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From Lane & Jules at Sweet BombDiggity Farms
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Pull Up a Chair
The work you can't see yet
Garlic is the crop that taught me the most about patience.
You put it in the ground in fall, and then you walk away. It sits underground through every cold snap, doing work you can't see. For months there's nothing to show for it. Then one spring morning, it's there.
Much of what matters in life works the same way. The habits you keep when nobody's watching, the prayers that feel like they're going nowhere, and the work you show up for anyway are all putting down roots.
So if you're in a season where you can't see much happening yet, don't dig it up to check. Give it the winter.
And if your garlic isn't in the ground yet, you still have time. And remember, late garlic beats no garlic.
Jules & Lane
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Out in the Garden
When to plant garlic where you live
Garlic is the crop I recommend to anybody who thinks they're not a gardener. You put it in the ground in fall, walk away, and the following summer you dig up something better than anything at the grocery store.
Plant it 2 to 4 weeks after your first fall frost, once the soil has cooled but before the ground hardens. You want roots before winter, not top growth.
I grow softneck. It handles a mild winter and our humidity, and it keeps six to eight months, so the garlic I pull in June is still in my kitchen all winter.
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On the Shelf
Farm Sunday, in two books
So many people have told us they never could find a church where they felt they fit. Maybe that's you too. Or maybe you have a wonderful church home. Either way, we want you to know something: you have always belonged with Jesus, just as you are.
This Sunday, November 1, a year of Farm Sunday comes out in each of two books, Steady Ground and Glad in God, in paperback and Kindle.
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From the Farm Kitchen
BombDiggity Blaze hot pepper sauce
When heirloom peppers come in by the basketful, I start looking for every way to use them. This year I roasted them, pickled them, dried them, stuffed them, and still had more. That's when I turned to hot sauce.
This one is a cooked vinegar sauce you can make the same day. Sauté a pound of mixed hot peppers with onion and garlic, then simmer in apple cider vinegar with honey and salt for 15 to 20 minutes, blend until smooth, and bottle.
It keeps for months in the fridge, ready to splash on everything from tacos to eggs.
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Curated Corner
A fall corner that started with a $1 pumpkin
This corner is from last fall. It all started with clearance pumpkins for a dollar apiece. Décor today, pig and chicken food tomorrow.
The containers are brown-and-white salt-fired pottery from the 1930s to 1950s, some once used for cream or preserves. A few small cast-iron urns from the flea market add a little age. An artisan made the broom, with a twisted oak handle that feels like sculpture.
Everything else came from a walk around the farm: dogwood and birch, evergreen clippings, dried hydrangea and butterfly bush twigs. Start with one pumpkin and see what you find.
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Tuck it in Your Pocket
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Galatians 6:9
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Have a question you'd love us to answer, a project you're proud of, or something that inspired you? Hit reply. It might show up in a future letter.
We're building something beautiful here, together. Now that's BombDiggity!
Here's to designing a flourishing life,
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