Feel Like a Farmer

We live on 1/3 acre of land in the city. Our lot was originally a flag lot, but we were gifted with a little more land that has now become our vegetable garden. We are lucky to live in a kind of compound--surrounded on two sides by family and a close friend, and friendly neighbors on the other sides. It's difficult to imagine a nicer arrangement for kids than to run over to their grandmother's for a visit, to bake a cake, or to feel helpful and responsible by walking dogs and doing chores for loved ones.

All this to say, our little Urban Farmette (so named by my dear friend Kristen)is really not an active farm--though my relatives have a wondrous one in Western Colorado! But we have high hopes for food production here in our yard. This morning, I put in the eight new blueberry bushes, bringing us to a total of sixteen. One can never have too many blueberries. And we will probably still eat them right off the bush or with breakfast cereal, needing a trip to the larger blueberry farm for jam and freezer stock. Many seedlings are in the works: snap peas, chard, red lettuce, and orach have already been planted, along with red cosmos, nasturtiums, and sunflowers (I want to have a RED flower garden this year--red for passion, creativity, life).

And somehow, when I find myself out in the garden at 7 am before breakfast cleaning the chicken coop and planting blueberries before going to work, I feel like a farmer!