A greenhouse

A greenhouse. Every small organic farm has at least one. Necessary for giving the tomatoes, peppers and onions the head start they couldn’t otherwise get in our climate. And if you’re me, necessary for relieving your sewing room/home office of soil, grow lights, seed packages and a great big mess.

The slow creep of farm inventory into every nook and cranny of our house felt all too familiar late this winter when it was time to put the miniscule onion seeds (which by the way take about 100 days to grow from seed to full size) into the soil. Back in my Queen’s University days, I started two small clothing enterprises from the bedroom of my house in the student ghetto. I gave up my shelves to excess t-shirt inventory out of necessity. They had to go somewhere. Then my desk started moonlighting as a sewing table. Graphic design software and financial spreadsheets populated my laptop. By the time I was a residence don, during my victory lap, my room looked more like a clothing factory than a place where one might sleep. Little flecks of fabric and bits of cast off thread littered the floor, often making their way onto my clothes. Like a frog in boiling water, I had slowly surrounded myself by my work. Looking back, it’s amazing that I was able to graduate with such a blatant distraction engulfing me.

This time, the work was that of our farm, Fat Chance Farmstead, but the seeds and soil in the house arrived in the same way; through a simple problem. Where else would they go? They needed light and warmth, and the back room offered a south-facing window. Unlike in the past, however, the encroachment was temporary. Josh and I had made plans to build a greenhouse. Once it was up, out the seedlings would go, and back our house would go, to normal....Continue Reading