farm lifeinspiration This One's For The Dreamers Amy Smith ·January 1, 2025 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 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 Year's 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. 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 grassroots 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 knew 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 contemplated failure would boil to the surface. 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! 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 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. 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 won't 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. The best part of what we do has been finding a community 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 fields and truly just want to feed you the best quality food grown or produced naturally. 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. 2024 with all of its ups and downs will be a year I never forget. 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. Be kind to the people you come across throughout your days. Own up to your mistakes and apologize only when you mean it. Love. Act out of love. Be yourself in the most authentic way you can. 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. 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 than you could have ever imagined. Happy New Year Sweet Friends Stay Wild and Stay Leafy Amy A Amy Smith Leafy Dreams Iowa ← Previous Dreamy Deliveries: The Greens That Inspire Us to Keep Growing All Posts Next → A Story About Lettuce
