Things are starting to pick up for the upcoming growing season. Our new greenhouse works, new staff has started, seeds are sown…
The weather and early spring tasks remind me of life this time last year. So, I thought a 2024 reflection was needed—an exercise I enjoy doing each year to remind us how the farm (and we!) have changed.
As you probably already know, we welcomed Winnie in July 2024. Since the year included pregnancy, actually having baby, and post-partum, I hardly remember the specifics. If baby/parent stuff isn’t your cup of tea (no judgement here!), feel free to stop reading here ha.
In Spring, every day I’d wake up feeling like half the normal version of myself. When I was pregnant, everything felt difficult because honestly, it was! I never really got used to this feeling throughout the year, and looking back, I see that Spring was a mere trying-to-get-by scenario. If I had a conversation with you I didn't remember, or didn’t follow up on an email, please give me a pass. I wasn't my normal self! Here are the things that helped this preggo farmer:
Family to teach us how to use baby items. Like, how do you swaddle? No clue. Why are there so many contraptions!
Over-all pants. Clutch. Old Navy maternity clothes. Baggy things made my nausea symptoms so much better.
Chairs place strategically all over the farm to sit on. Cause standing = not feeling good.
Lots of sleep. Moving slowly. Smoothies.
Unisom. Every night. Was the only thing that helped me not feel nauseous in the morning.
Daily check ins from family and friends. Having people to talk to, and who were understanding, made me feel more emotionally stable.
Another huge part of our life changed last Spring. Bryan lost his job. This whole experience was wild… in the middle of our most busy month (May, where we are planting literally the season’s worth of crops) and about to have a baby. After a week of letting it all sink in, we came up with a game plan:
Bryan became the full-time farmer. Initially, operationally we planned to have staff help me (Lauren). But when Bryan entered the picture full-time, it was magic. He kept things moving and enjoyed (what seemed) every minute of it. Looking back, without Bryan as our full-time farmer, I’m not sure we would have made it!
Tapping into resources. I applied for every assistance I could think of, or was recommended to me. It took about 3 months for the dust to settle and resources to kick in. We were able to receive WIC (women infant and children), which provided fruits and snacks for me, who seemed to hate all food at the time. They also had lactation consultants which I tapped when feeding got difficult with W in August. We also received BadgerCare which covered our hospital stay-- I honestly don’t know what we would have done otherwise. And Unemployment, which ended up being more of a hassle than it was worth (financially it covered health insurance, which we paid for out of pocket for once W was born). Overall, these resources helped our lives run a little smoother.
Enjoying this period of time together. Bryan and I got to spend many months together, learning how to be parents, farmers and run a business. Focusing on the highs and lows of each day and being present in this season of life.
You’re probably thinking, dang Lauren, why would you guys have a baby middle of farm season? When we met, Bryan and I were not certain being parents was something we envisioned. However, after watching our siblings start families, seeing our parents grow older, 2 endometriosis surgeries, and having our feet under us now as farmers, we gradually started seeing our lives with a kiddo. Plus, (cheesy alert here, but for real thought this) a change in mindset—what truly gives meaning and purpose to life? Now that I’m on the older side of 35, expanding our family posed some challenges (evident by friends too have also struggled), so we weren’t sure when it would happen for us! And as it turned out, July was the time W was ready to meet us!
I went to the hospital June 30th due to preeclampsia symptoms. While in the hospital, we reflected on how lucky we are to be surrounded by such awesome people. The farm staff was so sweet… they spent time at the farm feeding the chickens, harvesting squash, watering the greenhouses and letting the dogs out while we were away. My sister and mom helped clean up our house, and finally after W was born, we had sisters and parents who showed us the ropes and supported us with love. As a new farmer mom, I received advice on things I or baby might need. And here’s my list of helpful new momma farmer items:
Lightweight baby carrier and stroller. W tended to overheat in the summer heat, so having places to set her down or move around that were cool.
Places to set W down—playmats, blankets, baby seat. Options!
Reused baby clothes (or reused anything really!)- thanks to sisters, it was so nice to borrow clothes, and know that we’re ready to go!
A car/vehicle that works for a family. Um, our pick-up truck and Civic (that has no A/C) made for rough car trips. We are now a mini-van family. Which will also make farmers markets better, as we have another protected vehicle we can pack things in the night before.
Help/dedicated time to clean. Not sure what it is, but bringing a brand spankin’ new baby home from the hospital kicked something into gear that made me not want dog hair all over her.
Feeding baby is a full-time job. Thank goodness for farmer Bryan because as an exclusive pumper, I seemed to always be doing (or struggling with) something related to feeding Winnie.
Choose your music + shows at the hospital wisely. We will never listened to Regina Spektor or watch “Alone” again…
Underestimate the amount of work you can do. We planned to decrease our operation by 30%. This allowed us to have a mindset where we were able to prioritize baby and post-partum, instead of growing all the vegetable all the time! We cut our Farm Share size and tried not to stress if something didn’t work out.
Enjoy each day. I think about this so often—how temporary these moments are. We will only be with W at this age in her life (and ours) once! We’ve been soaking it in. Literally every down-moment in Winter was an 11/10… seeing her experience the world and learn! Venturing out into the world as a family of 3 has been so so fun.
That brings us to today. With W turning a year old in July and planning for a huge growing season. When I say we’re back to regular scheduled programming that means:
Our Farm Share is back to our normal size, with about 80 bins of produce a week.
W will go to half day daycare in June (along with family help), and I’ll be back as the full-time farmer.
Bryan’s returned to advertising as an Associate Creative Director; we’re already missing him around here.
We’ll be growing for our Farm Share, 2 markets, and 2 wholesale accounts.
Tulip Fest and hopefully more events (Dahlias?!, Bouquet Café, Yoga)… will be back!
We've been putting last years storage veg to use with sweet potato purees, delicata and frozen beans. And we can't wait to get grow and eat meals again this year. After a year of having no appetite, veggies have never sounded so good.
It feels SO good to be back! The sunshine, plants, outdoors and feeling good has a whole new ring to it.
If you’ve read this far, counted the number of grammatical errors in this post, but still have a full heart… you’re our kinda people! Sorry, running to the next farm/baby task now! WE LOVE YOU ALL!
