Farmer's Market

I've had a dream to run a Farmer's Market here in Sonora for several years now. I started planting vegetables in 2005, and much to my dismay learned hard from my experiences. That first garden was growing abundantly, only to be paraded by a herd of cows. I remember that day we came home from vacation. I remember all the hard work that went into it: the tilling, rock picking, row making, planting, and of course watering. I also remember the look on my husbands' face when we looked at the tornado of corn stalks, bean vines, and tomato bushes ripped down to fibers and bleeding all of their energy out on to the soil. It was devastating.
But, in 2006 we gave it another go with a little success. In 2007 we got smart, and built a solid pipe garden (I should give credit to John for this one). We had a really nice garden, but as we worked the soil we dreamed of an even bigger one. Our dreams turned to reality in 2009 when we built a fence around 5 acres and our house. Our visitors may not like another gate..but this garden is enough to provide our family plus 20 more families with fresh vegetables and fruit. Also in that time frame we started our pomegranate orchard of just 50 trees. Now we are up to over 200 trees. We will have delicious pomegranate fruit by next year, and by 2013 we should have them growing out of our ears.
Yes, we have grown. This growth represents trial and error, but most importantly patience. Patience is something that I need to work on, and I'm starting to believe God guided me to gardening to teach me this. John has candidly reminded me of to have patience by telling me that you eat an elephant one bite at at time.
This year our crop has a lot of potential. Of course I'm already planning on upgrading for next year. A greenhouse would allow us to start our own tomatoes from seed and that way we'd have the delicious fruit by April.
We are also in the process of putting an irrigation system in place for our orchard (again gotta give credit where it's due). Right now we are hand watering them and it takes a day and a half. That is of course taking breaks to tend to my two small children that I stay home with.
Lately a lot of people have shown interest in what we are doing. I think my Farmer's Market idea may be a reality sooner than I realized. Local grown food is important because since it doesn't have to travel far, it's fresh. It also gives back to our community by supporting local business and the family farm. It's important to know where your food comes from so you can see what goes into it and I think this is something we should be teaching our kids. Most people know that a homegrown tomato blows the store-bought one out of this world in flavor. And most people know that eggs from chickens that are free range are packed with more nutrients, not to mention a lot better tasting. But, I will blog on this issue later.
For now, I will grow like I've never grown before. Next year I will grow a little more, looking forward to the day that I am taking my produce to share with the entire community.