It all started with tomatoes.

In my regular job I am in customer service. I get the opportunity to interact with a lot of different people and my job affords me the luxury of conversation with the customers. Over the years I have made small talk, shared stories, and built friendships with many of my customers. When Lindsay and I made the choice to move from our home in the suburbs to our farm (that we have named Misty Acres), many of my customers have asked the question “What made you decide to do that?” I have turned that question over in my mind again and again. I have come to the conclusion that it was not some rash decision and it wasn’t a radical life change; but a life progression.

To give you some background my wife Lindsay and I did not grow up on a farm; and we didn’t have an agricultural raising of any kind.  We both grew up outside of a small town in typical American neighborhoods. We got married and we bought our first home smack dab in the middle of a city of about 20,000. So, I can see how us moving to a farm, raising livestock, baling hay, raising poultry, boarding horses, and things like that; would look like a dramatic life change.

I think back and try to trace the path that brought us to where we are today. The decisions we made, the hobbies we pursued, the books we read, and the things we tried and learned; and I can see many stepping stones that brought us to Misty Acres. If you continue to follow us you will no doubt read and share in many of those experiences. As I trace those stepping stones back to the beginning, it leads me back to our first town home. It all started with tomatoes.

As newlyweds our first home was a humble 1,200 square foot home tucked between to other small homes on a 1/3-acre lot. Lindsay and I decided we wanted to put in a small garden to grow tomatoes and peppers to make our own salsa. Neither one of us had any real gardening experience we had both done a little gardening growing up but not much else.  We borrowed a rototiller and broke new ground for our first garden together. We learned A LOT that first year.

We started the seeds indoors, found out what leggy plants are, learned you can’t fix leggy plants by bracing them with popsicle sticks, had to buy some plants, had trouble breaking ground, broke the rototiller we borrowed, had to purchase a new tiller, pulled roots out of the garden the size of my arm, found out there are a lot of rabbits in town, had to buy some more plants, had to buy and build a fence, learned that weeds grow fast, learned that pulling weeds isn’t fun, learned that miracle-gro really works, learned that miracle-gro works on weeds too, learned that tomato cages are expensive, learned tomato cages are built really cheap, learned that garden rows need to be wider than you think, learned that watering by hand can be very therapeutic for the first week, had to buy sprinklers, found out sprinklers are cheap and don’t ever work well, found out that it is extremely rewarding to pick ripe tomatoes and peppers, and we learned that harvest makes you forget about the expenses, work, and failures.

We ended up have a very successful first garden. We had more tomatoes than we could use and we made our first salsa. We had to buy a canner and learn how to can; which was another whole new adventure. We made a lot of mistakes with our first garden, but we were so proud of the results and felt such a sense of accomplishment. I remember standing in our little kitchen after canning our salsa, waiting for the lids to “pop”, and just admiring what we had done together. We made that! It was a feeling of victory; as small as it may seem. That victory and our small garden success ignited in us a drive to do things for ourselves and a passion to try new things and learn new skills.

So, when people ask me “What made you want to move to a farm?” I usually give some casual answer like “Oh, we wanted to get out into the country.” and think to myself “It all started with tomatoes.”