A Field of Dreams

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This weekend, our neighbor came over with his tractor to till our garden cover crop under, and, as a huge bonus, he plowed our South field! Our neighbor, who is uneasy about heights, is happy to do work trades with my husband to help do things up on ladders in exchange for tractor work. It's a beautiful arrangement! And, we now have a field! I always imagined that one day I would grow fields of food. My latest dream has been a U-pick pumpkin patch and lavender farm. I can just see this field filled with ripe orange pumpkins on their vines.

It is a very good feeling, indeed, to have a field, but at the same time it's a little overwhelming. The field is bigger than our house! It feels a little reminiscent of bringing your first baby home from the hospital (two babies in my case!) when you're been so confident that you will just inherently know how to take care of them, but then there comes that moment of wondering, "what do I do now?" I am realizing that I don't know that much about planting an entire field, but fortunately, we have lots of books and the O.S.U. extension office for support. I think the immediate answer is cover crops! We threw in some rows of sprouted potatoes and garlic I found in the free pile at Grower's Market, so if nothing else, we can fill the pantry with potatoes and garlic in the fall. Besides, we have our hands plenty full with the garden right now. At least it's only half the size of the house.

We got the greenhouse finished and seedlings started a little late, but I am still excited to plant rows of corn, squash, peppers, peas, onions, kale, lettuce, and many other delicious things! In honor of our first field, I will share the lyrics to a Grateful Dead song I always enjoy this time of year. Here's to sowing the seeds of our dreams!

"Round and round, the cut of the plow in the furrowed field

Seasons round, the bushels of corn and the barley meal

Broken ground, open and beckoning to the spring;
 black dirt live again

The plowman is broad as the back of the land he is sowing
As he dances the circular track of the plow ever knowing
That the work of his day measures more than the planting and growing

Let it grow, let it grow, greatly yield."

-From "Weather Report Suite: Part II, Let it Grow"
by John Perry Barlow