What Spring means on the farm…

Springtime at the farm has a lot of different faces. Early spring, it can be miserably cold, with a foot of snow, it can be a warm, sunny day with birds showing their joy in the warm spring day. The world around us starts to change color. Early flowers, the green leaves of the trees and the grass growing all give us that warm fuzzy feeling about spring.

Everything does have it’s price though. In order for those trees to put on new growth and leaves, for the beautiful spring flowers, we need rain, and some at least kinda warm days. And as with most every aspect of our life, moderation is the key. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way. Spring can be so wet sometimes, so wet that the creeks all flood, spilling their abundance out onto the fields that may or may not have been planted.

Not the way you hope it works out, but on the farm, you learn to deal with it. When the fields dry out, you plant your crop, even if it is delayed beyond what you had hoped for. If you have already planted, you replant. That is the way of a farmer. It is a matter of pride, it is a matter of survival to get that crop in the ground so that at harvest time, you have something to take to the elevator. A farmer lives for these days, it is their way of life. Nobody said it would be easy.

It is an exciting time when spring arrives. Not like the excitement you get when you go to the local hot spot in town. Not the same excitement you get going to a hockey game, but it is exciting. Everything is new, it is fresh. It is what drives a farmer to do what he does, and most of all, this is what puts food on our tables. Thank a farmer every time you cook a burger on the grill, eat a fresh vegetable or fry an egg. The farmer makes it all happen.