very exciting

i am really excited about this: finally, last tuesday, we signed the contract on the property we've been trying to buy for the past 3 years. so now it's ours!
i still can't believe it, it's been such a journey, so many ups and downs, that at some point a couple of years ago, i decided not to get my hopes high anymore.
but now it's done, and we got a beautiful piece of land, with 5 acres and a house. it is right next door to where we are living now, so we won't be moving very far at all. we will be staying where we are until december, so that ed can get our new house in shape. the house is from the 1800's, so it needs some work, but structurally it's in good shape, and i love it, i think it has a lot of character. ed's planning to "gut" it, which means that he'll be taking down most of the interior walls, and redoing them with better materials and insulation. he's also going to take apart the second floor, which we don't need for living space, and transform it into a loft.
he already started working on it this week, and he'll be focusing on it until december, so i'll be taking more responsibility on the farming side. we already plowed and planted one of our new fields - we have potatoes, beets, beans, kale and cabbages. there's no fence yet, so hopefully the deer and groundhog won't do too much damage...

3 years ago, after aiyana was born, it really hit me how beautiful the land we were living on was; we talked to the owner, our landlady, mentioning our interest in buying it. she wanted 800K, which was way out of range for us. she had a developer offer her that much some time earlier, but then he pulled out, and their deal fell through. she was stuck on the price though; we got together with some of our friends, and together made an offer to her, which was about three quarters of what she wanted. she said no. last december, ed and i made an offer to her brother, who owns the neighboring piece of land, the 5 acres we just bought, and he also said no. at that point, i told myself that i'd just have to give up on this land. we kept looking for other pieces, but my heart was never into anything else. finally, we found a piece in windham, and were about to buy it (i was so-so on it), when our landlady showed up and said that her brother wants to talk to us. i half blew it off, knowing how unreliable they had been in the past, but the brother showed up at our house the next day and made us a rock bottom offer to sell us his piece, much lower than our wildest hopes. we accepted on the spot, and felt ecstatic, if a bit unbelieving. that was 3 months ago. since then, it's been up and down. at some point, about a month ago, after ed had quit his job, banking on getting the 5 acres and having enough money to pay for it, the brother called us and said that he actually wanted more money since everyone is telling him that he should ask for more. ed and i talked about it, and called him back, calmly explaining why we cannot offer him anymore. unbelievably, he just said ok, and since then things have been straight forward, although very slow. we felt anxious about getting it and finally signing the papers, and it happened last tuesday. i almost cried when the old man hugged me and told me to take good care of it. this land has been in their family since the 1800's, and now he's letting it go. i told him that we'll definitely care for it and respect it, since we already feel so attached to it, and love it so much.

i really feel that things are coming together for us now. we got this beautiful farm land - it's well located and has great soil. it's got cleared fields and woods; it has a house we can live in, and a few barns. and, to top it off, we got it without incurring any debt, which feels amazing. we still have some savings left, so now we can just focus on farming without worrying about the money too much, at least this year. my dream, at this point, is that in a couple of years, we will be able to have enough income from farming to sustain our lifestyle, and not have to draw on our savings. i really think that this is feasible, based on the response we've had so far from our farmer's markets.

as far as response, this one woman came to me yesterday at the westerly market, and said "thank you for growing this beautiful food". it was a simple statement, but i was very moved by it. i felt that she really understood how much we're putting into our work and it was one of the nicest things anyone has said to me.

peace

we got a camera

some pics taken this week:

broccoli raab has been a hit at the market. not many people grow it, and not many know it, but those who do have been very excited to see us sell it.

lettuces, our 3rd planting this season. we plant new lettuces every 2 to 3 weeks, so that we can sell them all season.

the corn is doing well. it recovered after being blown over by the wind, and looks beautiful right now.

ecchinacea plant in my flower garden.

julia and aiyana picking worms out of the compost pile. they had great fun doing this last monday, although julia wasn't too sure at first, as you can see here. she got into it soon enough though...

ed, digging out potatoes for yesterday's market

aiyana with queen anne's lace

ed in the lettuce patch

more fun with earthworms

peace

weather

what a year to start farming! with all this rain, high winds, hale, and onslaught of pests, if we make it this season, i think it will be quite an achievement.
some bad news: our tomato plants, which i've tended so much over the past few weeks, tying them, foliar-feeding them, and just plain worrying about them, might succumb to the blight which is affecting almost everyone's tomatoes this season. some of ours are looking really bad, almost no leaves left, and the fruits are getting spotted. others look better, but we'll see. i think if they're going to die, it will happen within the next week...
there's been a lot in the news about this blight, and they basically say it's one of the worst things that can happen to a tomato plant; but then when i speak to some experienced farmers, it turns out that the situation may not be so dire after all; brian said that his tomatoes get early blight every year, and he keeps it in check with foliar feeding, suckering, and as with everything else, taking really good care of the soil. so we'll see what happens to ours, but i have to admit i feel quite depressed when i go to check them in the morning, and there seems to be no improvement.

