This spring-like weather in January is getting my wheels turning in a way that doesn't normally happen until late February or March but I am finding that the promise of a new growing season is a much needed mental break from the ever moving forward wheel of time. Despite the uncertainty of our weather patterns, gardeners everywhere are ordering their seeds and plotting out their best gardens yet.
The last few years have been a time of reflection for many, myself included, on how we want to live our lives in harmony with our truest selves. For me, this means finding ways to balance taking care of myself and taking care of others, and as always this comes down to food. Last night, while organizing my pantry and purging expired and flavorless spices and the random products that had made their way to the back corners, I realized how much pleasure I have taken in stripping down my life to the essentials. What still remains is a love for food and the soil that is needed to grow it. This magical cycle will start again in only a few weeks when the first seeds start to emerge. Gardening can get complicated with fancy tools and equipment, greenhouses, trellises, and irrigation, but in reality if you have a little bit of soil and some seeds you are well on your way to witnessing a microcosm of the universe. Seeing my pantry organized with just the things I need and use was the hit of dopamine I needed. While cooking a soup recently with some bok choi, I got a little excited to grow one again this spring. What used to feel like kind of a pain to grow because it will bolt before I can get it in a CSA box, I could suddenly see it in my minds eye as a green-glowing jewel of the soil that is so fast growing, juicy and nutrient-packed it could save the world (or at least my world). Looking at the produce in a new way is one of the gifts of taking a break from the CSA, even if I miss the hustle of it all. We live in a world where there just isn't enough time to even cook dinner, let alone grow a bok choi that might turn bitter before you even harvest it. In a world like that, it is truly revolutionary to slow down enough to observe the seasons and grow a garden. If you started a garden the last few years and it didn't produce the bounty you envisioned, keep going! Don't give up! This could be the year your soil ecosystem stabilizes and you finally see some wins. Don't turn bitter like the bok choi past its prime! Seize the moment and stop to notice the green-glow of spring, even just in your minds eye for now.
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Farmer Sarah
Musings from the Farm Archives
January 2024
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