Fruit Butters

Fruit Butters

Sunday, January 3, 2010

A Fresh Start

Happy New Year! I can’t say that I’m a festive New Year’s person. I enjoy more the idea of a fresh start on a new year, a new season, a new project or motivation to finish old ones. I just closed out 2009 with a great holiday with my family who all travel in from out of town. The snowy Sunday afternoon I’ve been dreaming about is here. Finally a chance to sit down with a mug of hot chocolate (a homemade Christmas gift from my niece Liz) and regroup looking forward and planning for the year ahead.

In agriculture, the new year is an opportunity to get caught up on bookwork, be thankful for the good things from the previous year and hope that the not so good things don’t repeat. I’ve realized what I love about agriculture is its seasonality… putting everything to bed for the winter after a busy summer and fall, and looking forward to getting everything back out in the spring. The cyclical nature of the farm is comforting to me and never boring. Fresh starts are part of the whole cycle.