speaking of mornings, i've decided to wake up earlier so that i don't have to work during the hottest time of the day (not that it's been too hot or sunny this week, but last week, working in the heat was a problem). anyway, i actually like waking up early, which ran counter to my expectations; i was dreading waking up anytime before 8, but i've been getting up at 6:30 or 7, and feeling ok. if i feel tired, i remind myself that i'll be able to rest in the afternoon, when the sun is hot, and that motivates me. the first thing i do when i get up, is make coffee. then i go outside. i love being out early, it's still, and everything is so quiet, except for the birds and insects, which sound lovely. it feels very peaceful, and relaxing. the kids don't get up until 8 or 9, so this time of silence is very nice. i also find that when they do get up, i have more energy than if i were just getting out of bed myself at the same time. i think the fresh air and cool dew of the morning does that. so far this change seems to be working, we'll see how it continues.

the markets are still going ok, although with the weather we've been having i'm getting nervous that we won't have that much to sell soon. last night we had really strong winds, which blew over all our corn, potatoes, and some of the tomatoes, which were already tied up. the potatoes should be ok though, and ed tied up the corn plants today, so hopefully they'll recover as well. they were looking so good...

one way to look at this is that we're learning so much so fast. we're constantly faced with new challenges - plant disease, pests, etc, and we're forced to keep up with it, read as much as we can, learn as much as we can by any means, so that we can deal. i feel that we're acquiring some really good skills, and this is encouraging, but it's still sad to see all your hard work blown over, literally, overnight.

one thing that's helping us a lot, is having a variety of plants. if we only had tomatoes, say, we'd be in so much trouble. it makes so much more sense to have diversity - it's key to the health of the entire farm.

speaking of learning, ed and i are reading a really interesting book, recommended by many of our customers, and by my sister: "The omnivore's dilemma", by Michael Pollan. you probably heard about it, it's pretty popular. anyway, i highly recommend it. i started to read it because i wanted to be able to talk to custommers about it when they mentioned it. now i almost can't put it down, it's so informative, and it explains so much about all kinds of issues surrounding food in our society; it's definitely disturbing, and even very depressing at times, but i also find that by clarifying things like where our food comes from, it enables us to make better decisions in our daily lives.

i think i'll stop here, i have to look up some bugs i saw crawling on the eggplants in the time i have left on the computer.

peace

ps: we should be getting a new camera soon, and i will be posting pics again as soon as i can

one thing i never do

dust - i never dust. i think spiders are good to have around. they catch flies and mosquitoes. i'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but it also feels good to say it.

speaking of spiders and other bugs, i have a story: this guy was standing at my table yesterday at the westerly market, talking to me about vegetables and stuff. at some point, it became apparent that he felt something crawling on his back. i could tell that he wasn't focused on the conversation anymore, but he was trying to give the impression that he was. he reached his hand behind his back and had a sort of a spasm when he felt the bug. it was just a tiny beetle, but this guy was really freaked out by it. he brushed it down to the ground and then stepped on it. that was so uncool. why couldn't he just leave it on the ground or put it to the side if he didn't want to be close to it?i didn't really feel like talking to him after that. can i just say how wimpy it is for a guy to be that freaked out by a tiny bug?

peace

figuring it out

yesterday, after i did the westerly market, i took a few moments for myself, and sat in a spot overlooking a small marina, and the ocean. it felt so good to be there, and the view was so tranquil. i felt that that was a real gift to myself.

earlier, at the market, i was talking to the woman next to me, who also sells produce. she's older, and i asked her for how long she's been a farmer. she said forever, since she grew up on a farm and she's been doing her own after that. i asked her how she liked farming, and she said that sometimes it gets really crazy, like around corn time, but in general, she said she likes being with her vegetables, nobody telling her what to do, working to her own rythm. i really like this aspect too. i guess it's one of the best things about working for yourself.

i was also asking her about something that's been challenging me lately: working in the sun and heat. i find it hard to be out in the field between 11am and 4pm, on hot sunny days. it feels like life drains right out of me, after about 1 hr in the sun. i wear a hat, and drink plenty of water, but still, i have a hard time. working early in the morning, and late in the afternoon feels so different, so much better. this woman said that she has the same problem, and many other women farmers do too. she thinks it's a woman thing, which i can't really comment on, except to say that ed does seem to do much better in the sun than i, he actually enjoys it....
so i didn't really get any resolution to this yet. obviously, i can't not be in the sun between 11 and 4, that would take out the whole day pretty much. i'm going to try working in short spurts and then going in the shade for a break; and maybe i'll drink lemon water, or water with a splash of cider vinegar instead of just plain, maybe that will be more refreshing. if anyone has any other ideas, let me know.

