Last July we moved from Sonoma, California back home to Maryland. After farming for over ten years in arid California I have been relearning how to grow with rain, humidity, and hot nights (and days). I knew it would be an adjustment which is one reason I decided to grow on just under a 1/2 acre this year. At this size I can produce enough product to go to market, while not investing too much time or capital into infrastructure that I might have to quickly change. I look at this season as practice year, I already have a long list of things that I will be doing differently next year but so far I have really been enjoying farming on the Eastern Shore.
Many complain about the heat and humidity but I have found that this brings so much more life to my Tilghman field than I ever noticed in Sonoma. There are tons of bugs (many I’m still learning to identify), loads of toads and frogs, tiny turtles, baby rabbits that dart out of nowhere, plus bald eagles and osprey flying over head. Also thanks to high nightly temperatures all the crops grow and rot much faster than I ever experienced in Sonoma.
I have been happy that many of my favorite crop varieties from Sonoma grow well in Tilghman. Also its been exciting to grow varieties of hot peppers and gourds that didn’t perform well in Sonoma because of the cold nights but here they are lush and big.
Following the cycles and the rhythm of the seasons, reminds you that challenges and successes will come and go but just around the corner your next year is filled with possibilities.
I moved from Sonoma, back to Michigan a few years before you relocated. What a wonderful thing to have the rain water one’s garden! I had forgotten how lush it is here. Of course, the weeds like it, too! So I spend a lot more time weeding. And, I’m learning my way around the bugs. In all, I’d do it again, any day. Give me the humidity and winter. I’ll also take the lush greens, the forests and the seasons.