How I got started.
I remember as a little girl going to my great grandmas and just at the bottom of the stairs seeing where her canning was stored behind a set of bifold doors.
While I was growing up we had several apple trees in the backyard. The applesauce, oh the applesauce. My mom with my grandma and great grandmas help would make so much of it. Not much beats fresh, warm applesauce. It’s to hard to only have one bowl.
I can vividly remember the wheelbarrow loads of tomatoes getting brought in the basement. Mom would process them into whole tomatoes to be enjoyed in soups and eaten straight from the jar all winter long.
When I was in jr high and high school I was in sports, my mom was working more and my dad had to take over farm responsibilities after my grandpa passed. Those are the years the garden wasn’t as prolific.
Those were also the years I had a goat, Coco, that I taught to pull a cart for a fair project. After 3 years of training him I was able to ride in the cart while he pulled me around.
My Favorite part of summer was hay season. My dad and grandpa would cut, rake and round bale hay in the fields in between our house and there’s. When I was old enough I would go around the field and tie the lose strings so that they wouldn’t drag on the ground and maybe get stuck in something they shouldn’t.
I loved summer. Hay, fair, goat shows, cucumbers straight from the garden and extra time at the farm.
Christmas of 2010 my cousins and I drew names to exchange gifts. My cousin Nicole drew my name and gave me the greatest gift. The gift that really got me dreaming. The gift that I keep going back to. She gave me a pair of rubber boots with chickens on them and a book titled The Dirty Life By Kristin Kimball.
Kristin’s book shares the dreamy and the hardship of owning a farm and running a CSA (community supported agriculture) with her husband. This is the book that got me dreaming for a dairy cow and a huge garden.
My great grandparents, grandparents and parents showed me what its like to have a garden and animals to tend to. While the book sent my heart into the possibility of having more and having enough to share with other families.
Each family has a calling and not everyone can devote the time, energy and resources into growing food for themeselves. But our family can. We also have that desire in our hearts. This doesn’t feel like work, this almost feels relaxing (aside from the sweat running down our backs as we pull weeds and mulch rows).
As I feel my years of having a newborn in our home coming to a close, I look forward to the years to come. The years of growing and nurturing in other ways. Maybe it’s the animals we dream of having, maybe its the new garden spaces, maybe its the new relationships we will gain.
None of this would be possible without family that showed us through examples and without a book that sparked an interest in me so many years ago.
We all have a starting place. Maybe you didn’t grow up with a garden, a canner, animals to care for and hay to be made each summer. But who says you can’t start now and share what you’re learning with future generations.
Bo and I are continuing what we have been taught, learning more and adding to what we already know. That way these 6 kiddos can have the knowledge when they become adults to continue in one fashion or another.
I’m grateful for the generations before us and for the resources to continue growing for many more generations to come.
This is my why. What is yours?
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