This One’s For The Dreamers
This year has been anything but ordinary. Nick and I experienced so many firsts with our little Leafy Dream… and some of those firsts were really quite bad. For the better part of of the last 8 months we have been living in a teeny little tear drop camper, bouncing from place to place building the foundation for the years to come. Our current “home” may not be much in the way of ceiling height but it more than makes up for it in cozy, especially on this brisk New Years Eve!
We have had everything from a rather terribly timed crop failure to purchasing the land that, in a few years, will have our first home on it; the land where we will bring Leafy home to and the land where Nick and I will start the next chapter of our lives. With all of the challenges we have faced over the last 12 months, as I sit here tonight it’s hard for me to see anything but pure, unexpected magic and as I close the page on one chapter and head into the next I am so humbled by what I am able to bring with me into the new year gratitude and love.
A year and a half: that’s all the time that has passed since Nick and I first jumped into our leafy life. When you jump into this type of business with a grass roots mindset ( Yes, this very much means we had absolutely no idea what we were doing when we made this career move) we knew to expect a learning curve, we know there were going to be days where one of us may consider burning our farm to the ground and running off to be a Sea Gypsy and we promised from the start that we would keep each other grounded when those daunting moments of contiplated failure would boil to the surface, we just didn’t know the full suggificance of that grounding would come from the people we have met and had the pleasure of working with along the way, as much as it would come from each other.
From the time that we started we have been blessed to meet and work with some truly amazing and inspirational people. From the friends and family who have supported us and cheered us on along the way to the amazing people we have had the honor of providing greens for, we feel so blessed to be where we are today!
As with any small business ours has faced its ups and downs in it’s inaugural year, there were in fact, a few times I thought Nick was going to jump ship on me and there may have even been a time that I almost questioned if I had enough fight to carry us both through some of the harder day. Call it fate, call it a sign from somewhere far away but it seemed like on those days there was almost always someone reaching out or sending us exactly what we needed to keep going. No one ever said chasing your dreams would be easy, but I can’t imagine what life would be like without Leafy and I certainly wouldn’t want to chase this wild dream of ours with anyone but Nick.
So we are dedicating 2025 to the dreamers!
We found our home in 2024. A five acre plot in rural Iowa in between Des Moines and the town that where my family lives. A rather unusually shaped lot surrounded by trees with a large pond that we share with one of our neighbors. I was in love with this property from the moment I saw the listing online. It took a few trips to the property with Nick but eventually he feel in love with it just as much as I had. Call me crazy but the moment I stepped foot on the property for the first time it came to life, I could see Leafy Acre, the new home of Leafy Dreams come to life right in front of me, I could have cried. I knew it was home, and there is very little Nick could have done to change my mind.
Bare land, no utilities but a sense of quiet and seclusion without being too far off the beaten path in the very best way. If you came over today all you would find is a small shed and a cold, slightly snowy construction site but come summer, you will be able to see the start of our dream coming to life with all of the vibrancy that Iowa summers have to offer. I wont spoil the fun for you, but this is going to become a place that we hope our community falls in love with as much as we have. This land will be used to feed people, in the simplest, most elegant way possible. It will take a lot of work and a lot of patience but I have come to find that nothing really good in life comes from anything less. One day we will look back at our days spent in our teardrop camper and smile as it will be memories of how we built our future with our own bare hands and the help of some truly amazing people and this life, although it is far from a conventional path for many will be created the way we want it in a way that is meaningful to us.
The best part of what we do has been finding a community of of individuals who see food the way we do. We have been so lucky to find so many people who are working towards a future of feeding people real food, grown and produced locally, the right way that share the same transparency in their feilds and truly just want to feed you the best quality food grown or produced naturally using various methods who all want to work together to esnsure that our community here in the middle of the heartland has nothing short of the very best. We have been very lucky in this venture, we have found chefs, other produce providers, small local markets and even a hog farmer all aiming for a more sustainable way of feeding our community and all with some version of the same goals in mind. I really can’t express to you how wonderful it has been learning from these people, hearing their stories, and working with them on various projects. But what I can tell you with full certainty is that every single one of us started their businesses with one simple dream and the courage to chase that dream to the ends of the earth to achieve it. Many of us are still building our companies, many of us are still searching for the right ways to bring what we have to offer to our community, but we are all here and none of us are giving up!
2024 with all of its ups and downs will be a year I never forget.
With today being the first day of 2025 I am excited to say I have nothing but the highest hopes for this year. I woke up today with love and gratitude for the life I get to call my own and the man that I get to experience all of it with.
My New Year’s wish for all of you is this:
Take your days in stride, be gentle with yourself and allow yourself the grace that you provide for others. Remember there isn’t much that a warm bath and some good music can’t ease and for the bigger things allow the people who love you the opportunity help you keep your balance when you are too unsteady to stand on your own. You have survived all of your worst days and whether you know it or not in the moment there is always someone somewhere who is cheering you on. Be kind to the people you come across throughout your days, you never know what your kindness may mean to them and its always better to make someone smile than to make a hard day ever harder. We are all human, and we all need to be reminded occasionally that mistakes happen to the best of us. Own up to your mistakes and apologize only when you mean it. Sometimes it takes time for us to understand that we are in the wrong and it takes courage to admit when we are wrong; do it anyway. Have the hard conversations with the people you love most, it will only make you stronger, or it will show you that maybe that person isn’t supposed to be I’m your life. Set boundaries and don’t apologize for them. Tell the truth, even when its hard, don’t hide your truth simply because it may make someone else uncomfortable. Trust that the people in your life will show up when you need them and if they don’t, question if there is really space for them in your life. Love. Act out of love. What good has hate ever done for you anyway? Be yourself in the most authentic way you can, if you don’t know who that person is, take the time to know them. There is only one you, the world needs you, we have plenty of everyone else and only you can offer your gifts to the world… and above all, allow yourself the ability to dream, dream as big as you can for as long as you can. Chase that dream until you run out of air in your lungs, fight for it like there’s no tomorrow, don’t allow yourself to fear it. You can catch it, if you never give up I promise you can and will catch your dream and it will be even more beautiful that you could have ever imagined.
Happy New Year Sweet Friends
Stay Wild and Stay Leafy
Amy
