Home Stretch!
There’s word of a frost tonight, the first of the season. It’s mid- October so this should be no surprise, but we’ve been in such a warm stretch it feels like it snuck up. I was out in the garden just before sunset and saw all the things that are still there– fresh herbs, sweet potatoes, sweet peppers and green tomatoes, lots and lots of beautiful zinnia and dahlia blooms, lovely fragrant tansy, lemon verbena and pineapple sage. Of course they won’t all disappear overnight but there is so much I still want to do before it’s all gone, like drying out the herbs for cooking and for tea, making fried green tomatoes and apple pie and using the flower blooms to dye something before the color fades.
I think, though, that this fall I will have to let some of that go. Sometimes other things are calling, and in the last few weeks it’s the exciting momentum Lady Farmer that has our attention! This season of our Kickstarter campaign has brought us not only a quickly funded goal (100% in 100 hours!) but the pure pleasure of seeing how our project has reached out and created meaningful connections and authentic community. Even through dark days of heartbreak in these recent weeks, some wrought by nature and others by human hands, the light that shines on our power of choice is hope itself. Each of us can choose a better way, especially in our decisions about our food and clothing and how we live with respect for each other and for our planet–and that is where we will see change for the good.
In reaching our initial crowdfunding goal, we’ve raised the funds to manufacture the “Essential Collection,” our first line of sustainably sourced and produced “farm-to-closet” clothing. From our launch party in downtown DC to various events in Virginia and Maryland this month, people have affirmed that they want and will support a clothing choice outside of the toxic and inhumane system that dominates the industry today. That’s why we set a “stretch” goal for the remaining twenty-six days of our Kickstarter. If that goal is met by the close of the campaign on October 28th, we commit to stretching ourselves into even more information sharing and community building in at least two ways–we will develop a Lady Farmer Podcast by summer of 2018 and will also announce plans for a Slow Living Conference for 2019.
A lot has happened this month and is STILL HAPPENING! I guess no matter how much is accomplished, however, we must always leave a season with some things undone, because try as we might we will never get it all done. As frustrating as that sounds it’s actually a blessing. Those desires and ideas propel us through our days with vision and purpose. Call it the creative edge, the energy of expansion, that part of our human nature that’s always reaching for something better, all the time.
If you haven’t already, there’s still time to go to our Kickstarter page and be a part of this awesome community of changemakers. Hope you’ll join us in the stretch!
With love and gratitude,
Mary and Emma
Find our Kickstarter here! http://kck.st/2xIcaWq
