Dear Farm Journal,

Today I am taking the first step in attempting to salvage our spinach crop in greenhouse two, weeding. The spinach has started to pop up, but the beds are thin and weak. If I had to guess the spinach to weed ratio is probably something like 1:8 and most of the spinach that has come up is small, withered, and yellowing. Rufus thinks this is from a nutrient deficiency in the soil, most likely a lack of nitrogen because the compost is relatively young and still in the process of breaking down. The spinach planting in field A, where the soil is older looks much healthier. We will need to add nutrients to greenhouse 2, but the first step is eliminating the competition. After my stretch of being in a funk about the farm, it feels good to get back to the basics, kneeling in the soil, pinching weeds away from the surface, and working to breathe life back into our gardens. In reality, I feel like the garden is the one breathing life back into me today, reminding me that I don’t just farm for other people, for Rufus, for our customers, or for the greater good of an improved food system. I also farm for myself, for the natural therapy it provides, for the experience of connecting with the earth, and the simple peace of an age old undertaking.

~Joy