This last week brought a lot more opportunity and more change.

On Wednesday I was invited to Marble Falls High School to participate as a guest judge for an Iron Chef competition. The class was a dual credit high school course for students who were planning to pursue a culinary career. The instructor, Chef Marshie Morgan put together a great competition for her students, and gave them the added challenge of creating an all gluten-free menu. I gave the class a demonstration on how to open and clean the secret ingredient – Thai Fresh Young Coconut, and the students had 90 min to prepare and serve 4 courses. The food was creative, artistically plated and incredibly yummy, and all of the students who were competing were so impressive and worked really well under pressure. It was really a fun experience, and I was so happy to be included.

On Thursday I started my new job at Johnson’s Backyard Garden. They are Austin’s largest organic farmer, and in addition to serving farmer’s markets, grocery stores and restaurants, they run a very successful Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. A CSA is a program that allows the consumer to have a direct relationship with their farmer. At the beginning of the season you make a commitment to supporting your farmer by purchasing a set number of shares of freshly harvested fruits and veggies. Then for the rest of the season you pick up your shares (or in some cases have them delivered) on a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. It helps the farmer better manage business, while you get the freshest, best veggies ever. My job will be to help expand their CSA program into other large Texas cities so more people can share in that experience.

I’m really excited for this opportunity for a lot of reasons. It’s part-time, which gives me the chance to fill my available time either cooking professionally or working on building Little Mandala Farm. I love having the ability to continue to apply my marketing skills, while transitioning into an industry that I am truly and deeply passionate about. I’m really grateful that JBG accepted me into their farm family – I believe that I can learn a lot from this new experience that I will be able to apply to Ed’s and my future goals with our own farm.

Which brings me to our current update on the progress for Little Mandala Farm. We are currently working on our pre-application process for the farm and preparing to place our house on the market. So far everything looks very positive, and we hope to get approval quickly so that we can make an offer as soon as possible. Next week we are meeting with contractors to address some minor things with our current house before listing. Everything is moving forward so fast, yet at times it feels like it couldn’t be fast enough. Usually those times are when I think about Butter running free in her own yard, sitting in Austin traffic or trying to fall asleep at night instead of “wake dreaming”. Luckily there is so much keeping us so busy either preparing or planning that I don’t think I will have much time to worry about it.

~♥~~☼~~♥~~☼~~♥~~☼~~♥~~☼~~♥~~☼~~♥~

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” ― Laozi