Like everyone, we love getting outside this time of year. Things are finally greening up, we've been in the gardens and fields, and enjoying little discoveries like nests full of duck eggs. Mama was off getting a drink when I snuck in to capture this image.
It's also time on the organic farm to "juice it up" as William calls fertilizing. He's been spreading manure, and yesterday, gypsum. Gypsum is a mineral (calcium sulfate dihydrate) mined all around the U.S. that helps make clay soils more friable and other minerals more accessible to plants. A perk in our hilly land is that the way it works to enhance soil structure also helps decrease erosion.
When I have the opportunity to help on the farm, I giggle thinking of our email handles. Typically, I'm a farmer's wife and not a farm wife, but occasionally I'm flossybfarmin. After we got married, I took on this handle in honor of William's very clever willybfarmin. Is it a statement, a question or just a name?
Yesterday, I helped with the farming by driving tractor while William pushed the gypsum through the fertilizer spreader. (For those of you who understand this, yes, William needs a lime spreader for this task, but we make do.) It was a beautiful afternoon to be out and about in the fields enjoying all of the best spots for a big expansive Lake View - Pepin, that is. Maybe I should start offering wagon rides!!!
This photo taken a few years ago. It's not this green yet, but soon!
SATURDAY MAY 13th 11-3 LAKE VIEW ORGANIC@THE FARMHOUSE WORLD KITCHEN
Lake View Organic Farm will be at The Farmhouse World Kitchen on Saturday, May 13th for another Farmers Market joined by a few other vendors to make it fun! Additionally, Plum City Hardware is hosting a big Mother's Day Event with plants and food for everyone, and our new neighbors, The Wildflower, an arts, crafts, gifts and consignment shop is holding their grand opening! As a sunflower farmer's wife, I love their motto, "In a field full of roses, be a sunflower." Plum City will be a lively place on May 13th!
THE FARM STORE
We are always open, stocked with all sorts of farmy fun, and ready to give you that dose of nostalgia you need.
MY TWO CENTS
I've really been trying to step back lately. I've been so bogged down in the sadness of a broken heart and my inability to launch a successful restaurant venture after that health conundrum that my view has been muddied. Spring, warm weather and a focus on the here and now has really helped. I like the advice I heard a couple days ago to be where your feet are. Live in the moment of wherever you stand. I'm a classic multi-tasker with one hand doing something while the other is doing something else. Alanis Morisette's song, "Hand in my Pocket" follows me around lately. You know, the one that goes,
I'm broke, but I'm happy
I'm poor, but I'm kind
I'm short, but I'm healthy, yeah
I'm high, but I'm grounded
I'm sane, but I'm overwhelmed
I'm lost, but I'm hopeful, baby
And what it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be fine, fine, fine.
"Cause I've got one hand in my pocket
And the other one is givin' a peace sign.
This song came out in 1995, in the before times of smart phones. Now, we have one hand in our pocket and the other one is holdin' a cell phone. We are never where our feet are any more. For many of us, our cell phones have taken our brains off to other spaces and places leaving us very ungrounded. I'll likely be the last to actually unplug, but I am increasingly aware of the negative pull of technology. I can feel the cracks and fissures of society widening in its wake.
With that in mind, I'll sign off here to go BE where my feet take me and leave the computer and the phone in the house for awhile. If you catch of glimpse of me out in the field or garden, it's the peace sign you'll see me waving! (Not to be confused with the "El Paso Wave" as they call flipping the bird out here!)
Be where your feet are. I like that idea.
Sending love from the farm,
Sarah