Once upon a time there was a young woman that dreamed of homesteading. She wanted to grow as much food as possible. Every kind of food that she could grow, she would. She dreamed of an orchard with plums, pears, apples, apricots, cherries, peaches…blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, currants…grapes, kiwi. A garden full of fresh produce. Medicinal plants at fingers tip. Fresh herbs all around. There would be food and medicine everywhere. Spoiler alert, this woman is me 😉
Fast forward a bit. I had children. I had food sensitivities that developed as an adult. My second child came with more sensitivities. The desire for growing food got more intense. Good food was expensive too. This was another huge reason for wanting to grow my own food. If you have earth to plant in, you can be rich in food. I grew a couple of gardens but needed more space, more food. I grew up in a city. People had small gardens for fresh summer eating. I wanted to grow enough food for a year. This was foreign to me. I had to learn. The home I grew up in was in a city but we had fruit trees in the back yard at one time. I believe they were planted by my grandparents. All of which we cut down ultimately. We did have pears growing up but just for fresh eating. I remember mom having a garden but I had no involvement in it that I recall.
Fast forward even more. We were given an opportunity to finally set roots. This became our process of creating our own Eden. Boy did we hit the ground running. Our first spring we started the orchard, and had earth tilled for a garden. The second year we planted over 200 trees including two “edible” hedgerows. We planted the grapevines and blueberries, raspberries, gooseberries. We added to the orchard. Everything we planted was food or medicine for quite a while. That is where the thought came from which sparked my husband to say it was like the garden of Eden. And that it is. Our version anyway. It is incredibly exciting to me to see the fruits of lots of labor come to pass. All the dreams, come to vision.
I love growing food. I love eating food too! As does my family. There is something so wonderful about walking out the door and having food so conveniently there. And the variety. When you grow your own, you can not only control how it is grown, but you can add more diversity to your diet. Growing up in a city, I had no idea of the varieties of produce other than what my local grocery store and farmers market offered. Folks…there is so much more! I love color. Who knew there were so many different colors of produce…not me! I grew up in the 80’s & 90’s with a different kind of colorful food, lol. The kind that was manufactured 😉 Today there are more varieties available to the general public BUT, there are many more options out there. Heirloom varieties of which some in years past were almost wiped out because they may not have been good for mass production.
I have learned a lot over the years and will continue to do so. I love creating and problem solving. I became interested in making clothing when I was a younger woman. I had a hard time finding clothing that fit well and that was aesthetically what I wanted. I didn’t develop that interest in myself much but when I had children, I taught myself to sew. I love making things for my babies. I have designed and made clothing and even a few pairs of shoes. I also crochet & knit. I enjoy basket making & candle making. I enjoy making, period. I do so for function as well as art. The process is very satisfying. Creating for purpose & beauty. I love the idea that when I create something for my family that part of me goes into it. My love for them, my time, my energy. Someday when I am gone, they could have something that I touched. Something I made just for them.
That is a bit about me for now. I am still deciding what I want to share here. I may add more later. If you have read this far, thank you! I hope you can find value in the content here and of my experience. I hope to share with you some of our journey in this process so you can grow along with me. I hope to encourage and inspire you here <3.