top of page

Search


Love Notes and Scratch Paper
We closed down the store for the 2021 season and cleared everything out to winterize. This morning I had the chance to go back through...
Sarah Brenner
Nov 2, 20211 min read
Â
Â
Â


Punctuation Marks and the Night Shift
Besides all the normal autumnal events on a farm, we've had a few exhilarating moments and stretches. Not only is this landscape...
Sarah Brenner
Oct 27, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Rainy Days and After Dark - Why Don't Farmers Fieldwork in the Rain?
It's raining today so the harvest is on hold. Instead, William is cleaning rye for planting, moving around some equipment and probably...
Sarah Brenner
Oct 20, 20214 min read
Â
Â
Â


A Sexy Fall making BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS Tick
News of the weird, impulse, instinct, sex drive, survival of the fittest...climate change, global warming, chaos...things are not normal...
Sarah Brenner
Oct 12, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Garlic: A Labor of LOVE Dedicated to the KITCHEN GODS
It's time to plant garlic! If you're culinary in the kitchen, you will appreciate having your own garlic to use from mid-summer all the...
Sarah Brenner
Oct 5, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Do little things to inspire the BIG
Sometimes I have to trick myself to get anything done! When feeling overwhelmed with things that should be done, my strategy is to decide...
Sarah Brenner
Sep 29, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


Ideas from a LAZY gardener
My gardens at the Dirt Farm are permanent raised beds. I don't have any fancy boxes just mounds of dirt with walkways between. On top of...
Sarah Brenner
Sep 22, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


A wool-QUIET-small-hat-making day
This past Sunday transported me back in time to the days before machinery, automobiles and high density living. For some reason, the...
Sarah Brenner
Sep 14, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


How chili peppers taught me what love is
I've loved hot peppers all my life, but especially since 5th grade, when interest in boys began to surface. One summer night I was with...
Sarah Brenner
Sep 8, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


It's time to get messy in our growing ways
Someone asked my recently why I call my farm the "Dirt Farm." Well, that's got me mind-wandering down a long road of insights. My farm is...
Sarah Brenner
Sep 1, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


We ALL Need A Capsaicin Cleanse
In my former life as a teacher, this was always the time of year I'd be heading back to the classroom leaving garden maintenance for...
Sarah Brenner
Aug 25, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Travel Have You Overwhelmed?
We got away from the farm for a couple of days to play tourists. As lovely as it was to enjoy a glass of wine from the hotel deck chairs...
Sarah Brenner
Aug 19, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Eating Humble Pie and all the Things I Do NOT Know
The farm is full of busy spiders this time of year. I always think of late summer and early fall as "Spider Season" as these eight-legged...
Sarah Brenner
Aug 11, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â


Sunflowers: More than just an instrument in your romantic gesture tool kit
The sunflower fields are blooming all around the Midwest! It's time to make a farm visit to share in the cheerful explosion of color! Not...
Sarah Brenner
Aug 4, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


Ducky, My Darling
Mr. Combine came out of the shed to get washed for the rye harvest, and our new little duckies had a hay day! These little waddlers...
Sarah Brenner
Jul 28, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


A Tribute to the Hunyuk, Daisy.
Our constant companion, lover of all people, the sweetest three-legged farm dog ever will no longer accompany us when we work, celebrate...
Sarah Brenner
Jul 20, 20212 min read
Â
Â
Â


Roadside Stands: The Psychology of Why We Stop
It's tourist season. Many folks are out and about on summer vacations driving past roadside signs that offer some sort of attraction, fun...
Sarah Brenner
Jul 14, 20214 min read
Â
Â
Â


So, you want to move to the country? A little SELF-COACHING
The Driftless Dirt Farm photo by Bob Wiesner Glamorous idea - move to the idyllic country where life is peaceful, fresh food abundant and...
Sarah Brenner
Jul 7, 20216 min read
Â
Â
Â


What IS Farming, Anyway?
Recently, I realized my own biases about what constitutes farming. As a point of reference, and likely surprising to some, I absolutely...
Sarah Brenner
Jun 30, 20214 min read
Â
Â
Â


Curiosity Killed the Cat
Our best hunter, hunkered down under the chicken trailer coop eying the new chickies was wondering if they might be as delicious as they...
Sarah Brenner
Jun 23, 20213 min read
Â
Â
Â
bottom of page