Thursday, November 26, 2015

When Winter Asks Summer


I was recently at an agricultural conventional when the key note speaker at dinner told a story that really struck me as a take away....

She, a tall woman (ex volleyball player) with a strong voice spent as much time as possible at her Grandfather's farm in Nebraska when she was young. She told us how her Grandfather would always say, "There will come a day...."

"There will come a day?"

She took it to mean something bad. A sign of frustration or not liking someone (he would often say it after an interaction with a customer) or disliking a task.

After a long day of cleaning the chicken coop she uttered to her dad, "There will come a day!" At which time she found out that, "there will come a day" didn't mean something bad at all.

It meant, "There will come a day that winter asks what you did all summer." 

So as I sat there listening to her speak my mind wandered a little bit and I thought, when winter asks what I did all summer what will I say....

I'd say that...

A lot of things went wrong. (I won't bore you with the details).

And for everything that went wrong...there was something that went right. Flowers for example. Glorious flowers is something that went right. I love flowers. I really love dried flowers.  More flowers!  



I would also tell winter that this year I finally hashed out a goal.

I have been a goal-less wonder for 3 years. 

Ugh! I hated it. It made me anxious. It made me feel like I was reaching. People would ask me, "what's your goal?" and I would normally sputter the first thing that came to mind and then curl up and cry on the inside. 

Hey, Winter....You want to know what I did all summer? I worked my way to having a goal....

1. To farm in an imaginative, exciting, and energetic way (think Mark Cuban (business. business.  business.) with Dr. Seuss (color and a message) crossed with Harry Potter (magic) with a pinch of Julia Child (passion and joy...oh an her voice...if you know me well you know I live to imitate her voice and quite frankly aspire to talk like that always. haha))

2. To be profitable just farming (that goes out the man with the physique of a butterball turkey (tis the season!) who told me farming is a hobby and I'll never make a dime...Thank you sir, for some extra motivation) I'm not in this to make a killing. I'm in the to make a living. 

3. To make agriculture and buying local accessible, exciting, and a "no-brainer" to everyone through my writing and through face to face interaction.  This means not only inspiring but educating consumers (and we all eat so basically everyone is a consumer).  This means encouraging you to educate your friends and family so no one will ever more ask if my peaches are genetically modified because it is an absurd question (there are no genetically modified peaches available for production at this time). 

These goals were made possible by really looking at what was working and what wasn't. What made me happy and what made me dread.  Finding my goals was brought to me in part by changing up our CSA program from a Buying Club with home delivery to a Market type CSA program and I can't wait to get it rolling in 2016!

So, when Winter asks what you did all Summer I hope you have a great story.  That you triumphed. That your story ends with a smile.  That you are wild with gratitude.

Thank you, my dear customers and friends for your support. 

Happy Thanksgiving!  

1 comment:

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