Happy Friday y’all!

Dahlia tubers are all dug and in the basement, getting divided by the ladies for spring.  Mandy and I have been spreading compost, tilling it in, and cover cropping all the fields to replenish them a bit and let them rest and recover.  Everybody needs a rest after working hard.  Even fields.

Grace trimming dahlia tubers (left) & all the dahlia tubers stored snugly in the basement (right)

Aside from that, we’re all just doing all the little things required to keep this farm train a-rolling down the track. It’s wild all the non planting, cutting, bunching things required to keep this tiny enterprise moving. Descriptions would be mundane and inane, but even so, they are all incredibly important. I feel like there’s always 10 critical things requiring immediate attention looming overhead, and when you have a really successful week and you manage to knock 6 of them down, they are immediately supplanted by 6 more. Outta nowhere. Feels like you’re just chasing that carrot. Speaking of which, mad respect to carrot farmers. I tried that veggie farming life for 5 years.

Getting the field tilled in after dark to beat the rain (left) & Steve fixing our farm well after the cold temps made it do some weird things this week! (left)

I questioned my sanity constantly while muddy, wet, and cold at the end of a 100 hour week. Spraining my fingers as I forcefully jabbed them into the hard earth straining to pull out carrot after carrot, beet after beet, instead of eating a cooked meal in a warm house like the rest of the sane world. Lugging tubs of them across the farm in the evening darkness, through the rain. Thumping them down by a spigot and giving already wet and abused fingers feelings of frostbite while trying to clean the dirt off a thousand carrots in cold water for the next however long.

And when you're done….you're not done. Market prep continues til 2 am. Exhausted and hungry, you lay your head down for 2 precious hours, set 2 alarms, then get up to go to market at 4am and compete with all your friends and neighbors to sell those carrots and beets for $3 a bundle. I can’t tell you how much I don’t miss it. How much I shudder at the memories that are engraved deep in my bones, whenever they wash over me.

We never achieved minimum wage no matter how hard we worked.

Desperate, drained, and scared, but smiling as market customers constantly told us we were living their dream lives and others would complain we were price gouging because of the word organic. It was a rough way to try and make a living. Small scale veggie farming is haaaard…. I have insane amounts of respect for folks that still do it and manage to make a living out of it.

Well that was a major tangent. Sometimes the past wells up and swallows you for a minute.

We love you Kali!!!! Thanks for spreading so much joy here at the farm!

We do have some present news. We are wishing our dear friend and flower studio manager, Kali, a happy and successful next step. She came for a 3 month gig and stayed for 3 years, and we couldn’t be more grateful to her and happy for her as she moves on to the next adventure. She had a hand in virtually every bundle that went out to y’all over the last 3 years, so her good vibes have been spreading to many of your homes, and we wish her nothing but happiness going forward.

Tomorrow is our year end holiday party with the crew and their fams, so if you swing by the store at end of day and hear shenanigans, it's just us goofing around. Low Country Boil, field games, and a dappling of karaoke and dancing.

The Farm Store is open today through Sunday, then closed until spring!  So get whatcha need for winter vibing or holiday gifting now!

For non-locals, seeds and flower subscription cards purchased by today at 3pm ET will be shipped out today (Friday) and should arrive by Christmas barring USPS shenanigans.  Gift cards are sent digitally, so if you read this last minute, you still have that option.

For other gift ideas that are or aren’t 3 Porch related, check out our holiday gift guide.  We have ideas for wonderful gifts from us, from other cherished local businesses,  and a couple that are from businesses far removed from us, that ship items that we just adore.  Whatever holiday you celebrate, these are lovely and unique gift ideas that you don’t have to get off Amazon or go to a box store for.

Sunday is the last open Farm Store day this season. Come visit Friday, Saturday, or Sunday!

I’ll be taking a break from newsletters for a bit. Soaking in the quiet of an empty farm as our crew takes a few weeks off to rest and recharge like the fields. Mandy and I will be tending to everything, cleaning, repairing, watering, and doing our annual planning for how to approach a whole new year. For the in between moments, we’ll find some rest as well.

We’re looking at a balmy 73 degree Christmas Day, so we may have to throw some ice in that cup of nog.
Steve