I am a homeschooling mom of two who has lived on a farm for nearly two years now. I grew up in the well irrigated desert of socal (southern California) in apartments and townhouses. I played in the alleys and on sidewalks. So I didn’t have farming or gardening experience growing up at all. The closest my family got to actually gardening was when my brother brought home a cactus that we planted in our 1′ by 4′ (30cm by 122cm) strip of dirt. That cactus did very well though. I have always loved being out in the open, climbing rocks and watching tarantulas but these excursions were occasional (maybe three times a year). Once I was within striking distance of a rattle snake, it was terrifying and exciting (probably because I wasn’t bitten).
I also really like food and in my young adult years I started getting into healthy eating and fresh food. For me moving to the San Francisco Bay Area was my intro to food. I worked with food and was around people who worked with food. They all cared about ingredients and making fresh delicious meals. So many restaurants and cheap eats where geared toward at least fresh quality food. I miss so many of those places, food is different in New Zealand. Oh yeah I moved to New Zealand. This fresh food got me into the idea of gardening and when I finally did have an actual back yard I tried. It was a touch and go, I manage to grow things but most the time my garden was a fail and turned to weeds. That said, since moving to the farm I have gotten a whole lot better at gardening, it still becomes a weedy mess sometimes and I still fail a fair bit but we eat from it regularly and that is my main goal right now.
Other things are, I love learning about things and I love planning. I kind of go on learning binges where I pick a topic or thing and I learn a whole lot about it then move along to the next. I feel this is great for farming because I have to learn everything but I don’t need to know all the things all at once. I can binge on a topic till I feel I have enough information for what I need then move to the next thing. I also get to make so many plans, I plan the garden, what animals I want to have, what to do with all the fruit and veg I grow! for somethings I can plan a year out and others for a season, I can change plans to make new plans Oh the planning you can do on a farm!
Well that was a very very brief bit about me and as time goes on I’m sure I will expand on this or if someone is interested in more feel free to ask.
