Grown With Love

At black barn farm in victoria, Jade Miles and her family enjoy a year-round harvest from their kitchen garden

- Jade Miles

Growing food is the single most hopeful, fulfilling, regrouping, empowering act that I undertake. It forces me to have patience – things grow as seasons pass and can’t be hurried. It soothes a busy mind – the tasks are all-consuming, so my head, heart, and soul are always in the moment. It teaches lessons through incredible failures and accidental successes. There are no judgments and no rules.

The time frames are dictated by forces much bigger than me, so I am humbled by perspective, relinquish my ability to influence and simply do what I can – press my hands into the soil, feel the seeds slide through my fingers, read the seasons, revel in my observations and share my wins. It’s a solo pursuit but a deeply connecting one, too. The rewards are plentiful, even if there is not always an abundance of food produced – the lessons learned are worth the shortfall.

PLANTING HOPE