2011 Season Officially Commences!

There is such a strange cautiousness that all of the sudden comes over the farmer in February, as he is bent over his seed flats about to break open the first packets of onions, early brassicas, and herbs.

All the wrestling with faith floods back upon him...outside is a frozen tundra, inside he is rolling over in his mind the miracle that he is called upon once again to believe in...that these tiny seeds hold within them not only enough nutrition to bring them swimmingly through their infancy, but also the promise of the mature plant spanning feet wide, yeilding again and again it's bounty come summer.

When we began our seeding this week, I paused above a giant tub of potting soil...moist.

It is a universal fact that a toddler and dirt cannot long be seperated from eachother when in close proximity. And our hesitancy and musings were dashed to pieces when the 2 and 4 year apprentices amongst us joyously plunged their arms in up to the elbows...murmuring soft contented sighs of "Oh! I love the smell of it!".

They voice was we are all thinking.

It is amazing to think that our livelihood is bound up in these little specks of seeds...more amazing still to watch them poke up through their thin layer of soil within mere days...

When they have gotten a good start, they will be moved from the comfort of the woodstove out into the greenhouses.

In the meantime, there is a tingling hum of vitality that flows from our germination room into the rest of the house...reminding us of our work ahead, and of the coming warmer greener days of Spring.