Reflecting, dreaming, thinking, planning

The late fall is often a time for people to look back over the year and think about goals and plan for the future.  That is certainly true here at Sweet Morning Farm.  Robin and I love our work.  In fact, it doesn't actually feel like work; we just want to do it and do it and do it.  That is an incredible blessing, to find work one truly loves.

We strive to learn and improve our farming all the time and this is a season of the year to review our successes and weaknesses, to research solutions and increase our knowledge, to plan delicious and varied farm shares for next year, to strategize about how best to grow that good food and how to make it possible to "work" at home as much as possible.  We also let our gardeners' minds wander and dream a bit.  What new plants and methods do we want to try out in 2016?  New crops and tools and practices are a fun part of our garden each year.

We've already ordered chicks to refresh the laying flock and look forward to a wide range of colors to share next fall.  We've chosen about 8 new fruit trees, mostly heirloom apples, and placed our orders.  *We've learned the hard way to reserve what we want early on to be sure we get the varieties we want to plant.

One of our next projects is to plan what we want to be in the farm shares each week, and from there to make sure our planting plan will help meet our harvest goals, allowing plenty of time and space for the vegetables to grow for the shares.  And then make sure we have all the seeds and supplies we need to plant the crops.  All this needs to be done lickedy-split.  (See the note above about ordering early!)  Early planting of seedlings starts in January, so that's only 1 month away and we are already planting microgreens and sunflower shoots on a weekly basis.  And did I mention that we are still putting away fences and row cover and general stuff, quick before the snow flies?  So it is still pretty busy around here but it's a different kind of busy than summertime.

Planning is fun because although very practical, it is in part based on dreaming.  It's like a bulb underground in winter, or an apple bud waiting for spring.  Hope, faith, optimism, longing.  These things feed our souls in wintertime.

"Before the seed there comes the thought of the bloom."
E. B. White