Goals Week - Back to Enjoying Growing

"What motivated you to start the Genuine Faux Farm?  I mean, you got your degree to teach Computer Science and Tammy has her doctorate in Social Work Education and neither of you grew up on a farm.  How did you get to where you are now?"

This is a popular question that gets asked often when I present to classes, or if one or the other of us is being interviewed.  In fact, I have had a few people ask if I would write on how our thinking brought us to where we are today.  I thought I would honor that request - but I suspect it won't come in the package that might be expected.  I thought I would address some of that topic while writing about some of our goals for the 2021 season at the Genuine Faux Farm throughout the week.

The Fine Line

With all things, there is a fine line between having the opportunity to do something you love and becoming overwhelmed by that thing so that you no longer enjoy it as you once did.  There aren't giant blinking signs that go off when you straddle that line either.  Essentially, you just meander by it on the way from here to there and, if you are lucky, you notice that you are getting numb.  Noticing means you can actually do something to correct course!

That doesn't mean you no longer love what you are doing and it certainly doesn't mean there aren't moments where there is still enjoyment and positive feelings.  That fine line is not an "on-off switch" either.  But, failure to recognize that you're on the wrong side of the fine line can lead to the regrettable - the evolution of something that once gave you joy to something that now only causes pain and regret. 

I feel that we crossed that line some years ago with the farm and we have been meandering our way back to the borderlands.  

First, let me point out that there isn't a straight or simple path that we can follow either.  The Genuine Faux Farm has grown, just as Rob and Tammy have grown over time - and in that growth we have meandered within the bounds of an overall plan we set for ourselves.  We could not foresee all of the paths or pre-determine which opportunities were going to lead to success and happiness in what we were doing.  Similarly, we couldn't predict all of the difficulties that would steal satisfaction away and leave us standing on the downhill slope and on the wrong side of that fine line.

What We Enjoy

I think I speak for both of us when I say that we both like to get our hands in the dirt and we like to see the plants we nurture thrive.  It doesn't matter whether it is a tree, a bush, a flower or a vegetable/fruit.  We also love to see birds and hear them singing as we spend our time outdoors.  And the textures, smells and sounds of the weather around us can be fascinating.

If you are a grower, I think you'll understand that the biggest part of it is - being a part of it.  

There are few things more beautiful than a row of green beans that are just putting on their first flush of beans for harvest.  Unless it is that row of lettuce that is at peak size, shape and color.  Or maybe it's the melons that carpet their growing area between the borage and zinnias, showing off the yellow flowers asking to be pollinated so they can grow us some tasty melons.  Or maybe an iris with multiple flower stalks laden with their color - unless it's the daylilies later in the year or the asters towards the end of the year.

There are discoveries to be made every day too!  

The bull snake that surfed over the broccoli plants to get from one end of a field to the other.  The volunteer chleome plants at the end of a plot that we just had to let grow.  A new texture of leaf for that lettuce we thought we would try.  A frog bobbing in the black tub that holds water drained from our cleaning area.  A rainbow.  A new story to tell.  A surprise that you actually like Golden Beets.  Oh look you can grow Brussels Sprouts and, huh, you really don't want to grow Brussels Sprouts!

Add to all of that the fact that both of our personalities like challenges, puzzles and a wide range of jobs to do (maybe Rob more than Tammy on this front) and a small, diversified farm has the right people to work it.

That's the first part of our answer to the question at the top of this blog - our personalities tend to match up with running a farm like this as do some of the things we enjoy doing.

Re-Crossing the Fine Line

As a mentioned, somewhere along the way - we lost our way.  There can be such a thing as too much of a good thing.  And, there has to be recognition that we, as humans, are pretty complex when it comes to what we like and what we don't like.  Those two things can look pretty similar sometimes.

The point is, we are aware that we still like many of these things and we have some ideas as to why we have been liking them less.  Some of the factors have less to do with us (chemical drift, changing weather with more heavy rain events, declining demand) and more to do with how the world around us is working right now.  Some of it has to do with reaching "saturation points" where we can't enjoy what we have because there is too much of certain things - challenge isn't good if there isn't success to balance failure, for example.

Right now, we take our recognition that we had crossed the fine line as a blessing.  It means we can do things to get back to that line and do our best to be as near to it as we can - without crossing.  Because that's how we know we are trying to be at our best.

This week, I thought we would share some of the things we are looking forward to during the 2021 growing season.  By sharing them, I suspect I will find myself anxious and excited to get out there and get things growing again.