When I think about all that has led to me going from reporting on the 2024 election to working on a farm while I find my new career footing, I feel dizzy. It all happened both so fast and so slowly.
Going from fretting about exit poll data to how to bandage calluses on my soft computer hands has been both jarring and refreshing. Previously my claim to fame with my hands was how fast they could type. I can type more than 80 words per minute with my hands and I can also harvest hundreds of pounds of vegetables every day.
Which task is feeding me? Currently it’s digging in the dirt that’s feeding me, not typing words onto a screen. Mother Nature doesn’t care how many words you type or about your political leanings. It’s more concerned with the sun, the water and the nutrients in the soil.
I’ve been doing some cleaning and organizing in the past week, and I came across my copy of the Amplified Bible. This translation has become a favorite of mine for the way it breaks down the meanings of words within the text itself, giving the reader a deeper understanding of what the ancient scriptures are *actually* talking about.
I opened it down the middle and my eyes found Proverbs 14:23, which says:
“In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
As I’ve been staring down the barrel of reality, work and what it actually means to be independent and self-sufficient, I’ve been taking a hard look at my livelihood.
I never imagined a reality where I wasn’t making my living through writing, but now I’m deep in the real world, thinking about things far more granular than I ever imagined my reporting could be. It feels strange to say this out loud, and so did applying to work on a farm.
Can you imagine how bizarre I felt applying for a job to do physical labor with a resume of 10 years of political writing and reporting across the country?
“Hi, I’ve been sitting behind a desk and in the halls of government for 10 years. Please hire me to do physical labor on your farm. Oh and by the way I have zero work experience doing physical labor and have never held a tool heavier than a laptop to feed myself.”
Like what? Who is this person? Why is she applying to work on a farm?
I’d like to think my curiosity about growing food started long before I was laid off in March. There’s one moment I can point to in 2020, but I’ve been interested in growing things since I was young.
I don’t remember where I heard about growing stuff in hay bales, but somewhere as a kid in the early 2000s, I heard that you could grow things in hay. When I learned that, I became obsessed with growing whatever I could from the kitchen. I knew I really liked apples, and I remember taking a red delicious apple seed out into the yard and burying it in the dirt.
Time and later some research on the internet taught me that it takes a long time and a very specific climate to grow apples. My backyard in Alabama was likely not the best environment for apples. (Just google “apples and chill hours” to learn more).
I once had a pepper plant as a teenager but never grew a single pepper, mainly because I kept forgetting to water the poor, neglected twig I thought would produce bell peppers in the kitchen window. (The kitchen window is also not the best environment for growing bell peppers–I don’t think I need to explain why this didn’t work).
My adult mind got to worrying about growing food again in Spring 2020, as the pandemic was bearing down on us all. There were food shortages, toilet paper shortages, medication shortages. You name it, it’s sold out and we don’t know when more will be there because the world is at a standstill right now. That’s how the world was for a while. It scared the living hell out of me.
I will never forget driving down John Hawkins Parkways in Hoover, Alabama, stopping at every convenience store, grocery store and pharmacy looking for a list of essential items I’d scribbled on my reporter’s notebook before leaving on this futile assignment–find where there are things and where there are not and report it.
In that moment I suddenly realized that if the supply chain stopped working, I would literally starve to death or die from preventable causes due to the lack of basic things like canned food and ibuprofen.
I realized then that the independence I felt so secure in was literally a mirage. It was a reflection created by so many other things that I have zero power or influence over.
At the time I was living in a 2-bedroom apartment with my husband and our cat. Our apartment didn’t have a balcony or anywhere to grow simple flowers or even get fresh air without going into the “public” space of the complex parking lot.
While my time working on the farm was temporary, it lit a fresh fire in my belly to really dig deep into what self-sufficiency looks like for me. I really don’t expect to grow all of my own food on my mere acre yard, I do expect to grow some food and also (and more importantly) learn something deeper about the real world and the work required to cultivate fruit.
