Memphis Democrat Column from March 02, 2009

It's a gloriously beautiful day today (Monday) and I am enjoying the slowly warming temperatures. It's definitely been an up and down winter here this year. The eastern part of the country has certainly been getting some serious weather the past couple of days. My stepsister Mary Ellen, who lives in Booth Bay Harbor, Maine, emailed me this morning and said they have over twenty two inches of accumulated snow at the moment and much more on the way. She is an emergency room physician at the regional hospital and is hoping the roads will stay clear enough for her to get to work this evening. Even though on some days lately it has felt like the depths of winter, there are still signs pointing to the beginning of spring. On the morning of February 13th, I stood outside by our mailbox and watched the whole sky fill with geese flying north, one wave of them after another. I don't think I have ever seen that many geese at once. The next day, Stan noted on our sitting room calendar that he had spotted bluebirds. Our local cardinals have started singing and courting and the woodpeckers are drumming. Of course, the surest sign of spring at Sandhill Farm is the arrival of our seed orders for the garden. Gigi and Michael are beginning their first round of seeding flats this week and I'll be starting my early lettuce soon. It is fun to look forward to filling up with the greenhouse again with lots of seedlings. Gigi also has overwintered greens and radishes in there in permanent beds. Intern season will soon begin and Gigi and I have been taking time the past few weeks to read applications and do interviews. We have accepted three interns already and we interviewed two young men (both named Tony) this past weekend. The good news is that two of the interns this year will be our good friends Ali and Emily. Ali was an intern at Sandhill in 2006 and has spent a lot of time at Dancing Rabbit the past couple of years. Emily was here last year as an extended visitor during the summer and also during sorghum harvest. The third intern we have accepted is a woman from California, Keren, who has quite a bit of experience working on organic farms. Laird was home for a spell before leaving for a month-long stretch on the road. He first went to Toledo, Ohio to visit Jo at her new home there. She recently moved from Asheville, North Carolina and has been busy settling in and starting her new job. He then went to Kalamazoo, Michigan to do some consulting with a student cooperative there. He traveled from Michigan to the Bay Area in California where he visited former Sandhill member Lindsey in Oakland and worked with Monan's Rill Community in Santa Rosa. He is now in Las Vegas, Nevada for a visit with Ceilee and his family. Stan has been busy lately with both organic inspections and conferences. He attended the Missouri Organic Association Conference in Jefferson City on February 21st and spent the previous night with our friends at Terra Nova Community in Columbia. Since the 20th was Stan's birthday, Claire made him a birthday cake. Our good friends Emmet and Gretchen from Chicago were also visiting at Terra Nova and they are planning to move to the Columbia area soon. They have found some land with a house on it in the Hallsville area that they are hoping to purchase. Stan did several inspections in the Chicago area early last week and then was home very briefly before leaving for LaCrosse, Wisconsin to attend the Organic Farming Conference. He and our friend Dan Kelly drove up together and stayed with friends of Dan's while they were there. This is a huge gathering of folks in the organic movement and Stan came back with lots of stories and information to pass on to us.

Gigi has been staying active with her involvement in the Concerned Citizens of Scotland County group. As part of this, she was a guest on Coffee Break on KEMM on February 23rd. The group held a meeting for the public at the firehouse in Memphis this past Thursday. They have another meeting scheduled at the firehouse on March 12th that will feature speakers with information about sustainable agriculture opportunities in the local area. Jacob has returned from his travels to spend some time with us. He has been helping Otto cut logs to inoculate for shitake mushrooms, splitting firewood and doing other chores. He will be here until April. Stan and Otto have been moving along the maple harvest and Otto kept the cooking going while Stan was away. Cob from Dancing Rabbit and Alyson from Red Earth Farms have been also bringing over sap from the trees they tap for us to cook down. Just a reminder that we will be having a Maple Sugaring Open House on Saturday, March 7th from 1pm to 5pm. Come out and see how we collect sap and cook maple syrup. For those who haven't been at Sandhill Farm before, we offer a tour of the community. Give us a call at 660-883-5543 to let us know if you are coming and to get directions. We have had some sad news during this time. Gigi's mother and Renay's grandmother, Huguette Wahba, passed away unexpectedly the evening of February 23rd. Gigi said that it was a comfort to her that she had the chance to see her mother in January when she was in New York. She will be leaving tomorrow morning to spend a week with her father and the rest of the family. We also want to note that our friends Tamar and Sparky at Dancing Rabbit have lost members of their families recently and our thoughts are with them, too.