2023. Here we go again.
Each January I swear that I will add monthly – if not weekly – posts. Blogging is definitely not my thing if there’s a choice between watching a YouTube homesteading or gardening channel and working on a computer. It’s just not in my DNA.
But 2023? Somehow I think this year is actually going to be different. And here’s why —
After thirteen years, I have finally quit growing microgreens for a living. And I finally quit doing the Yancey County Farmers Market. And why is that going to make a world shattering change in my homesteading and blogging life? Because microgreens, delicious and profitable though they may be, take a HUGE amount of time. Soak seed, plant them, water them, rotate them, change the heat settings, change the a/c settings, turn a fan on them, change the setting of that fan, turn the fan off. Every day. Every hour.
And the farmers market? Spend Thursday prepping for Friday’s harvest. Wash and sanitize the food safe tubs in the washing station, clean and sanitize the harvesting tub trugs, Spend Friday actually harvesting, washing, drying and packing produce and microgreens, make labels and price signage, change the display chalkboard, load the truck. And then Saturday? Up at five a.m. to load the produce into the truck in the dark with who knows what critters watching from the bushes. I haven’t stepped on a copperhead yet but there was always the next Saturday.
Then set up at the market (which takes an hour) sell to the public for four hours in cold, heat, rain, wind and – sometimes – two or three at once. Then break down the tables and tent, go back to the homestead to unload everything just to do it all again the following Thursday. Oddly enough, I usually spent Sundays on the couch, staring at the TV, with drool coming down the corner of my mouth. News flash to myself — YOU’RE TOO OLD TO DO THIS!
Yeah, yeah, so what’s new for 2023 whiny baby? No time-consuming microgreens means I might actually achieve some of the New Year’s goals that I set every year. No physically brutal farmers market means I may have more energy to put some of those goals and plans into action.
This year, we’re cleaning up the homestead, doing a small farmers market that’s ten minutes away and that starts much later in the day. So we’re starting the programs we’ve had as goals for four years now. This entire rant was just to show you that, no matter what, if you just refuse to give up on dreams, they can come true.
To see what dreams we’re bringing to life, check out our December newsletter. We wish you all the best for the coming year and hope that your dreams and plans come to fruition.
