Hello Farm Friends!

It is a beautiful, warm Sunday morning here at Two Bear Farm. It’s hard to believe we’re headed into the second week of September already. And after a very mild and rainy August, September is feeling much more like summer. The forecast today is for sunny and a high of 88 degrees! There are only 2 weeks left of our CSA season, and so the farm is shifting into fall mode.

I awoke today feeling the need to catch up on things and start the week with a clean slate. Folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, paying invoices, and installing the hooks in the pantry after 3 years of thinking about it. And I have also had it on my mind recently that I haven’t done much writing for the readers of this blog. So, I thought it would be good to catch up a bit.

A videographer came out to the farm a couple weeks ago with his drone, and this is a rough first edit of some of his footage. There are some random patches of volunteer sunflowers that popped up in the field this year, and we decided to just work around so that they could add their beauty to the farm, and I think the videographer (and the bees) really enjoyed them.

My initial reaction to this video was “wow, we are doing all this with only 6 people this year”. Actually, at the moment, we are down to 4 people, including myself, working on the farm. And yet, this has been one of the most enjoyable and least stressful years in my 17 years of farming. While part of that is getting better at managing stress, the bigger reason is that we have a highly functioning team this year. Something every business yearns for, yet is so hard to achieve. To have a team show up where everyone is happy to do the work, every one pulls there weight every day, and things get done smoothly and efficiently so that we can finish work on time each day. To have a farm this size where we have only had to work 8 hour days all season (as compared to the 12+ hour days of our past) has been a real gift. It feels like we’ve finally come up with an equation that has allowed us to tame the beast that the farm has become. And none to soon, as I think doing things the old way was about to push me to the exit door.

So, while I haven’t been writing much, it’s simply because I’ve been enjoying the space that the farm has allowed this year, choosing to spend more time in nature and less time with screens and technology. It feels good. Our modern culture has gotten so technology heavy that our attention has now become the latest commodity to be bought and sold. And this year I’ve tried to be a lot more intentional and disciplined in where I put my attention. Cooking delicious meals, sitting on the porch watching sunrises and sunsets, even playing a little music.

On my journey, there is a book that has really stood out to me…it’s named “Shambala: The Path of the Sacred Warrior”. And one of my favorite teachings in this book is learning to live in the present so that you notice and enjoy all the small gifts. The cool breeze that brushes your face, the song of a bird outside your window, the color of the sunlight on the land. The very simple and ever present gifts that surround us at all times, if we’re not too distracted to notice them. Because I have found that it’s the little things that are the big things in life. And so that is what this summer has been about for me on the farm. Still working very hard to steward the land and grow nutritious food for our community, but also learning to do that in a way that fills me up, rather than runs me into the ground…most days 🙂

I hope all of you have enjoyed your summer as well, and have found some little bits of space and time to take care of yourselves. I’ll talk to you soon.

Todd