Sowing Summer Seeds and Lifelong Memories
Expressions of love come in so many forms, gifts, cards, flowers, romantic gestures. LOVE is creating memories and growing good food to fuel our bodies and feed our souls. LOVE is a connection with the land and animals (wild or domestic).
 LOVE IS two farm kids and their great big white dog! |  LOVE IS having the energy of a 6-month old farm pup! |
Last week’s cranky and seemingly unrelenting arctic airmass begrudgingly released its icy grasp on us late in the week. Still in cozy winter torpor, I was enjoying the long, dark winter nights and cooking rich, core-warming winter foods. It came as a bit of surprise, as it does each February, that my ‘hard-core other half’ insisted that we needed to start planting for the coming growing season.
“Already?!” I exclaimed. “But it’s only the middle of February, ...in Wisconsin! It is 5 degrees below zero! Are you sure?”
“Yes! Look at the calendar!!! We have to get the leeks, onions, and celery started. Maybe even a few of the herbs,” he responded in exasperation. “In fact, we might even be a week late!”
While the mercury parked itself below zero and winds blasted chills into the frost biting zone, it seemed like the summer growing season was eons away. However, still weeks before the first green shoots will emerge from the sun warmed soil, the 2016 growing season got underway at Emerald Acres Farm. Our laundry room metamorphosed into a mud room. . .
Last Sunday, Valentine’s Day, our 5-year-old farmgirl worked alongside her daddy to build soil blocks and plant the first seeds of 2016. As I watched the two, I realized that there is no love quite like that which exists between a father and his daughter. As they squished and massaged the moist potting soil between their fingers and meticulously placed each of the seeds, no larger than a pencil tip, with a tweezers into the soil, I marveled at the memories they were creating together. As they were sowing seeds for the coming summer’s bounty, so too were they sowing lifelong memories of time spent together.
“Already?!” I exclaimed. “But it’s only the middle of February, ...in Wisconsin! It is 5 degrees below zero! Are you sure?”
“Yes! Look at the calendar!!! We have to get the leeks, onions, and celery started. Maybe even a few of the herbs,” he responded in exasperation. “In fact, we might even be a week late!”
While the mercury parked itself below zero and winds blasted chills into the frost biting zone, it seemed like the summer growing season was eons away. However, still weeks before the first green shoots will emerge from the sun warmed soil, the 2016 growing season got underway at Emerald Acres Farm. Our laundry room metamorphosed into a mud room. . .
Last Sunday, Valentine’s Day, our 5-year-old farmgirl worked alongside her daddy to build soil blocks and plant the first seeds of 2016. As I watched the two, I realized that there is no love quite like that which exists between a father and his daughter. As they squished and massaged the moist potting soil between their fingers and meticulously placed each of the seeds, no larger than a pencil tip, with a tweezers into the soil, I marveled at the memories they were creating together. As they were sowing seeds for the coming summer’s bounty, so too were they sowing lifelong memories of time spent together.
 Farmgirl works alongside her daddy to mix soil and pack it into soilblocks for planting. |  With precise manual dexterity, Farmgirl meticulously places each onion and leek seed. I couldn't possibly execute this job with greater precision! |
Our little farmboy accompanies me most mornings, dressed in his toddler-warmest and nestled close to my chest in our Ergo (baby carrier), to walk around the property. Farmboy, not yet much of a talker, hums in contented relaxation and chirrups excitedly at first sight of the goats. The pups join us on patrol. This week, the peninsular winds brushed the snowy slate clean across our field. As we clumsily walked through the snowy drifts, we encountered fresh tracks stamped across our path. . .
Fresh tracks stamped across the windblown snowscape.
When I showed the photo to Farmgirl, she enthusiastically informed me that they were turkey tracks! Of course! Wild turkeys frequent our orchard where they scratch through the icy crust to retrieve last fall’s leftover apples.
More signs of wildlife of the miniature nature etched the snowscape, evidenced by an intricate network of snow tunnels
and decorated by pawprints.
More signs of wildlife of the miniature nature etched the snowscape, evidenced by an intricate network of snow tunnels
and decorated by pawprints.
An intricate network of trail systems etch the snowscape, decorated by delicate pawprints.
Farm Grown Meals of the Week: We continue to pull what we can from our deep freeze. My ‘hard-core other half’ excels in stuffing peppers of the Mexican/southwest flavor. His sweet peppers, topped with chili and cumin seasoned venison burger and organic black beans spread over a bed of warm brown rice, top our Farmboy’s list of favorite foods. A little (probably Americanized) Asian influence also graced our table last week with some homemade Chop Suey.
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