Moving Dirt, Building Relationships, and Getting Ready for What’s Next

This week at Heathen Farms brought a little bit of everything: expanded growing space, borrowed equipment, free materials, a future shed, plenty of hard work, and another reminder that a small farm is built just as much through community as it is through soil.

New Growing Beds Being Prepared for Next Season

Farm Journal Entry

This week felt like one of those weeks where a whole bunch of separate pieces suddenly started coming together.

Season one isn’t over yet, but at the same time, we’re already laying the groundwork for what Heathen Farms is going to become next year.

One of the biggest jobs on the list was getting the rest of our growing area opened up. With some help from a couple of good people, we got the beds flipped and the new ground worked. Seeing all that fresh soil sitting there afterward was honestly one of those moments where you stop and realize just how much the farm has changed in a few short months.

What started as a yard, a few raised beds, and an idea is becoming real growing space.

And there’s a lot more of it now.

We also picked up a Husqvarna rear-tine tiller from a friend who was willing to let us use it. It needs a little attention before it’s ready to work consistently, but having access to equipment like that is going to make a huge difference as we continue preparing ground and getting ready for future plantings.

That has probably been one of the biggest lessons of our first year:

You don’t have to own everything on day one.

Sometimes you borrow equipment. Sometimes somebody shows up with a tractor. Sometimes you trade vegetables for help. Sometimes one person knowing another person solves a problem you’ve been worrying about for weeks.

That kind of community is becoming a huge part of how Heathen Farms is growing.

We gave some vegetables to one of the guys who helped us with the field, and later he sent us a picture of his kid eating one of our purple peppers.

That might sound like a small thing, but it was pretty damn cool.

Someone helped us build the farm, and a few hours later his family was eating food that came out of it.

Both of the guys who helped us have also been offered small CSA boxes next season as part of a barter arrangement. They help us when they can, and during the growing season we’ll make sure some of what we grow makes its way back to their families.

That feels right to us.

The farm is also gaining some infrastructure without us having to spend a fortune.

We’ve been able to pick up loads of river stone for free from the same person who previously gave us a huge pile of pavers. That stone is going to be useful for pathways, drainage, work areas, and cleaning up parts of the property that badly need it.

And apparently the generosity wasn’t finished there.

There’s also a red shed that may be coming to Heathen Farms.

Instead of us having to figure out how to find a trailer, transport it, and somehow get it moved ourselves, the people doing work at the property where the shed currently sits may be able to bring it directly here.

If that works out, it solves another major infrastructure problem for us.

Storage.

Equipment.

Tools.

Supplies.

All of those little things eventually need a home if this farm is going to keep growing.

Meanwhile, the current garden is still producing, the farmers market season is still moving, the Kids Grow Club is growing, and we’re still learning something new almost every day.

There have been plenty of mistakes this year.

We lost crops.

We fought bugs.

We planted things that didn’t sell.

We planted other things that sold faster than we expected.

We changed our market booth.

We changed our planting plans.

We changed our expectations more times than I can count.

But week by week, Heathen Farms keeps becoming a little more organized, a little more capable, and a little more real.

Looking at the freshly worked ground tonight, it was hard not to start imagining next season.

More beds.

More food.

More CSA boxes.

More families served.

More Kids Grow Club activities.

More Neighbor’s Harvest.

And hopefully a whole lot fewer moments where we’re standing around asking, “How the hell are we going to pull this off?”

Because somehow, little by little, we keep pulling it off.

Season one isn’t over yet.

But season two is already starting to take shape.

Garden Beds still growing Chard and Lettuce

By Frey’s hand, bounty grows.