garden goods

Our garden hasn't done quite as well as it did last year. I suppose we have been focusing on growing little people this year, instead of vegetables.

Still, we got a large crop of tomatoes, quite a few handfuls of peas, many ears of corn and some delicious carrots. Tip for other parents of a super-picky non-eating toddler:  have a garden. There is nothing like pulling something out of the dirt to make a 2-year-old want to eat it.

We lost a lot of our plants to mold, or birds, or a family of 6 baby turkeys that discovered the raised bed. The one crop that seemed to be immune to the animals were the pumpkins.

If you want to plant one thing for the fun of watching it grow with kids, I highly recommend pumpkins. These grew like Jack's magic beanstalk. We could practically see the vines stretching out over the earth with each passing day, the gourds getting bigger, turning green, then orange.

I've been seeing pictures on facebook of everyone with their cute kids at the pumpkin patch. Yesterday we went to the pumpkin patch too. Except that we didn't have to get in the car. We walked out the front door to harvest our pumpkins from our very own side yard!

I admit our little patch is not quite as artistically displayed as the professional lots, but the kids had just as much fun in this one. In fact, they have been having fun in it all summer long. The girls each "claimed" their pumpkin months ago while they were still green. They watched them grow, and were excited to finally pick and place them on the porch.

I always love the idea of having a large pile of pumpkins on my doorstep, but at $10-$15 dollars each it can really add up! Is anyone else shocked at the price of pumpkins these days? Someone is making a lot of money on this Halloween commodity. We can now tell you from experience that they don't cost a lot to grow. The $3 spent on the packet of seeds was well spent.

The little guy even got in on some of the action!

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Another great joy we find in our garden is the opportunity to give of our abundance. My husband teaches me a lot about this, and I guess I have a lot to learn.

Every time one of our little friends comes over, he suggests that we let them pick a pumpkin to take home. I was selfishly excited about putting all 15 of the pumpkins we grew on our porch for the fall. But it is such a good feeling to share the joy with others. So much better than feeling pride in an overly decorated porch. Seriously, who needs 15 pumpkins on the porch?

Especially when the things that matter most are already there.

apples in the orchard

My friend Jessica inspires me. A year ago in October, she had the brilliant idea to capture these priceless photos of newborn Sommer. Of course, the pictures were special at the time.

One year later, however, these pictures have reached a new level of meaningful. Only somewhat because Sommer would rather eat liverwurst than sleep, let alone in the orchard. I find myself staring at the baby in the photo on our wall with affection and nostalgia, and a hint of envy at her state of innocent bliss.

On this hot day last October a sliver of our experience on this farm was frozen in time behind that camera lens. Meaningful because the time is slipping away. Inspiring because never would I have personally thought to combine these two important elements in our life: baby and farm. And yet, they are immiscible.

This year, Sommer is not sleeping in the orchard. She is eating apples and picking weeds and getting muddy like a good little farm girl does. It seems those newborn pictures were prophetic. Life here is part of her very being. She is a lover of nature, an admirer of all things outdoorsy, and has a noticeably sunny disposition, just like her name might imply.

Thank you, Jessica, for inspiring our newest annual tradition of photos in the orchard.

the harvest

The last of our summer veggies are being picked.  The corn is long gone. We tired of squash and beets ages ago. Only the tomatoes and a handful of cucumbers remain on the vine.

There is nothing like a good bite of raw corn, fresh from the garden.

At least no one can say that my kids are picky eaters.

"He told them, 'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.' "  Luke 10:2

My eyes are being opened to the plentiful harvest around me, and yet, I feel somewhat inadequate to be one of the workers.

I am a member of our church's ministry for women, and we are currently in the middle of a 3-night event called Conversations. It is a ministry formed essentially around giving women the time and space to discuss some heart-level topics, like the legacy that we leave, and how our past doesn't have to dictate our future, and our identity as women defined by love.  There is coffee, and dessert, and a different woman of wisdom from our own church community facilitating the discussion each night.

We designed this event to be small, thinking that perhaps around 20 women would be interested. Just to be safe, we would plan for 30. As it sometimes happens, God had other plans. Our very first night we had over 70 women show up. We did an emergency move from our cozy fireside room into the sanctuary.  The harvest blew us away.

How could we have so drastically underestimated what God wanted to do with this ministry? The women I met that night were primarily new to our church, or new to church in general. These were women hungry for connection and starving to know that some greater purpose might come out of life's heartaches. No problems were solved or solutions provided, these women were simply longing to be heard.

Sometimes the harvest is ripe for picking so that it can join you on the journey. Sometimes the harvest has bumps and bruises and wormholes, but the fruit is sweet none-the-less. Sometimes the harvest just needs to know that it doesn't have to fit into a cookie-cutter stereotype before it can be plucked. Change comes later.

In the four evenings that we have hosted so far, I have met women who are freshly divorced, women who are struggling to exit a broken relationship, women who don't have a person in their lives they can call a "good friend", women whose eyes fill up with tears as they are answering each and every question, women who show up all by themselves without knowing a soul. I even met a woman who worked at the printing shop where we had our little fliers printed. She pulled one off the stack and came. Alone. Mostly, I've met women who are dying to have someone care about hearing their story. All of this was shared within the span of 2 hours.

The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

Above all, I am floored by what God wanted to do with this casual night designed with only a few women in mind. I feel completely inadequate to be even a small part of God's big agenda for these evenings. But, sometimes the workers can be untrained, ill-prepared, and inept and they still get to help with the harvest. Sometimes the workers show up with broken arms, but it is good enough that they showed up. Sometimes the workers think they don't want to pick, but end up with wheelbarrows full. Sometimes it is unclear who is getting more out of it all... the harvest, or the workers?

how does your garden grow?

Christian and Annike started a vegetable garden this year.  We always have loads of fruit growing on the farm, but this was our first experiment with veggies.  They began with seed packets, giving Annike the important job of pushing individual seeds into each seed-tray hole.  Note the importance of a proper gardening outfit.

A greenhouse was inherited when we bought the property; this year we initiated it.

 Up came the seedlings,

beets, corn, peas, squash, cucumbers, and carrots, to name a few.

Into the ground they went.

 Water and sunshine turned our seedlings into a bushy garden.

It remains a miracle to me to witness the life that comes forth from a tiny dried up seed.  All of this greenery, vitamins, wealth of nourishment, was captured in a minuscule kernel waiting, unassuming, for some dirt and a little water to help it grow.  A miracle in its simplest form, but miraculous all the same.  

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," 

declares the LORD. 

"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways 

and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 

Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the LORD's renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed"

Isaiah 55:8-13

We often can't see the purpose for certain events in our lives, for conflicts that arise, for circumstances that occur wholely uninvited, or for pain. But the Lord's promise to us is that His ways are oh-so-much better than our ways.  His Word goes out and does not return empty.  It grows fruit in our lives. It produces peace. It turns thorns and briers into beauty.  It works to achieve an eternal purpose far higher than any I could have imagined.   That is the miracle of the seed.  We can't tell by looking what kind of life will spring forth with a little water.  But the Lord has declared that He will water and there will be yield.  His Word will go out and will not return empty.

How does your garden grow?