Do you see the pollinator in this picture? Yes, it is the wasp. I recently learned that wasps, flies, and the 20,000 species of bees are all pollinators. They all help plants procreate.
I bring this up because this is just one of the daily new things I’ve learned about growing things. On a daily basis, the more I learn leads me to see that how little I know about growing things. It can be overwhelming and a little dispiriting.
It is in those times of being somewhat overwhelmed that I try to remind myself that I know more today than I did yesterday, and I will know a little bit more tomorrow. Promoting life-long learning was something that was very popular when I was a teacher. It almost seemed silly to even tell it to students; it was hard for me to imagine that anyone was not a life-long learner. But the reality is that life-long learning is hard because you have to be motivated by the process of discovery and not the incentive of completion.
The USDA classifies anyone with 10 years or less of farming experience as a new farmer. That may seem harsh, but when you start to realize exactly how much knowledge it takes to successfully take a crop from seed to sale, you start to see that 10 years is a reasonable threshold. In that 10 years, a farmer will have seen and experienced a wide variety of obstacles and struggles, but they will also have continued that learning journey and amassed an incredible level of understanding and appreciation for the farming skill because no two seasons will ever go exactly the same or exactly as planned.
I may never rise to the level of master farmer in my lifetime. I definitely will never arrive at the end of learning in the study of farming and the pursuit of this skill, but I definitely know more today than I did yesterday; and that is enough till tomorrow.
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