While driving to the market early one Saturday morning this season, with Owen asleep in the back seat, I was overcome with gratitude.
Gratitude to the family members, grandparents, aunts and uncles, who have helped make it possible for me to keep going to the farmers’ market each week this season, even with a new baby in our lives.
Gratitude to the friends and CSA members who came out that week to help us with the harvest and who would be helping us out behind the market table that day.
In a time of need, help came from all directions.
When people come to visit the farm and are impressed with how much we have done, we always acknowledge that it is only possible with a lot of help!
We are grateful to the many young people who, year after year, choose to spend a growing season working and learning with us. The apprentices we work with breathe new life into our farm each year. Over the course of the season, we hope that they are inspired by how much they can accomplish – that they see the rewards of working harder than they may ever have before! They bring enthusiasm and curiosity along with plenty of laughs!
Since our arrival at Fiddle Foot Farm, we have discovered a warm community of neighbours with diverse and interesting pursuits of their own. These people enrich our lives and have supported us in many ways.
There is one neighbour in particular (who, because he would prefer to, shall remain nameless) who we cannot thank enough. He will come over, rain or shine, at dawn or midnight, to make helpful mechanical repairs to whatever plagues us at the time! But our favourite visits from him are still the social ones, reminding us to chill out sometimes!
Week after week, we love connecting with new and familiar faces at the farmers’ markets. Enthusiastic and conscious eaters who delight at the display of the season’s bounty on our table. This feedback is welcome and uplifting at the end of a week’s work in the fields.
Without the commitment of our CSA members (Community Supported Agriculture), we can honestly say that none of what we do would be possible. Their choosing to become members and pay for their share of the season’s harvest long before receiving any of it, gives us the confidence (and funds!) to purchase seeds and equipment we need at the beginning of the season. We connect with these families through the food we grow, sharing favourite recipes and cooking tips, and we like to think that we join them at their dinner tables, at least in spirit! We extend a special thank you to all our CSA members… bon appetit!
For the chance to work as closely as we do with the elements and forces of the natural world, we are also grateful. Well, perhaps there are times we don’t exactly feel blessed (during periods of drought or flood, or when we see the damaging effects of pests or disease) but just as often, we are overwhelmed by miraculous growth and stunning beauty! To accompany and encourage thousands of plants along their journey from seed is humbling and awe-inspiring. As long as we take the time to revel in this miraculous process, and in all of the relationships we have forged along the way, this will continue to feel like a charmed way to live.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
PS – In the spirit of the Inglorious Vegetables campaign, we have been selling “Misfit Carrots” at the markets for a couple of years now. Earlier this season, our efforts were affirmed – check out the creativity of one of our members / customers… He calls it “Carrots Taking a Leek“…well done!
