Hadleigh Burch hopes her daughters will learn skills for a lifetime and be able to pass them down to the next generation
In the early days of Spring, little bare feet squish through mud, squelching between tiny toes and leaving a trail of footprints behind in the furrows of dirt. We break soil and prepare for the season ahead of us as we wake up the garden for another season.
In small palms of excited hands the seed packets are emptied and each seed placed with love into the ground, even if in haphazard rows and patches, to sprout mid-season in the wrong place. The excitement of growing things as we watch for that first sprout, learning patience as we wait for the garden to begin growing.
In the heat of summer days, when everything is at its peak, it’s where we spend the majority of our time. Knelt between rows, deciphering weeds from vegetable shoots. Teeny hands learning to look for prickly thistles and stinging nettle, plucking away invasive clover and chickweed.
Snacks come from the garden, popping crunchy green peas into our mouths straight out of the pod. Stopping to fill a bowl for my little helpers to sit in the shade of the afternoon and munch away on. It’s warm tomatoes bursting with juice popping in mouths, trickling down dusty chins and leaving a line of dirt on red cheeks.
We pause to admire a bumble bee tucked into the large yellow flower of a squash plant, watching it shake and shimmy around a pollen filled stamen. Covered in bright fuzz, we admire as it takes flight back to its home. Busy little honey bees flit between the flowers, stopping to drink from the bee waterers we made together and scattered around the garden.
May we teach our children to be soft with the world, stepping over earthworms and rescuing honey bees
Beekeeping as a Family
My little beekeeper is always asking questions, wondering where the queen bee is, pointing out the pollen pants the honey bee carries back to hive, and why the bees collect the nectar that they do.
In the late summer months we collect the honey-filled supers from our little apiary, bringing them home to spin down for that beautiful golden honey. There isn’t one set of hands that’s not sticky, but one in particular sneaks tastes from the spouts of filled buckets as they pour through screens and into bottles. Jars for friends and family boast crooked labels and sticky fingerprints, because we cannot say no to the eagerness of wanting to help in every step of the process.
We keep nothing from our little wild farm girls, involving them in all aspects of life on our farm. The broiler birds which we have fed and moved around the yard all summer in the chicken tractor must be processed for the freezer to feed our family.
From day one, we are honest about the outcome of these birds and when butcher day arrives there are lots of questions but no tears or fear. The summer hogs who take up residence in our pasture, their snorts and antics becoming a part of our daily life, will also leave the farm. We load them onto the trailer and wave goodbye, thankful for another season of raising food for our family.
We fill egg baskets in the afternoon sunshine, dropping pocketful’s of grain on the ground around our feet as thanks. We name our laying hens; Plain Jane and Big Momma, Cheeky Monkey and Bonnie, thankful for our feathered friends and the rainbow of eggs they give us daily. Little feet climb up the step ladder, carefully lifting the lid of the nesting boxes and reaching in to retrieve warm eggs from bedded hens. They will be placed carefully by the little hands that gathered them onto the rack on the counter for breakfast and baking and yummy treats made together in the kitchen.
Life is Filled with Adventure
Ours is a simple life here on our little wild homestead, but it is filled with so much joy, adventure, love and lessons. It’s wild little girls with big imaginations, learning skills to carry with them a lifetime. Hopefully passing on to their daughters and their daughters after them.
So, may we raise our girls in the garden, learning to sprout and flourish alongside the birds and the bees. May they bloom in all their glory, not ever wondering if their petals shine less than the flower beside them. May we teach them to be soft with the world, stepping over earthworms and rescuing honey bees from the water puddles. May they learn to share space with the weeds and wildflowers, knowing one is not better than the other, each playing their part in a larger ecosystem.
May they one day grow to love Mother Nature as I have, spending their days frolicking between rows of green shoots and vegetables. Planting their own seeds for the future and perhaps, through it all, smiling thinking of me as they do so when I am long gone.
Hadleigh Burch is the face behind A Little Wild Farm, a family run homestead on 160 acres of field and forest in Alberta, Canada. Along with her husband and two daughters, Hadleigh is focused on creating a simpler and more sustainable way of life for her family. From gardening to baking, sewing to knitting, writing and photography, she shares a look into her family's daily life on their farm raising pigs, chickens and keeping honey bees on Instagram @alittlewildfarm.
Photography by Stephanie at Rockwood Photography
