Daydream of Becoming a Farmer

If there is one thing I love about my small town in west Michigan, it's watching the breeze slightly roll across the many rows of farmland behind the main strip of town. We went on an hour long bike ride today along the back roads and it was very peaceful. Miss A was being a sweet little girl riding behind me silently playing with her toys. Bill was up ahead. My eyes drifted to the fields of young grains and some kind of row crop just beginning to sprout. It was then when I instantly got lost in a daydream of becoming a farmer.

I'd grow wheat and other grains and learn to make my own bread. I'd grow several different fruits and vegetables... peppers of every color, some spicy, some not... several tomatoes, corn, a variety of herbs... I've always loved the fall festivities so I'd definitely grow pumpkins, squash, and other random gourds. If I grew those then I'd definitely have to become a beekeeper to get my favorite thing in the world-- honey. Alongside the garden and away from the bees, I'd have to have my own cow or two for milk and hopefully learn to produce cream and butter as well. Not sure the whole process for that but if I had a cow, I'd have to grow hay using its manure to fertilize the crops... Watching a plant's first sprout to blooming and producing its fruit is actually quite fascinating... Then of course you're rewarded for all your hard work and effort with delicious homegrown meals and a surplus of food for the next seasons. 

You can tell I'm good at romanticizing simple things in life. Though I have always been in love with nature, I have never truly understood the beauty of farmlands until today. All that hard work put onto a piece of land to grow and produce something so valuable is a priceless experience. The only feeling that comes to mind is from the song, Fly Over States by Jason Aldean.

Right now my own garden consists of red and green peppers, jalapenos, habaneros, cucumbers, red and yellow tomatoes, strawberries, cilantro, oregano, chives, and pineapple mint. I have all the herbs potted in individual pots so they are easily transportable into my home come wintertime. So my garden is pretty small right now but I have some exciting goals once the fruit grows. I hate the taste of plain tomatoes but I planted three tomato plants to experiment making homemade salsa with my peppers, cilantro, and possibly some with pineapple mint. I'm also hoping to have enough cucumbers to make my first fermented dill pickles. (It would have been smart to plant dill too... Hmmm I will have to buy some of that too... Not too late!)

My small, (rocky) garden

Redskin Pepper

Oregano

Pineapple Mint, Cilantro, Chives (check out the flowers on the chives...pretty cool!)

It's obvious by looking at my pictures that I have a LONG way to go on my journey to becoming a farmer... but everyone has to start somewhere right? I would really love to make my garden bigger and bigger each year until it eventually turns into a substantial amount of farmland. I would have my own big, cool, green John Deere tractor/ big agricultural machinery to be non-specific............

It's very unlikely that this will happen though because I also have dreams of living in a small town in the middle of the mountains out west somewhere... And in southern California close to the ocean... In Europe... Taiwan... Southern Florida... Southern France... Anywhere else besides Michigan...

What can I say? I'm a dreamer.


Note to those not from Michigan: Michigan is fabulous. You can't ask for a better state... Rare to have major tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, (blizzards are nothing and always a blast)... Beautiful Great Lakes... Four seasons of fun... Porcupine Mountains... Mackinac Bridge/Island... Lots of camping... Beautiful scenery... and much, much more. I just have an urge to explore new places.