GRACE

There is something that happens in mid-December, sometimes as early as late November, something that is even more exciting in the Lockwood household than Christmas (which is hard to beat as Christmas is also the eldest’s birthday).

The Seed Catalogues arrive! 

It is a titillating glimpse of our future. 

We slowly paw through the pages, drooling over the fantastic produce; reading over the new varieties and making sure our old favourites are still available. 

We relish a quiet moment alone, in the midst of the holiday madness with Johnny’s Seeds a good cup of tea. 

Truth be told, it is not until January that we all, James, Barry (father-in-law) and myself, get together to decide on our seed order. It is one of my favourite parts of farming, late nights by the fire, with pots and pots of tea, going over what we need to purchase.

As we work our way from artichokes to tomatoes it is an opportunity to sum up our year, discussing what we grew and how well grew it. We go over where we can improve, and what we need to do to improve it. We base our seed order one what was successful the past year and what wasn’t. 

But as we compile our order, there is no expectation of failure. We are only hopeful of the new year. Every seed we order we intend to grow and have a good harvest. We dream of full, luscious broccoli heads, pure white and un-nibbled cauliflowers, copious kales, a never ending harvest of runner beans, and B-E-A-utifull purple egg plants!

We’ve only been doing this for 3 years now, and we have never successfully grown all that we want to, and we know we never will.

Yet nothing deters us as we place our ever-optimistic seed order. 

And so it is with January. Many complain of the post-Christmas boredom and the dreary weather. But January is a fresh start, a new beginning, a chance to try again, a clean slate. 

January is grace. 

That is why I am starting this blog again.

What is your dream for January? What do you hope to grow in 2014?

With that, I must close. I need to go to bed. I have every intention of running at 6:30 am tomorrow morning.