On Beginning

Beginning.  It's a word that carries a bit of weight for me. It is, after all, the meaning of my unusual first name.  From very early on I remember my parents telling me, and telling anyone who asked, they chose the name Genesis because they hoped I would represent and embody a new beginning in a broken world. The only specific new beginnings I remember references to are "beginnings for women-kind." A little vague (and maybe a little heavy?), but the general intention has stuck with me.  I admit to having felt a certain (self imposed. definitely self imposed) pressure every time I have a major beginning - will this job be it?  Will this friendship change my life?  Will I live up to this amazing but intense name my whole world identifies with me?  Can I make a big enough impact?

And I finally feel comfortable saying yes.  Yes, absolutely my impact will be big enough. Producing food and building local community and economy and health and wealth (of spirit anyway) will most certainly be enough. More than enough.  And the best part is I am still just at the beginning. The very very baby beginning of this impact.The truth is I'll probably still be at the beginning 5 years from now, but that is really okay. There is much to learn, and many hard, hot and long seasons to get through but I'm still so excited to have that in front of me.  You people are probably really sick of hearing me say that.


Most of this is spurred by a really fantastic field day that Eli and I went to on Sunday at Gardens of Eagen, a 50 acre organic farm outside of the Twin Cities.  The all day event was centered around market gardening for beginners, and featured two farming couples who both had been incubated by the mega-farm. The first couple has been farming for 8 years and are just starting to feel like they have a grasp on things, and the second couple is farming for themselves for the first time this year and are flying by the seat of their pants. But they are in fact flying, which is important.   It was really information and inspiring, though, and I left feeling really energized about our path and really ready to get a solo season under our belts. Next year will come soon enough.  

In the meantime, we are trying to survive the mid-August weather that is visiting us in June (highs close to triple digits) and getting more comfortable in the harvesting routine.  We're also continuing to fill out our own little market plot and enjoying more faces on the farm. As we've moved into the harvest and delivery phase of the year we've brought on more of the high season farm crew to help, and it makes each day a little different, depending on who we get around here.  Kind of a nice change of pace.

A couple photos to end the post - Eli tilling in a buckwheat cover crop to our little plot, and some lettuce waiting to get packed up for the CSA delivery.