From a Fertile Sketch on a Piece of Paper

A lot has happened since we sent in our first registrations for the Practical Farmers of Iowa annual conference a year ago.  We had imaginations -- maybe even some dreams.  We had curiosity, and certainly a hunger to learn.  But even as we drove the snowy highway toward Marshalltown and considered the program options, the "Beginning Farmers Luncheon" sounded too presumptuous to attend.  We didn't even qualify as beginners. 

We did, however, attend a training session for aspirational farmers; talking with those who are actually doing it, drawing out on paper a conceptual sketch of the farm we hoped to someday make real; shocking the presenter by our disinterest in a "business plan." 

"What do you mean you aren't interested in marketing?" he incredulously asked.  This, of course, being while I still had an income. 

We listened, we learned, we picked wiser and more experience brains.  And then we returned to our town home and plans to garden on our deck.

As I say, a lot has happened in a year.  Returning to the annual conference this past weekend, we encountered several familiar faces.  They were uniformly speechless when we told them what we had done, and we smiled when we remembered that visionary design sketched out on flip-chart paper what seems like a lifetime ago.  We had real life experience to draw from after a summer on borrowed land, and I had some frame of reference when one presenter spoke about extending the growing season with a greenhouse.  If we still felt like interlopers, it was certainly less so than last year; and I actually had reason to note the name and contact information of an organic compost and starter soil provider in Wisconsin whose wares are expected to be delivered at my door tomorrow. 

And if I still felt like a six-year-old sitting in on a college class -- learning more, for example, about microbial activity in soil health and development; if I still felt like I had moved to another planet where everything is still yet to be learned, I have, nonetheless, begun to grow some new antennae. 

Never mind the absence of paychecks.  With a beautiful and evocative piece of land, an embracing home that I hate to leave even for a trip into town, a barn and a greenhouse with waiting seeding pots at the ready and potting soil on its way; with a box load of seeds of everything from asparagus to zucchini; with a partner who enthusiastically and indulgently encourages and supports me, and puppy who accompanies me, I feel like the richest person in the world. 

As I say, a lot has happened in a year.