Finding Tomatoes

       Right after I finally once and for all had made my mind up about throwing my hat into the ever expanding blog writing ring I immediately hit a sizeable bump. There are so many homesteading and wildcrafting blogs out there, so many gardeners and foragers with this amazing treasure trove of knowledge to share. So what could hold not only my future readers’ attention, but also my own? What special words do I have to share? What is unique about my experience?

            The answer to that last question is not one that I expected. In short, the answer is nothing. There is no hardship or obstacle I have faced that has not been taken on by others who choose this path. Although my climate or skills or budget may be different from yours essentially the quest toward a fully functional sustainable homestead always boils down to these words that came to me in one of those all too frequent moments of frustration. “Homesteading is mostly death and feces but sometimes there’s a tomato.”

            Nature has a way of swiftly dealing with unlearned lessons and flaws in plans. As a matter of fact nature has quite a casual disregard of the best laid plans of humans. If something can go wrong on a homestead it eventually will and we don’t just get points off of our GPA. Our learning process is quite literally life and death which makes our failures devastating, but our successes? Our succcesses are awe inspiring! From the first soft peeps of a hatching chick to the sweet juicy crunch of a ripe homegrown apple, staggering beauty surrounds and supports us through the rough patches.

            And so my concept was conceived. This is not a place where the difficulties of this lifestyle will be shied away from. Make no mistake! There will be death, there will be feces, but along the way it is my fervent hope, dear reader that you will discover that the tomatoes of life come in many shapes and forms and if you look you will often find them growing in the most unexpected places.  It is not my intention to show you what to do or how to do it becase to be quite frank I mostly fly by the seat of my pants. Rather, I would prefer to provide you with ideas, inspiration, hope, and understanding. 

      Welcome, dear reader to my journey. 

(Volunteer Tomatoes in an herb bed last summer. )