farm lifeupdates Don't Mind us over here with a little.. Mic drop.. Amy Smith ·September 4, 2024 ### In case you missed the subtle hint of sarcasm there… If anyone thought we went slightly off the deep end last summer, just wait until I tell you what we (very unintentionally) got ourselves into this summer… I love the summer months, I always have. I love the heat against my skin and as time goes on and my health continues to improve (December my new kidney turns FOUR!) I love feeling how much stronger I am than the year before. Nick and I welcomed Spring and early Summer with farmers markets, taking on new clients, broadening our skill set and preparing for what we thought was going to be the summer that our beautiful leafy dream soared to new heights — and in many ways it really did, just not exactly the way we thought it was going to. I am a firm believer that life really is all about balance. Nothing worthwhile comes without our willingness to fight for it and nothing bad comes without some kind of silver lining, even when we may have to fight through the haze of life and stress to see it. This summer has been nothing more or less than that. The start of spring brought with it our first year of farmers markets. We have been involved in five different markets this summer. We love our markets! We had weeks where we were stacked with three or more markets including a couple back to back on an occasional Saturday. It has been a truly amazing experience. The last couple weeks of June Nick and I took off on a two week adventure so he could finally meet my friends from Ohio and have an overdue trip to the beach. It was a breath of fresh air that we both badly needed. We spent time with Nick's older brother and his family who are one of the sweetest families I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. We also had a few big gardens to dive back into when we got back into town. Everything was perfect, almost too good to be true! The day we got back from vacation we were handed an ultimatum — one that we absolutely, no matter how many people we talked to, had terms that unless you are one of the lucky individuals with several hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around in cash, would be unobtainable for anyone. So part 2 of our dream seemed to be crashing in around us. When we got back to our farm we opened the door and walked into another state of shock. Everything was dead. And I do truly mean everything. We had a technical issue with the farm and it shut down every safety measure we had in place and every warning indicator. Leafy was running over a temperature of 110 degrees with over 100% humidity and it must have been like that for the entire three days we were away. Was this it? Were we actually going to throw in the towel on this dream? We had a full farm of fresh transplants — we lost over an acre of food and profit. It was devastating. Again, have I mentioned how lucky we are to know the people we have met in the Des Moines area food crowd?! Local supporting local is very alive here. Another benefit of indoor farming is that losing a crop doesn't keep us out of the races for the entire season. We cleaned everything out, basically had a repeat of last summer — cleaning, sanitizing, testing water, nutrients, bringing in new seeds. We disposed of so much product and lost 100% of our inventory. But we do have a crazy amount of compost now! It took us a few weeks just to get the farm to a place where we could start planting seeds again. That became the goal for the summer. As September gets into the last couple days of its first week, we are officially taking orders again and making our regular deliveries. Success isn't always about perfection. I have found that more often than not, success should be measured by one's ability to keep going forward regardless of the barriers put in their way. So what comes next? Something that we have been hoping to share with everyone. Something else Nick and I have been dreaming about for a long time. Something else to bring to life and to use to feed our community our way. With a little luck and one card finally falling into place, we'll be able to officially share our news very soon! Have we told you all how much we appreciate all of you and the belief you have had in us from day one? We mean it very truly when we say we would have never made it this far without each and every one of you, and today that is especially true. Thank you, we love you! Peace, love, and leafy dreams. With so much love — Amy A Amy Smith Leafy Dreams Iowa ← Previous Signed, Sealed, Delivered.. All Posts Next → And The Beat Goes On..