ed and i have been talking everyday, trying to figure out how to best divide the tasks that need to be done, inside and outside. i guess this is a challenge with working for yourself. the stuff is always there, you can never leave the work at "work". it takes discipline, planning what to do every day, and knowing when you've done enough, knowing when it's time to relax. ed's a really good planner, and he's a really hard worker (too hard sometimes). i work differently that he, i go with my feelings more, and that makes it harder to plan. so we're working with our differences, trying to make things go as smoothly as possible.

one thing that we've been doing is sitting down, just the two of us, every morning and going over the things that need to be done that day. this has helped eliminate a lot of misunderstanding, and lessened my stress considerably. we put all the tasks down on a piece of paper and then divide them. we put the stuff that has to be done in the field, and also the house stuff, like cooking, laundry, etc. i always felt like that stuff was invisible, and i was the one that was responsible for doing it. so now ed's been taking on more of the house stuff, like dishes, laundry (i'm too attached to the cooking to let him have it, but maybe he can do the chopping for me...), and this frees me up to take on more outside stuff.

things get really crazy especially on the weekend when we have two markets in a row, so being organized is really important. speaking of markets, we're doing well. we sell more and more with each market, and right now we've reached the limit of what we can sell. ed plowed another field, and we're getting it ready to plant more vegetables. we want to have more variety and more quantity. people seem to really want our stuff. last saturday, at the storrs market, i sold out in the first 45 minutes. it was crazy, i had a mob of people at my table, and i could not keep up with all of them. when everything was gone, i called ed, who was home with the kids, and told him to pick more stuff, and he said we don't have any more. he was eventually able to pick some beets and onions, and brought them to the market (which is 5 min from our house, fortunately), and even as he got there, people came back to the table, and we sold everything before we even had a chance to bunch them the way we usually do. it was crazy. other markets have picked up too, not that dramatically, slowly but consistently. that's why we need to plow more field, and grow more stuff. we'll see how much we can do before we reach our own limits.

peace

two quotes

i'm reading starhawk's "the spiral dance", and found 2 quotes that really speak to me right now. here they are:

"grow food. because when you eat food grown on the land, you become the land."

"decide what is sacred to you, and put your best life energies at its service. make that the focus of your studies, your work, the test for your pleasures and your relationships. don't ever let fear or craving for security turn you aside."

peace

in the grand scheme

my weeks have been definitely taken on a different rhythm since ed stopped working at pratt.
on monday, tuesay, wed and friday we are all home, working outside in the field, and doing whatever needs to be done around the house, (which is never ending). these are also the days we homeschool in a formal sense, meaning that we sit down and do workbooks or other stuff like that. but of course the kids are always learning, regardless of what we call it.

thursdays, saturdays and sundays are market days, and everything i do on these days revolves around the market: picking and preping the vegetables in the morning, and then going to the market and selling them. i really love these days. i go to the markets by myself, because it works out best for everybody. we tried bringing the kids, but it's too much to expect them to wait for 3-4 hours, and they usually get impatient and whiny. so now ed stays home with them, or takes them somewhere fun, and i go do the markets alone (they still come to the one in storrs, which is closest to our house, but in a separate car, so they can go home whenever they need to).

ed helps me prepare for the markets - he actually does most of the work as far as picking and loading the stuff into our small car. the set-up when i get to the market is a bit of a challenge, especially the tent, which is supposed to be easy to put up with just one person, but you actually need more like 3 people if you want to do it quickly. time is always an issue - i have to make sure that i'm fully set up, all the vegetables on the table, with prices and everything, before people come. fortunately, other vendors have been very kind, and someone always offers to help me with the tent. everything else i can do by myself.

my favorite part about the markets is the people. i've been meeting some really nice people, and having some great conversations with them. it starts with food, of course, but then it veers in all kinds of directions. i find that a lot of people appreciate good quality food, and appreciate the effort and love we put into growing our vegetables. we get a lot of positive comments, people coming back saying how much they enjoyed what they bought the previous time.

some people pass by, and i can tell that they're just looking at the price, and decide that it's too much. i feel sad for them, because i don't think they appreciate how much of a difference food quality can make in your life. food can make you healthy or sick, and food can certainly make you feel more connected to life, it can heal you, if grown properly, and if eaten with respect.

one young guy told me that he worked at Big Y, a big chain supermarket, and their produce would sit on a truck for a week, before being delivered; it had to be sprayed with fungicides so it doesn't mold, etc. etc. some people don't appreciate the difference that this kind of treatment can make.

