A New Year

Many people love the marking of a new year. They look forward to what’s a head, make resolutions on how they will rid themselves of bad habits and make plans to acquire new healthily habits: To leave all the bad behind and make room for all the good life has to offer. I too love the New Year. I love its new possibilities and a “fresh start”. Like the new year, I also love the fall. It’s a time when kids return to school with new books, crisp white paper to soon hold all the teaching and stories. However, my favorite fresh start comes in the Spring. I love watching the ground come alive. First the, Daffodils, the Forsythia, and Cherry Blossoms. It’s a time to enjoy but mostly a time to ready for the harvest to come.

After a little requesting on my part, my Husband took my compost bin and poured my new dirt over the beds, getting them ready for their new growth. I use to feel sorry that I was excited by something as simple as dirt but now I feel it should be celebrated. I made this dirt! Who knew I could make dirt? All my scraps, yard waste and peelings from the hundreds of apples, pears, peaches we used for our jams this past summer and fall have worked themselves down to perfect dirt; “Black gold” as it’s called.

Sorry I got off on a tangent….

Like a new book promising to hold knowledge for a student in the fall. Our beds hold promise of the possibilities of abundance of fruit and veggies. The hardest part of it all? It’s not the weeding, not the watering or remembering to water, it’s the waiting. Recently, I had someone tell me they did not garden as it took to long to grown veggies. Yes, you must care, tend and wait 50-72 days before the picking is good but it IS worth the wait!

It’s partly my passion as I love nature. Watching things grow and produce food for my family, but mainly as I know it’s the right thing to do. We need to be connected to our food. Either by growing food ourselves or buying directly from a grower. How sad is it that our kids today don’t know the basics of where the food comes from that they eat. Not even that apples come from a tree and potatoes come from the ground! I have held in my hart for some time that I want a farm and get our own chickens, grow more of our food but mostly to want to slow down and teach my children how to love the planet by being good to our Mother Earth. But for now, I will be happy growing our families own food and putting up all I can for the winter.