The very first thing we did on this farm to build an income was create a market garden.
I thought to myself that’s easy enough just plant a seed and it grows. Boy was I wrong!
We both work full-time jobs during the day. What I didn’t realize was the minute we decided to purchase a farm and strive to make it a working farm my life would change drastically.
The farm is our second full-time job. We miss out on a lot of events because what we have going on here at the farm. Admittedly at first it was hard for me to understand because I wasn’t putting in my fullest effort. As I started to commit more time to the farm I realized why it matters so much and the reward it brings even though we may miss out on things because someone has to be home to assist the animals or tend to the garden or be at a market. The pure joy this farm brings outweighs anything thrown at it.
I remember it was our second market garden season and Ryan spent countless hours n the winter researching and watching video after video on building the perfect garden beds.. When springtime rolled around he had a plan. We took two weeks off of work and focused strictly on the market garden. We purchased compost which was now looking back far too expensive and not worth it, but the big names were doing it so we needed to as well. What was often not disclosed on those big name videos is the cost of the product coming in. For us little farmers spending a good chunk of money on compost was a big deal. We soon learned it was a nice to have and not a need to have as there are other alternatives out there.
We spent so much time getting our garden beds perfect like in the videos we watched to spend the entire season day and night weeding them. This was all part of the process of building a successful market garden. Except we thought it was an instant process. What we didn’t realize is that it took those very successful market gardeners years to perfect. We got so caught up in the perfect that we became discouraged at our leaps of progress.
That season was a pretty successful year once we stopped to look back at how far we have came.
If I can offer a piece of advice it would be not to get caught up in comparison. I have found that you sometimes envy those who may not show the challenges and struggles they went through to get where they are at. It can often paralyze your progress.
The following season we ran into some struggles because we fell into that rut again of watching and doing but we recognized it and dug our way back out to end with a successful season.
This next season we are doing what is best for our farm our way!
Moral of the story…. Sometimes things may not be what they seem. Build your own path and never give up!
-Jamie
Moral Of The Story 