farm livin'

i know i said earlier this season that we would be living in this home & tending to our backyard garden for several years, but thankfully, with a bit of luck & a whole lot of prayers, we are moving onto a little homestead at the end of july. our homestead. 

it all feels like magic. we are purchasing our first home on a handful of acres with open pastures & a pond. when we first walked the property, we knew this was home. we weren't quite looking for a place to call our own just yet, but serendipitously this place fell into our laps & we couldn't be happier.  

we are dreaming of a larger flock of chickens, pigs & bees. the current owners & friends of ours are gifting us five goats! there is a large established organic garden, two barns, a workshop & the entire property is already fenced in. we are smitten.

you can read more about our mini farm on my blog. i look forward to sharing with you all about this new adventure in the (very near) future. 

- natalie

there's one thing i've learned

ahhh, it has been far too long, friends. wednesdays have been lonely around here, but it is so good to be back. since my last entry back in early june, my husband & i have experienced some big changes. i got a job offer with local foods & community building (of course i said yes!), we packed up our things in three weeks, said goodbye to our backyard garden, tied up our coop onto a trailer with chickens squawking inside & traveled 60 miles north to our new home. we are currently house-sitting for friends & enjoying our new town. in a couple of weeks, we'll move into our permanent home. life's an adventure.

& one thing i've learned throughout it all - the seven homes in five years, three cities & many gardens sprinkled here & there- you can grow food just about anywhere. raised beds from scraps of wood, a tomato plant in a pot, herbs in a bucket, salad greens as edible landscaping, swiss chard mixed with flowers, community garden plots & the neighbor's yard. we've done it all in the last seven years & we have fed ourselves from it.

we moved with a trunk full of pots filled with edible flowers, greens, herbs & vegetables. we harvest a handful of mint to add to our summer mojitos & a few stems of chard with our fresh eggs. as we house-sit, we are also enjoying the bounty from the backyard garden. the many squash & bell peppers are perfect for tacos & the cucumbers sprinkled with vinegar make for the perfect snack. 

of course, we would love to settle down eventually & dig deep into the land. for now, we enjoy the creativity that comes from planting in pots, building raised beds, leaving our work for another to enjoy & feeding ourselves.

do you have any stories to share? i'd love to hear your creative ways of growing food.