PICK AND CHOOSE.
Jesse and I visited the (new) farm yesterday to find a location where we will build a greenhouse and plant our garden. After spending the day wandering around and digging some holes, I think we found it! There is even a nearby barn full of amazing old treasures....golf carts, sewing machines, wood stoves, stray cats. If all goes well, we plan on moving out to Danville this weekend and getting to work..and I do mean WORK! It is going to be a busy time, and we couldn't be more excited about it. After all of this waiting, it finally feels like we are moving forward.- Hannah.
SECOND DRAFT.
I'm not going to pretend that the past few months have been easy for us. Not as newlyweds living without a home of their own; not as workers watching nice day after nice day pass by with nothing consistent to work on; not as farmers who have put time, money, love and hope into a project that did not meet fruition; not at all. But with the help and support of a truly inspiring gathering of family and friends we've kept our spirits high, and our dream in tact: a farm of our own. And we were prepared to do whatever it took to make that happen.Losing the first farm was hard. It was our farm and then it was gone. The timing was awful and the disappointment nearly crippling. We had to bury our grief and come up with something quick if we still wanted to have a CSA this year, or use all of those plants and seeds we've ordered. Spring––if those intense thunderstorms on Friday were any indication––is right around the corner! Nervously, we sent out feelers. If we could still farm this year, even if it wasn't on land of our own, we'd be happy.Our sigh of relief came when we received a generous offer from another part of Hannah's family. They have a farm with an abundance of land in Danville, Ky and asked us if we'd like to garden some in exchange for vegetables. Bartering at it's best! Although we can never own this land, we can save the money we earn from it to put towards our own plot in the future. So in lieu of city jobs or loans, we will be farming this year to earn our farm. There is a place for us to live and plenty of opportunity to collaborate on ideas with this family. Hannah will still be keeping bees and I will still be making wine. We will still be offering a CSA (I know we've said this before but seriously, details to come soon!), and farmer's market style vegetables. There's no time to spare, however! A greenhouse must be built, a garden tilled (and partially card-boarded), and then fenced. Spring is coming, the grass is growing, Hannah and I have to get fit for battle! Thank you for all of your encouragement through all of this, you have no idea how much it means to us!- Jesse.
ANOTHER ROUGH DRAFT.
This blog is meant to be a place for Jesse and me to share our lives with you....what we are up to on the farm, what we are eating and cooking, thoughts and opinions and pictures. We hope for it to someday be a place for our shareholders and customers to check in and find out about drop-offs and farmers markets and workshops and what it took to grow the veggies they're eating that week. Mostly we want it to always be a positive and happy space, but sadly, if it's a blog about life, it's not always going to be cheerful.Unfortunately, we have had a somewhat unhappy and unstable past few months. Many of you already know about our struggles with the farm. As we have vaguely shared before, we found ourselves with this wonderful piece of land, but without a place to live on it. We waited for the house on the farm to become available, but that did not work out as expected. And although we attempted to figure out many alternative solutions, nothing seemed to make sense. We continued to work on the farm, as you have seen, getting the garden ready and starting on our greenhouse. We really felt that this was our home, our farm, where we were supposed to be, and we simply hoped and prayed that things would work out. But in the end, not for anyone's fault, the farm was not available to us as we had once believed. Not for now, at least. We had to let it go.We had to stop going and working there, falling more and more in love with it and pretending like everything was just going to magically work out. It is truly one of the hardest things we have ever done. We were devastated, embarrassed, disappointed, depressed, confused. We found ourselves with basically a month before "go-time" for the garden...with no garden. We were back at the beginning, starting from scratch....And here we are today. But there is some good news in all of this! As of this moment, we will still be farming this year. Still be having a CSA. Still in Kentucky. Yet as hopeful as we are in this, we don't know for sure. And if we've learned anything from these past months, it is that life does not always go as planned, and to manage your expectations. But after tomorrow, we should know a lot more details and be able to fill you in on our new venture. We are very sorry. Sorry for our own loss of time and money and work, but also sorry for you! We hate that it is not only our own disappointment, but now yours as well. So many of you followed us along, helped us out, donated your money and time, and we've found ourselves in a crazy turn of events. Together. Someday, all of this will make sense, we know. But like I said, there is good news! We (fingers crossed) will still be able to use all of our seeds, our bees, and our plants this year. It will all still go into our farm, it's just not the farm we'd all thought it was going to be.So stay tuned for the ongoing saga. Rough Draft Farmstead is a farm in motion, in flux, and the name couldn't have been more perfect if we'd planned it. We are working on it as we go, changing it to adapt and revising it as necessary. Thank you so much for supporting us in all of this. Even in our moments of sadness, we are unbelievably happy to have each other, the love of family and friends, and a warm little puppy to hug. We remain greatly blessed. To be continued...- Hannah.
PLANTING A FARM.
Lately, Hannah and I have been eager to update everyone who has donated to us as to what we've been able to do with your generous contributions thus far. Although we haven't yet bought the Donkey named Clementine (emphasis on the yet––we have the money set aside! Thanks KJ!), we have been able to purchase all of the seeds we will need for the year; we've bought asparagus crowns and strawberry plants; our soil-block maker arrived two weeks ago with seed trays and we're going to be fencing in the garden we've been working on real soon. You might have seen that a greenhouse is going up, but what you haven't seen is the broadfork and collinear hoe we ordered. This is what you've done for us, and we are forever in debt for, and truly thankful to, our beautiful family of supporters.- Jesse.
So this is for you! As we carry on into the season, know that we are only able to do so because of your help. You, friends, have effectively planted a farm, and
ALSO......our wedding is being featured today on a website called Intimate Weddings. It is wonderful to see so many people being inspired by simplicity and small celebrations! If you aren't tired of us yet, head on over to see the lovely write up.