Magic
We went out to this extraordinary restaurant in Twisp for my birthday a few nights ago called Tappi. It’s somewhere that’s been on our radar for some time, and my expectations were unreasonably high. I’ll tell you two things. My expectations were met and then some, and it was some of the best food I’ve ever had.
Aside from great food, the chef/owner was also a delight. We chose seats at the woodfire bar where we could watch John (the owner) work on food and toss it into the fire to cook. While this was happening, we had the opportunity to chat with him. We introduced ourselves and gave him a quick rundown of our story, how we got here etc. He looked at me after I’d expressed another runnon sentence about how we’re so happy to be here, blah blah blah, and he said, “huh, sounds like magic.”
His words made me stop for a brief moment. Stop talking, stop moving my hands around, stop breathing even. Magic. Yes. That was it. I responded with a resounding, “yes, exactly” as I turned and made eye contact with Griffin. His eyes sparkled as they met mine.
I’ve used a lot of words to explain and express how it came to be that we’re here, sitting in this cozy little home right now at the beginning of 2023 with several feet of snow outside. I’ve used the words, meant to be, amazing, incredible, serendipitous, gratitude, lucky, and various others.
And the word magic makes a lot of sense. Well, magic itself doesn’t, but the word or concept of it does. When I was younger my Mom used to tell me that magic was alive inside me, but only if I believed. Fairies + Santa only existed for as long as I believed. And they did. They existed only until I stopped believing in the magic of them. And then they went away. It’s a fairly common idea that we lose sight of the magic in us as we get older and “grow up.” But maybe it’s not that we should lose sight of magic, just adjust our expectations of what it may or can do in our lives.
I’ve tried to live the last few years as open to possibility as possible. I’ve turned ideas on paper and in conversations into real life. I’ve planted tiny little seeds that have blossomed into enormous amounts of food and flowers. Those little seeds turned into an opportunity for me to be a farmer based on their growth, their abundance, and the support we received from people buying the end product from us.
How can I not believe in magic after all that?
And maybe that’s why finding this place, moving our business and lives here, maybe that’s why it didn’t seem so far-fetched to me. I believe. I believe in the world striving with our favor in mind. I believe the sun sits on our shoulders if we allow it too. And I believe in living with magic within our hearts.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s how this little spot became ours.
On Friday, September 2nd, I was doing my daily craigslist search. We were looking for a BCS Tractor. It’s basically a small tractor that you can walk behind. It’s great for small scale farms, and something we felt like we needed based on future plans and scalability. I found one that popped up, great condition, minimal use, and over in the great Methow Valley. I reached out and asked all the questions of course. The farmer selling the piece of equipment responded with lots of information, and also a document with a list of everything else she was selling. I looked at the list, and realized they must be either retiring from farming, or really cutting back. I did a quick google search of the farm name on the email signature and pulled up this incredible looking place in Twisp. Of course from there I went on a little rabbit hole and pulled up the property on zillow, etc. You can imagine what was running through my head at this point….. I saw the tunnels, the barn, the germ room, the sweet home, and responded with, “Are you selling the farm too? Ha ha.”
Haha??? Goodness. Did I think I was joking?
The owner responded from her personal email this time so we weren’t going back and forth on craigslist and gave me the rundown. They had some life changes that prompted the shift from commercial farming and planned to sell it in the Spring. You might be thinking, “Spring huh? It’s winter over there…..”
Well, things moved rather quickly after this. Griffin and I took a short trip over the mountains that very week to “check out the BCS.” One of the first things we noticed about the town of Twisp were all the Gaillardia flowers. When our dog Jax died earlier this year, I planted a gaillardia flower in his memory because I thought it looked like his orange ball he’d always carry around. They were growing everywhere here….
Magic.
The owners gave us a tour, and after leaving, we thought we might explode. We were enamored, excited, and quickly called my parents to fill them in.We took absolutely zero pictures and had only our excitement and energy to go from.
Things progressed and we decided to take another visit out with my parents because at some stage, they’ll go where I go. It went well, and suddenly things felt like they were moving even faster. While the original intent was for them to sell in the Spring, they found a place and made an offer on it, and it went through immediately.
Magic.
They were ready to sell now, if we were. Otherwise, they’d hold off and put it on the market in the Spring. And after seeing this property, we knew it would get snatched up in 5 seconds. We had several family meetings making pros and cons lists over the next few weeks. There were many tears shed over the magnitude of this decision. Not in any way because it was bad, just huge. Huge for our business, and huge for our lives! There was so much to think about and much to do if this was what we were all in for.
As you can see, we made the decision to move, and my goodness we are so elated. More to come on this front. If you’ve made it this far, congrats. It’s a wild story full of wonder, serendipity, gratitude, overwhelm, hope, passion, fervor, love and……
Magic
I hope to keep this blog up so that it serves as a diary of our new journey. Thank you for being here. We’re delighted to be your farmers.
Love, G + G