Farm Tour

Several weeks ago I was asked by Sustainable Stillwater if we would be willing to host a tour of our farm.   Sustainable Stillwater is an environmental organization in Stillwater which grew  out of the Stillwater Recycling Coalition in the fall of 2001.   You can read more about them on their web page at:   http://www.oksustainability.org/sstw/about-sustainable-stillwater.php

We love talking to people about what we grow and how we do it.  And, I've been on the Sustainable Stillwater email list for several years and enjoy getting their emails about the community garden,  workshops and other upcoming events.  So, I immediately said yes and then decided I'd better tell Tom what I had gotten us into.

It wasn't until I actually saw the notice about our farm tour come through their listserver that I began to panic.  The list coordinator said not to worry, they were a pretty laid back group and that she figured only a dozen or so people might come.  Whew!  I figured we could handle a dozen or so.   So, Tom and I have been hoeing, pulling weeds and edging for several days now getting things to where they looked presentable.  I even made a sign to put out by the road to show people where to turn and developed a "tour guide" to use to guide us around the farm and point out items of interest.

Then, last night the coordinator sent me an email with a final count of people who would be here . . . . .   20 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Yikes!  Thank goodness I didn't read the email until this morning or I might not have slept.  No, really, I was not THAT nervous and I have taught college classes before.  So, I wasn't that tense about speaking in front of a group.  I guess I was just worried that people would be disappointed in our small farm.

But, it turned out to be a delightful group.  A lot of questions were asked and everyone seemed very interested.   Here is a picture of Tom talking about our blackberries.  He is the one in the hat and gray sweatshirt who is pointing.

Notice there are a couple of children in the group.  It delighted me that people wanted to bring their children along to show them where food comes from and that it does not grow in the supermarket.   Next, is a picture of me talking about our hoophouse.

I'm the one in the hat and red shirt.

After the tour, we had sun tea and ice water flavored with mint leaves from my herb garden.   We even made some chamomile tea, like in my previous post.  It was a fun afternoon and I really enjoyed meeting the people that came out.  Maybe we'll do it again next year.