late. Oh well.

Now we also know that we have to do massive tilling in the fall (mulching up the fields) to prevent weed growth from taking over in the spring. Yes, like math that I did not excel at due to impatience, doing things at the right time and in the right order is key. So we have started the process of having the fields ready for seeding (to take place in the next week) and to start our first crop ever. It is exciting, it is overwhelming in work, it is empowering and it is humbling.

I take my hat off to all farmers who feed so many. Who work so hard. Who have little accolades other than the benefit of seeing the seeds that they plant, germinate and  grow to fruition. You are the growers of life’s sustenance and deserve a lot of credit. Honestly, up until now I had no real idea how much work, patience and drive it takes.

Our training continues….