“Success and failure, triumph and disaster. That is the rhythm of life in the garden.” -Patience Strong

Spring; a time for new beginnings. Isn't it beautiful how a weather change can bring new life to the world? The monochromatic blues and browns of winter are becoming bright greens and creamy whites of a new season. Winter’s cold edge is finally being pushed aside by a welcome warm wind. For Missouri, both winter and spring are intertwined, making it hard to know one season’s ending and the other’s beginning. Our late February and early March days fluctuate between very cold weeks, and oddly warm weeks; always at odds with one another. While it can be frustrating, I have a theory that these “false springs” keep our chins up during the winter. Having caught a glimpse at what is to come, we all wait in hopeful expectation. We’ve tasted what’s coming, and we know it will be good. 

For Long Row, winter is a time full of new projects. So when spring comes to Long Row the opposite occurs. Our team returns to the same routines, works towards the same goals, and begins the same processes. The beauty of repetition is also the ugliness of repetition - we are doing “the work” again.  Like you, every time we step into something, our team will either excel or falter. Often the faltering leads to learning, and the learning leads to excelling, but that means we must turn and face challenges again and again (and sometimes again) before surpassing the difficulty. Just like we wait expectantly for the “same” flowers to bloom every spring, so we wait expectantly to “start again”. Our team finds great joy in the repetition and in beginning again. 

Last year around this time, we were pouring a new basement and building a kitchen expansion. Machinery, contractors, and farm goods were everywhere. It was a beautiful season of growth for the farm! Our team was juggling maintenance, expansion, and preparation all at once. In many ways, this past winter was  just as full, but this time, the farm was quiet. Isn't it sweet how seasons of growth can differ from one another? We need the busy, the expansion, the big steps to move forward! But, we also need the quiet, the stillness, and respite to be inspired. Our goal for 2023 was to step into a brand new kitchen space. Our goal for 2024? To steward that space well. This will include more afternoon teas, picnic lunches, and a catering menu available for our venue space. Lots to look forward to, lots to dream about, lots of practices to return to, and start! So we step into spring once more. We step into repetition, into learning from the new, and growing from the old. May this spring bring you challenges to overcome and inspiration as your motivation! Let’s keep learning and keep growing!

Martha Thornhill