As I sit here wondering what on earth to write about, my kitchen table cluttered around me reminding me that there’s supposed to be life outside of work, the scent of Sarah Berhnardt peonies slides across the kitchen and into my nose and reminds me why the work is so compelling. I’m at the point in the year where Mandy is a little tired of hearing me complain that 7 day weeks for almost half a year straight is eroding my state of health.  She’s built tougher than me.  Thrives on the constant hustle.  It’s in her DNA and her upbringing.  Her people are constantly motivated and generally happy to have long lists of tasks to accomplish and she’s the...

One of the best parts of our job is the fact that we are the conduit for so many good intentions.  We work in the heat, the cold, the mud, and in what all told, sometimes feels like a Sisyphean effort to make a living by fostering fragile lifeforms through hostile conditions that seem to be getting more erratic year by year.     We live a fairly isolated existence and only see employees and delivery drivers most of the year.  In some ways, we are very disconnected.  But, it’s become more deeply impressed on us over time, how much the results of our efforts are directly tied to thousands of gestures of love sent from one person to another.     It’s like...

It’s safe to say that Mothers are the most frequently under-appreciated members of a household.  Having literally created another human from their own flesh and blood in what appears to be a great deal of discomfort for the better part of a year, they then endure for many more years, with herculean displays of patience, one or more tiny narcissistic sociopaths running around destroying things and pooping everywhere.    For the next 18 years (at least), the unending load of thankless work, lack of sleep, and all around self-sacrifice is often met with attitude and dismissive sass from a completely helpless and fully dependent person who is not only unappreciative, but is severely self-assured in their condescension despite not even having...

  It was a close call with frost this Monday and Tuesday.  We woke up to 34 degrees and concern that we may have lost our veggie plants and possibly some mother’s day flowers, but I guess we lucked out.  All survived. I hope any of you living a little further north or higher in elevation were able to protect your precious veggie babies. It’s always a tough blow to lose your plants to frost and we’re not supposed to get any after April 15th each year, but we all know how that goes.     We did lose some of our favorite peonies to that real deep freeze awhile back.  Not the plants, but the flowers.  They are always the first to bloom and each...

  We’re a little run-down, so I don’t have much to say or share this week.  Cotton is doing great.  The snowball viburnums have been blowing our minds.  The weather has been perfect and we apparently live in a bird sanctuary.    Lunaria flowers have carpeted the landscape for more than a month now and kept us in a constant backdrop of beautiful purple, juxtaposed against the reds of the Japanese maples and greens of fresh grass and foliage.  If you have a yard, you should consider planting Lunaria.  I love it.   Spring is my absolute favorite season, but I’m always a bit torn by it.  Each year I grow to love and appreciate it more deeply, yet each year I long to experience it more...

  We’ve got some cold nights coming!  Tonight and tomorrow are both going to be in the 30’s with potential for frost, so please consider protecting all of your fragile garden starts by either bringing them inside or covering them with a tarp or some other insulative material. Make sure to fasten down your tarps too, because it's going to be a bit windy and that wind has been known to blow away good intentions and kill many a plant.   We’re wrapping up the plant sale out here, but there is still a little time to place an order for those plants you missed!  The sale ends tomorrow at noon, so head over to Our Plant Sale Page to order your tomatoes, peppers, and...

  We’ve started a new tradition at the farm.  Friday Bocce games with the crew!  If you don’t know, bocce is an old Italian game kinda like lawn bowling.  Mandy’s Dad Tony, who is a talented wood turner, gifted us with a gorgeous and painstakingly crafted set of bocce balls from hard wood he got from our farm.  The amount of time and skill that went into making these is mind blowing to me. I can’t overstate my gratitude to him.   I previously mentioned that my dad’s parents were from Ireland in the St. Patrick's day story, but my mom’s parents were actually from Italy.  My mom’s first language was Italian.     When I grew up, we spent our 3 weeks of vacation each summer up...

  Hey y’all!  Not much to say this week.   Or rather, not much time to say it.  We’re just racing around trying to get it all done.       Rachel has been organizing the plant sale and brought in Abby and 2 new helpers (Laura and Rex) to organize all the orders and make sure they are ready for y’all to pick up at your appointment.      Naw and Marry have brought in Naw’s sister in law, Eh Plaw, to keep up with all of the flowers steadily growing in the tunnels and fields.  Eh Plaw only recently arrived in the U.S. after the genocidal military campaign against their people ramped up in Myanmar.  She’s smiley and shy and...

  It was a 4-leaf clover day at 3-Porch Farm yesterday.  After chores were wrapped up, everyone gathered for a glass of Guinness, a nip of Baileys and a touch of Jameson’s.  We listened to reels and jigs and had a lot of laughs while sharing stories of some of my wilder Irish relatives.   St. Patrick’s day was always a thing at my house growing up.  My grandparents on my Dad’s side grew up in Ireland.  My grandfather was a bagpiper named Patrick, born on St. Patrick's day in a thatch roof home in rural Glencar Ireland 116 years ago.  As kids, we used to watch him play pipes in the parades in San Francisco.   He and my grandmother both fled an oppressive existence under the...

   For you North Georgians who aren’t watching the weather….it’s coming!  Strong winds and cold weather are happening this Saturday.  We’ll get into the low 20’s if not the high teens tomorrow evening, so bring in your fragile plants.  If you can’t bring them in, cover them up and consider tying down the cover because the winds will be strong.   Out here, we’re taking a few last grateful glances and sniffs at all the flowering trees and bushes that have been delighting us with their colors and fragrances recently.  Those blossoms will be frosted off in short order.   If you are going to brave the weather and head to the Athens Farmers Market this Saturday, consider swinging by Lazy Summer Farm’s booth and purchasing...