Celebrating Our Successes (and Failures)

It is the time of year where activity on the farm is simultaneously speeding up and slowing down.  Peak harvest in the garden is beginning to slow down and we are making plans to transition to fall crops. Meat birds and turkeys are beginning to be processed for winter, the sheep are putting on as much weight as possible before winter, and the pigs are slowly, but surely growing. With the work shifting from growing, growing, growing, to harvesting and processing, I have begun to reflect on the season and all we have accomplished, and even the things that may not have worked great for us this year, but show promise for the future.

We have had many successes to be proud of this season so far. With an abundant garden, thanks to the hoop house we built last year, we have enjoyed harvesting hundreds of pounds of food to feed our family and sell on our local online farmers’ market platform. We added sheep and pigs to the operation and re-introduced turkeys to the farm. We hatched hundreds of our own chicks for meat and to replace our laying flock of hens, said hello (and an early goodbye) to the first quail we ever hatched, and grew in so many beautiful ways as a family during these difficult times. But, as it is with most things in life, we also had our fair share of lessons learned- we have experienced light freezes every month of the summer, resulting in crops not doing their best outside (poor potatoes) and even inside the hoop house (I’m looking at you cucumbers!). We lost our quail as soon as we moved them to grass due to a weasel killing every single one in a matter of hours, we had an unsuccessful hatch of goose eggs, said goodbye to our resident geese, endured grasshoppers and voles eating everything in sight, and a severe drought with no substantial rain for the past several weeks. Farming, much like life, is incredibly unpredictable. I cannot control mother nature and the fact that it freezes here in the summer and garden pests will be a constant battle no matter what the time of year or weather pattern, but the successes we experience FAR outweigh any obstacles we may face. I feel blessed to work with my hands every day. To be healthy and to be able to rely on my body to accomplish so many difficult physical tasks. I feel blessed by the bounty of food we have grown and continue to grow. When I look out at our small piece of heaven I know that it is all worth it. All the blood, sweat, and tears that go into running a farm, raising a child, and being a loving wife. It is ALL so WORTH IT.

In many ways, I think 2020 has been a year to test our resiliency not only as a farm, where unexpected things happen every year, but as humans. With COVID impacting our normal day-to-day lives we have had to shift priorities, take on more jobs as parents, work in unideal situations, and make the most of our lives during uncertain times. With that and so much other hurt going on in addition to COVID, I pray for our resiliency as a country. To come together and support each other and our local food systems. As the summer is winding down, your local farmers are still hard at work. Please, please don’t forget about them. As farmers’ markets come to a close in the next month or so, ask your farmer’s about how you can support them. Do they have a fall or winter CSA program or have a farm stand? Where can you find their meat, eggs, and produce once the farmers’ market is over? Just because the season appears to be ending, does not mean there is not a farmer hard at work preparing for the next step, so please support your local farmer anyway you can.

Thank you for reading!

Farmer Kinzie

P.S. If anyone is interested, we have turkeys available for Thanksgiving this year.  Please email mystichillsfarmstead@gmail.com for pricing and availability. We have a limited quantity available so please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Thank you!