And The Beat Goes On..

some of our “Dreamy Blends” ready for market

I love Spring. It means that summer is right behind the corner.

Plus, this year actually feels like Spring. Late night thunderstorms, cool moody mornings that occasionally open up to be beautiful sun filled afternoon. Chilly nights followed by warm, steamy nights, followed by bigger, brighter thunderstorms.

The days are getting longer and although it has been a little cooler than some of us would prefer, we still get those warm, late spring days where the we feel the first sting of the summer sun. We are all dreaming of vacations.. even us! We are busier than ever with conflicting schedules, the slight possibility that we slightly over scheduled ourselves for farmers markets and waiting for the ground to dry just enough to get the rest of our plants in the ground. June will be here before we know it and with the goals we have set for ourselves this summer, we are beyond excited to be in the midst of the crazy we have created for ourselves.The promise of sharing our dream with more of our community and showing them what we can bring to the table, the deliciously fresh produce with can bring to their families table. It finally feels like we have our chairs firmly seated and we are inviting people to join us. Like minded, and some very, very not like minded individuals that we have had the pleasure of coming together with on the basic common goal of a community supported agriculture system where farmers are working hand in hand to provide the highest quality, best possible products that Iowa has to offer and bringing them into one location for our community as well as the surrounding communities so they can access fresh, local goods regardless of it’s in the middle of July while everyone’s gardens are booming, or the middle of the January cold where we are craving a little bit of that summer goodness that just feels a little too far out of reach. Every day we grow new produce, herbs, and flowers. We are ready to bring some of our heirloom seeds into the fresh air to bring you our Garden Fresh goodies throughout the summer and fall.

I find myself frequently reminiscing on last summer. Leafy Dreams isn’t even a year old yet. Even Still, things are so much bigger than either one of us ever anticipated.

To think of where we started that sticky July day that we brought our little farm home without any REAL idea of what we were getting ourselves into and managing to, in about six months find our way into some of our favorite local markets and having the ability to bring our “Dreamy Blends” and other goodies to our community from one farmers market to another. To actually be able to speak of our dream and the hope we aspire we bring into our community is all such a dream come true for Nick and I. Every new opportunity we are granted is another nudge that we are on the right path chasing this little dream and every smile we bring to new friends faces when they taste one of our blends or bite into one of our juicy heirloom tomatoes has become all the motivation we need to keep building our dream into a reality. Leafy Dreams LLC is just in the infancy of what we have envisioned for the future of our passion driven company.

I will never say that this has been the easiest choice we have made. Dropping our careers, throwing caution to the wind and diving head first into a field that we are both “new” to. We may not have degrees in our field, but we do have a love of food and a love of community and a mindset fully committed to providing only the best to the people that share our home. I will never say that every day has been the epitome of perfection or that there are days where doubt doesn’t creep in through the cracks of insecurity that we still have about our vision. WE will certainly never claim that we will reach out goals successfully without arguments, mishaps and full blown screw ups, but WE will say that none of those things will stop us from bringing Leafy Dreams all the way into the light of day. We have so much to offer the community and we treasure the opportunity to have so many people following along and rooting for us on the sidelines.

Every single day of the last ten months has been a blessing, a challenge, and a surprise (good or bad) that we weren’t exactly expecting. Everything about this little leafy dream has tested us both physically and mentally both as individuals, and as a couple. I can truly say that when we moved back to Iowa (a little less than two years ago) this was not the plan. This became the plan after finding a mutual love of feeding people and hydroponics. The later being a love we found together, by chance that quickly became something we couldn’t live without…. as well as something that we couldn’t help but to share with the world or, at least as much of Iowa as we can.

I guess the short version of this story is simply to never stop chasing your dream! You will always have the infamous “naysayers”, you will likely have the short sighted people watching your every move in the hopes they will get to witness your most epic fail and they just might but if you never take that leap, if you never allow yourself that brief moment of possible insanity where you convince yourself to go all in with your favorite person in the world and give it hell until you find a way to scrape and crawl your way into the reality of your dreams.. you might just run the risk of leading a mediocre life that you spend wondering what might have been if you believed in yourself and your dream just a little bit more.

Life is short, and has the ability to be cruel and heartbreaking. I just think if we all let a little bit of that childhood magic stick with us into adulthood, or found someone who helps you remember how inspiring those day dreams could be, we might all just be able to bring a little bit of magic into a world that at times makes hope, let alone magic, seem like a distant memory rather than something we should all be fighting for every day that we are lucky enough to wake up one more time.

Keep Dreaming. Keep Growing. Keep Loving

And as always,

Stay Leafy Friends.

-A