in any case, ed and i talked about prices. we don't want to cater to the wealthy, but at the same time, we have to make a living, and we don't want to undercut the other farmers either. my friend said that people expect farmers to be dirt poor and work all the time, and it's basically true in many cases. some people will compare our prices with those at the supermarket, and wonder why we're so much higher. that's a long conversation, but one i'm willing to have.

but to get back to what i was saying, my interaction with people at the market has been very positive so far, very inspiring and motivating. i feel so high while i'm there and afterwards. i feel that we're really making a difference. my greatest hope is that in eating food that is alive and comes directly from the earth, unaltered in any way, people will feel more connected to their environment, and to each other, and thus they will be happier, gentler, and more peaceful. i guess that's my grandest hope, but i'm really inspired by the possibility of making even a small contribution in that direction.

peace

10 years

this week, it's been 10 years since i moved to the US. i've been thinking about my life and all the changes that took place during this time, and wow, i'm amazed. it really is unbeleivable, and i feel more than ever that life has its own rythm and its own path, and the best i can do it to honor it and follow it.

i never would have imagined 10 years ago that i would be where i am now, doing what i'm doing. everything, from having kids, to not working as an engineer, farming, etc. would have seemed incredible to me back then. but big changes happen slowly, one day at a time, and only over these long periods are the effects clearly visible.

i still feel connected to the person i was back then, though, although my interests and lifestyle may seem so different. i feel that despite these changes, that which sustains me remained the same. and what is it that sustains me? i can't articulate it very well, i can only say that it's a search for truth and authenticity in my life, a search for beauty and simplicity, and most of all for connection. i guess it's a search for meaning. this has always been very important to me.

yesterday, i was driving to westerly, rhode island, and a song came on the radio, that took me back just around the time when i moved to the US. there was a lot of excitement in my life back then, and also a lot of heartache about what i was leaving behind, and anxiety about the unknown which i was jumping into. but looking at it in retrospect, it all seems so beautiful, and i feel so grateful for it.

i really feel like my life has been very beautiful so far, and realizing that fills me with joy. we all have this patchwork of pleasure and difficulty in life, and i love how they blended together for me, leading me where i am right now.

who knows where i'll be in 10 years from now?

peace

after the rain

last friday our friends anita and brian got hale the size of golf balls and it damaged most of their vegetables. it's so hard when that happens. i felt sad for them, and it was a good lesson for us, to know that this is part of farming and there's nothing you can do about it. all your hard work could be wiped out in minutes.
we didn't get any hale at our house this time, just some heavy rain, and then a gorgeous sky and double rainbow.

peace

check out this baby

5 lbs, our first cabbage this year. it's a special kind, (Early Jersey in case you care), that's why it's pointy. i sold it for $9 in westerly yesterday.

sena could barely hold it. it was great fun trying to take this picture...

this is half of our cabbage patch. as you can see, it's pretty weedy in there, but the cabbages seemed to have done ok anyway.

more cabbage, the regular kind. i'm piking this one today, making russian borscht and some coleslaw with it. yum!

sena is inspecting some beets which she pulled out of her garden. we let her plant whatever she wanted in one corner of the garden, and she picked beets and carrots. now the beets are ready.

peace

3 markets

i'm just so excited about our vegetables! i know i keep going on about this, but i can't help it. even with all this rain, they're so beautiful. our cabbage and zucchini are ready, and looking great. we'll be bringing them to the westerly market tomorrow. we've been doing 3 markets, and things are going well. people are coming back to us, and bringing very positive feedback. they say they love our stuff and want more of it. this makes me so happy! i always appreciate feedback, any kind of feedback really. but knowing that our effforts are appreciated is so amazing. last sunday night, i was awake for 3 hours. just could not fall asleep bc i was so excited thinking about the markets, the people, the field and our veges, and all the things i still want to do... saturday and sunday are very tiring right now, bc we have markets back to back. but even so, i feel very excited and it seems like i'm running on that the whole time.

zucchini. isn't the little round one cute? it's called an 8 ball, ed had to explain that one to me, i'm not too big on pool....


beet leaves


we ate this beautiful salad for lunch on saturday. it has a mix of lettuces, beets, green onions, clover, lemon thyme and nasturtium, all grown by us (well the thyme and clover are wild, but whatever)


preparing for the market on sunday. beets and onions. both sell like crazy, esp the beets. we should plant a lot more next time.


peace

aiyana and her horses

aiyana has been obsessed with horses for a long time now. she just loves them and always talks about them. she loves to pretend she is a horse. last saturday, she got a chance to go to ed's uncle's house, chuck and kim, to spend some time with their horses. it was a huge highlight for her; she was beaming and fearless.

peace