So here it is a little after 10pm on Friday night. I have just crawled out of bed to write this post. I was lying in bed trying to sleep, but my mind was flooded by the thoughts of what I experienced today. I thought about how and what I would write in my blog about what I had learned and enjoyed today. As thoughts danced through my head, I knew that if I didn't get up right now and write, I would not be able to recall all this in the morning, not with the intensity of what I was feeling right now, so here goes.
Today I was excited to make my first visit of the season to four different farms or farm stands scattered around south and east of Fort Wayne. I had found all of these sites late in the season last year and was itching to visit each of them again this year but also waiting until their produce was plentiful enough that the 85 mile drive would be worth it. (It was!)
My first stop was at Dafforn's Corn and Produce in Yoder, IN just south of Ossian. I was rewarded with even more delights than last year and I will write about this visit in a separate entry early next week. I also visited Houtz's on State Rd 1, just north of Ossian. Then I headed to Monroeville, IN to a small farm I found last year in October, when pumpkins, winter squash, and gourds were the most prevalent items for sale. I pulled into this farmer's drive and the farmer met me as I started to look at what he had available. We started to chat and he told me that since last season he has been diagnosed with cancer and that he was unable to plant his "garden" this year. He said he was relying completely on his adult children to put out his crops, to care for them, and to harvest them. The adult children all have jobs they work at full time and then come to his home in the afternoon and evenings and work again in his fields. He said that his children have said to him that they had no idea how much work he had been doing all this time, until they are now committed to doing it themselves. Next year, he said, he might plant nothing at all.
This is the lesson I learned today, the farmer must rely on his land, the weather, seeds, and his love for the process from beginning to end, but he must also have the health to do the work. As I have gone from farm to farm, this is the one thing I have taken for granted, but not any more. I have so admired the farmer, his dedication and what he accomplishes, but I was leaving out something profoundly significant, his health.
I will change my future prayers for all farmers. Mostly I have dwelled on the weather and how they have to deal with whatever comes their way. Now, I will also pray for their health and their ability to do the work that calls to them.
