Welcome to the New Year!
One of the Genuine Faux Farm blog traditions has been to share my choices for best articles for the past year. So, here you are! Feel free to take the links and visit as many or as few of these writings as you wish.
And, if you’re thinking you know someone else who might enjoy this Substack, feel free to share. This gives them more than one opportunity to sample my wares and decide if the Genuine Faux Farm Substack is for them.
People’s Choice
The People’s Choice award is never as clear-cut as it sounds because it relies heavily on web metrics, which are often less valuable than they might sound. Then, when you add the variable of a growing audience (yay!), some adjustments have to be made. This year’s selection showed much more activity than the articles that were chronologically adjacent - so here we are!
Oh… and you have to admit that you probably weren’t looking for the words “chronologically” and “adjacent” to be next to each other like that. On the other hand, isn’t adjacent always next to something else?
I know, I know. Get on with the list!
Almost Without Exception
This post is a reflection on our farmers’ market days, which are further behind us than our CSA (Farm Share) days. I think it provides an excellent look at the vendor’s viewpoint along with an important point that we should “be the exception. Recognize the effort someone makes on your behalf.”
Good choice everyone! I might have included this in the Author’s Choice list if it wasn’t selected here.
Author’s Choices
I actually debated whether or not I would provide a “best of” list for 2024. Unlike the past few years, I have written many fewer articles. But, that doesn’t mean much considering I was posting almost every day from 2020 to the end of 2023. I guess I wasn’t sure that I had enough quality work to create this list.
Then I started looking at what I had published - and I had a hard time narrowing it down to my normal eleven entries. That’s always a good sign that there is some decent writing to be shared. Here’s to a good year of writing and hoping for an even better one in 2025.
11 - I Work with Idiots
It makes sense to start with something lighter that has a little bit of humor worked in to the mix. This one is a take on my existence as a person who works for himself on the farm and who works from home when I work for someone else (which means I work for and by myself most of the time). When a person is surrounded by his constant companions (me, myself and I) there are plenty of opportunities for conflict.
10 - Farmer Delusional Syndrome Strikes Again!
The Farmer Delusional Syndrome article has seen numerous permutations over the years, just as my suffering from this disorder has been visited upon me every winter since we started the Genuine Faux Farm. I like where the 2024 version that describes FDS landed - and I think you will too.
9 - Conehead and Katydid Symphony
I remember being told (by more than one person) that the best writing is always re-writing. Like so much of wisdom, it isn’t until our experiences catch up with the lesson that we make it our own. This article has undergone a couple of reconstructions in the past … oh… mumble mumble… years. And it has gotten better each time.
8 - Peer Mentorship for the Win
The Genuine Faux Farm had its humble beginnings in 2004 and we’re entering 2025 with the knowledge that we will still be farming in the new year. What we do now looks vastly different from even five years ago and it certainly isn’t exactly what we envisioned when we started. But one of the keys to our endurance has been the valuable peer mentorship of a small group of farmers.
If you want to know our “secret” for success, this article will make it perfectly clear. It isn’t a secret - it’s good friends.
7 - All Star
There are numerous “Faux Real Stories” that I have written over the years. If you were subscribed to this Substack in December, you’ve gotten a chance to enjoy several of them. This particular Faux Real Story was completely new for 2024, having never been told as part or all of a previous blog since I started writing in 2009. Many of the other Faux Real Stories got their start as a paragraph or two to help illustrate other writing - only to emerge as a stand alone later in their lives. This one did not and I feel it measures up nicely.
6- A Tapestry of Tomatoes
For those who are not familiar with the history of the Genuine Faux Farm blog (and now this Substack), I often share observations on crops along with thoughts on growing methods. Since we often focus on heirloom and open pollinated vegetable varieties at the farm, articles like this one can also provide insight specific to the cultivars we raise.
All of this is couched into the workings of our farm - complete with its specific strengths and weaknesses. Throw in some information on more general factors that influence growing like pesticide drift and the weather and you have a rough idea where this one is going. A bit of reporting. A bit of educational material and a growing tip or two. A bit of GFF specific stuff. Maybe a modest attempt at humor.
5 - Harvest Moon (and a melon 17 years in the making)
I think some people might be surprised how I can take a harvest report and turn it into a bit of a story - complete with heirloom variety descriptions. I included the subtitle this time because I think it provides a good hook for this particular article. Rather than explain more, I’ll just leave you to go explore it yourself!
4 - Sunflower Sonata
Sunflowers, music, mathematics, pollinators and disk florets! There is even reference to a study that shows sunflower pollen can help prevent certain kinds of bumblebees from succumbing to a common (to them) parasite.
If you haven’t figured it out, I enjoy providing everyone (including myself) with learning opportunities.
3 - The Barn Swallow Chronicles
Barn Swallows have been raising their families on the Genuine Faux Farm ever since we arrived - and they tell us that they have ALWAYS been raising families there. But, they’re so busy, it’s hard to figure out when they’ve had the time to keep an accurate history.
Did you know - during migration Barn Swallows travel an average of 55 miles per day?
2 - The Middle of Nowhere
We live in “the middle of nowhere,” if you ask someone from the Coasts or a bigger city. When they say it, it usually isn’t meant as a complement. At best, it’s just a throwaway comment that implies this is a throwaway place. But there is no place I’d rather be than the middle of nowhere.
In the middle of nowhere, we know that the long games of stewardship and caretaking require persistence, effort and patience. There is also a need for healthy helpings of grace, forbearance and a certain tolerance for failure. But perhaps the hardest part is slowing down enough to recognize the rewards when they finally arrive.
1 - Time to Wake Up
Coming in at the number one spot is this offering featuring Crazy Maurice, the farm’s Weeping Willow age that inhabits the northwest corner of the farm. Maurice enjoys dispensing his tree wisdom and penchant for long descriptions in the place of the short names humans seem to prefer. But don’t let that deter you. Maurice is quite clever and knows enough of our language to adapt.
As farmers we are honored that at least some of the trees seem willing to talk with us. Even the Old Mighty Oaks will mumble in recognition, even if they won’t deign to say anything beyond that.
And there you have it! A nice group of reading recommendations from the Genuine Faux Farm Substack in 2024. You are certainly welcome to read more entries by going to the Archive. As always, thank you for reading and considering my thoughts and words.
And here’s to a new year with more worthwhile writing - and hopefully reading. Be well!
A trip down memory lane, for I recognized many/all of these great stories -- certainly worth the re-read. You're attuned to the natural world, your reflections are thoughtfully shared, and the photos are an added bonus. Thanks, Rob.