Introduction

Our family is not your stereotypical farming family. We have to look back to our great grandparents for ancestry that subsisted by farming. My wife (Sunshine), is a nurse by training; and I (Harvest) a teacher, physical therapist, and businessman. We have always enjoyed a small supplemental garden, but we are now launching into farming as a new chapter in our life experience. We embrace this activity with our two sons, who will be key to our success. At 10 and 12, they are able to carry a man's load of the enterprise.

We have many reasons and goals that make agriculture a good fit. As society comes apart at the seams, we want to represent a cohesive family. As food represents 10 times more petroleum calories via production and transportation than from the food itself, we want to work with our hands, and offer locally grown food to our neighbors. As food security and safety is more and more a problem, we want to grow wholesome, pesticide free, mineral rich food. While others turn to genetic modifications and chemical farming, we seek plants that reproduce "after their own kind" Gen. 1:11. As interpersonal relationships decline to shallow posts and isolation, we want to form a community of meaningful community relationships. While the world looks for leisure and ease, we want to embrace the idea that growing your own food requires physical work. While the world denies a higher power, we welcome the goodness of God and seek to partner with Him in all we do, and we see His footsteps next to ours along our garden paths.

There is a joy of working with the soil, and we embrace this joy into our lives. We have enough to share with you as well. We desire to outline our experience, and encourage you to consider joining us in a similar life endeavor. We see small market gardens and farms, like rays of light, dotting the landscape and feeding our communities across this land. We invite you to consider standing on our shoulders, and advance the cause we have now begun. Feel free to improve on what we have started. Make your farm your own. Side-step the mud puddles we may get stuck in. Move directly to profitability in family character building, outreach potential, and even financially. At the same time, know that the goal will not be to avoid trial and perplexity. You will have plenty of these, just as we do.

Part of this blog will be sharing what we have learned from others; part will be pure from our own experience. Some posts will be a blend of the best information that we have gleaned, and our hands-on experience. Some posts will be instructional, while other posts will be historical: news as it happens on our farm.

The sun has risen. Let's get to the chores. God bless your day!