It’s been another exciting week on the farm. We’re shocked by how much work that just 1/10 of an acre can create for our tired bodies, but we’re even more shocked by how much our little field can produce.

We are just swimming in flowers right now, which is an especially relevant metaphor considering how rainy it has been for the past six weeks. Wednesday night brought around four inches of rain in the span of a few hours. Crooked Creek flooded out all around us, coming within less than 20 feet of our field.

We are so thankful for a few smart and a few accidental decisions that we made back in March. By putting our field on the hillside and then by creating a raised bed system, we have had little issue with flooding, even with the record-breaking rainfall. And, by heavily mulching our pathways, we’ve been able to work in our field with ease even on the muddiest of days. These methods have saved our crops in some ways, and allowed us to actually work in the field to take advantage of our well-watered bumper crops this summer. It’s certainly given us lots of insights as we start to plan our new fields for next year.

Yesterday we had an old-fashioned barn raising and FINALLY got the greenhouse plastic on the hoop house. It was such a great day, and we’re forever thankful to the continued support of our family and friends who are willing to move their lives around to help us work towards this little dream of ours. At this point I have a few minor tweaks to make to the structure, but it’s essentially done. Just in time, too, since the dinnerplate dahlias that we planted in it back in May are ready to open up. Now they can do it in our wind-free micro climate.  And now we can grow in the ground well into the winter.

 

 

 

This week we also added another florist to our growing list of customers and made repeat deliveries to Hy-Vee.

As I write this, Audra is listening to crappy 90s music and arranging 17 bouquets to deliver to a client tomorrow.  Quickly moving to the top of our priority list is a better work space than our kitchen, which already does double duty as our laundry room.

All in all, it’s exciting times around here. As my uncle would say, “it’s a thing of beauty.”

But don’t let me fool you, we’re stressed, we’re tired, we’re covered in mosquito bites, and our house is an utter disaster. But we’re still finding time to make funny faces, and we’re making time to laugh, and we’re living our days with purpose. Sweaty, dirty purpose.

We came across a George Washington quote the other day that we really liked: “I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world.” Nuff said, G-Dubs, nuff said.

*Since we’ll be gone some this weekend, the farm stand will be open Wednesday through Friday nights from 4:00-8:00. This week we will have the following available for purchase:
-green beans
-zucchini
-yellow squash
-cucumbers
-snapdragon bouquets
-ball jar arrangements

Coming soon:
-tomatoes (so many tomatoes!)
-onions
-comb honey
-raw honey
-broom corn (for decorating)

Stop by and see us!