On Tomatoes, Frost & A Love Letter to my Mother

And let us gift you tomato, eggplant and pepper plants🍅!

Friends, we’re soon planting tomatoes (here’s a lil more about final frost and why we’re holding off) and as bluebirds sing spring, we’d love to share our gorgeous tomato, eggplant and pepper transplants with you!

Join us this Saturday at 10 am and 2 pm sharing The Gift of Seeds (& Transplants, too!), more details below and always:

As we prepare to share so much abundance with such beloved community, we’d love to celebrate everyone who nourishes and mothers themselves, their families and wide communities, which is us all:

We are the seeds

of nature, of nurture, of labor

of love.

In all times and especially those of isolation and authoritarian rising, we sow seeds of care and belonging for ourselves, each other and all generations of all species yet to come 💛

And Friends, I’d love to share a lil love letter I wrote my mother, Shelley:

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Dear MamaBird,

I wake this morning with gentle rain falling on new leaves as Orioles sing.

Thank you for sharing such awareness, such gratitude, such joy in our lives…

…and for making all this possible 🧡

I know when people ask where my love of growing gardens comes from, you’re quick to say, laughing, ‘from her father’s garden!’ and it’s true, though this is also true:

Outside your door for easily a decade was a halved wine barrel with oregano, thyme and chives. We ate a lot of leaves from that barrel! And never fed or watered, weeded or did anything for those plants beyond harvest their extraordinary abundance.

Indeed, you’ve taught me much about gardens, the tenacity of plants and of each other, knowing what you can do and what you can’t, of giving thanks. The miracle of each day, each leaf, each moment.

What a gift to give, receive, to share, to continue to grow and celebrate ourselves and each other.

Every day of this life, I am grateful to be your daughter.

I wonder what birds will serenade us this Mother’s Day, as three generations of plant and bird lovers snuggle together?

Let us gift you seeds & transplants, Friends!

With dozens of beloved community members, we’ve grown thousands of glorious tomatoes, peppers and eggplants to surround us all with abundnace, so don’t be shy, more details below💛

And can I tell you?

Last weekend and this have historically been bustling with hundreds of people stopping by the farm to bring home seeds, transplants and so much more…

…and though last weekend enveloped us in gentle, chilling rain, we heard this refrain from several people, perhaps speaking for the smaller than average community who joined us in the misty drizzle:

“It’s just so hard to receive this generosity:

Surely someone needs this more than me.”

And Friends, let’s dive deeper into this next week and for the rest of our days…

…and in the meantime, trust you are worthy of receiving such abundance, of nourishing and amplifying your gifts so that all may be nourished…

…and thank you to everyone who has so courageously shown up to receive so many seeds and transplants this season, we are so vividly the seeds we wish to sow in the world 💛

Gift of Seed (& Transplants, too!)

with elderberries, seed potatoes, organic fertilizer & harvest your own chamomile flowers, as well!

arrive ~10 minutes early to settle in with ease

Saturday, May 10th at 10 am: The Gift of Seeds (for adults & babes in arms) (plan to stay til noon for the full experience)

bring a plate and a dairy-free dish to share a potluck lunch if you’d love to stay for:

Saturday, May 10th at 2 pm: The Gift of Seeds (for families, including kids of all ages) (plan to stay til 3 pm for the full experience)

Sunday, May 11th: Happy Mother’s Day! We’re closed💛

We have many glorious elderberry cuttings to share with you, Friends! Thanks to Tim for pruning so thoughtfully and thank you elderberry for your countless millenia of generous tenacity.

And Friends, when you visit us on weekends in May,

Bring:

⭐ yourself! and a friend who also cultivates fruitful futures 💛

⭐ anything you’d love to share with us all! Invitation without expectation: Have you seen our relational, material & financial needs?

⭐ open hands & hearts to receive (especially if you’ve ‘nothing’ to share: needs are gifts)

⭐ hunger for the world we dream of (let’s sow these seeds together)

⭐ boxes for transplants as well as potatoes (have extra? bring them for people who would love them!) as well as a bag for seeds

⭐ a closed container to bring home organic fertilizer (crab + lobster meal)

⭐ a bag for u-pick chamomile blooms, too 🧡

Look who overwintered in one of our tunnels…! Come savor this abundance with us, Friends ~

What can we sow now?

So(w) much!

You’ll always find growing and seed saving insight and inspiration for every seed we share on our website, in addition to videos, blogs, growing guides and even online courses including

And Friends, these gifts are ‘free’ not as in ‘valueless,’ but free as in Fannie Lou Hamer:

‘None of us are free

until all of us are free.’

We vision a world where we all are ‘sustained’ rather than ‘paid,’ as our beloved Friend Adam Wilson so bravely articulates…

…and if you’d love to sustain our lives more directly, we’re so honored:

Come for the seeds, transplants and blooms…

…and stay for the waterfalls!

Bring your boots and look, we made you a map to find tasty bites, beverages, hikes & kayaks:

Friends, see you soon and

thank you for courageously mothering so much in yourself & in the world

Sow Seeds & Sing Songs,

and the Many Possibilities of Fruition

ps

If you’ve been forwarded this email and would love to subscribe, please do and hope to see you here on the farm one day, too!

pps

As the smile

of the Earth widens

with flowers

May we too

become the

Spring.

Recognize,

Dear heart,

the beauty within

you carry.

And allow

your presence

to be a light

For all

who are near

to grow.

~ digger

If you'd love to receive periodic poems from digger, send a sweet ask of an email to dougdecandia@gmail.com