I’m very grateful for my time on the farm. I learned so much about plants, nutrients and what it takes to grow healthy, delicious food (a LOT of hard work). I took that knowledge and I’m attempting to apply it to my own little home garden, which has consumed a lot of my free time lately.
Without further adieu, I want to introduce you to my garden and tell you a little more about what I’m growing and what I’ve been up to.
Tomatoes
I’m growing several varieties of tomatoes from cherry tomatoes to huge purple heirlooms. So far, only my cherry tomatoes and my medium tomatoes have produced ripe fruit, but my heirlooms are well on their way.
In the past, my meager attempts to grow tomatoes have been pretty sad. I only got a few fruit and my plants were lanky and unmanaged. The indeterminate varieties I'm growing this year (especially the Bellini and the Sungolds) have been a challenge to stake and control, but I am taking notes and learning a lot along the way.
Here are the varieties I’m growing:
Peppers
While my tomato crop has previously been sad, I’ve had fair success with peppers. This year is bound to be another good pepper year. I’ve planted mostly sweet or medium heat peppers. Hot peppers are fun and impressive to grow, but I just don’t eat them fresh. They’re too much.
If I did grow hot peppers, I would plan to use them for something like a chili sauce or pepper sauce. I don’t have a good blueprint for that yet, so I’m sticking to the sweeter ones.
Here are the varieties I’m growing:
Cucurbits
I’m growing several cucurbits this year including squash, zucchini and PUMPKINS.
The only time I have ever grown a pumpkin was on accident. I had left a pumpkin outside all fall and into winter. After the ground froze, I didn’t bother with trying to move or clean the now rotted and frozen pumpkin. I let it be and it eventually became one with the earth.
When spring came, I was shocked to find a huge pumpkin vine in my front yard. It seemed to come up overnight. The vine did become victim to the lawnmower, but my curiosity about growing pumpkins was piqued. I’m finally getting to exercise that interest.
Here are the varieties I’m growing:
Miscellaneous
I’ve seen videos on the internet of people growing beans from germinated beans from a bag sold at the grocery store. If you didn’t do the lima bean germination experiment in grade school, then you won’t understand the nostalgia this is feeding me.
I did literally what we did in school. Soak the beans. Put them in a tray with something to keep them damp. Put them in the sun. Voila in a few days you have germinated seeds.
That’s exactly what happened with the cranberry beans I have planted in my front yard. I have no idea how they will perform. I’ve never grown beans before and have no idea what to expect aside from what I’ve read online.
Fingers crossed for the beans.
I am also growing red potatoes. I grew these potato plants from seed potatoes I bought at the garden center. The particular bag I bought was on the clearance rack marked down to $1. There were a few $1 bags to pick from, so I picked the best looking one and threw them in the ground.
To my joy they sprouted up within a few days and seemed to not know that they were clearance rack seed potatoes destined for a smelly, dark death in the landfill. Now they’re growing in my strange garden, and hopefully will produce lots of nice baby red potatoes come August or September.
I’m also attempting to grow red onions from seed bulbs. I also got these on clearance from the garden center. The first round I planted became victim to my dog’s curiosity and apparent love for onions. Fingers crossed round two goes better and that my dog learns how to protect the garden instead of eat it.
A note:
If you are missing my political posts, rest assured they are returning soon. I’ve had a bizarre couple months. I’m finally coming up for air and feeling more alive again. My deep disbelief and cynicism at the state of politics and society only grows (just like the Great Garbage Patch).
Anyway, that’s enough about politics for now.
Thank you for subscribing and for sharing my writing with your people. I’ve realized now more than ever that we all need a network of good folks to help us stay afloat when the sea of life rages.
If you made it this far, do me a favor and tell someone you appreciate them today. Give folks their flowers. The ones who really deserve them have definitely not gotten near enough bouquets.
Keep wandering ;)
Anna
I love following your journey and would LOVE to learn more about growing a garden—mine is so sad this summer! Do you think you'll ever drop tips into your newsletters?