Joy to the world.

Dear friends,

It is a holiday season and the year 2015 is fast approaching! But before we welcome a new year and fresh opportunities, we should reflect on the year we are leaving behind.

2014 was a fruitful and an amazing one for us and our farm. Many new things happened and many other things stayed the same (like an old chicken coop that needs a lot of TLC, but it is still standing!).

Among the new things were the creation of the farm business and finally settling down on the official name for our farm, “Slavic Heritage Farm”. Other exciting projects included installation of the road sign and the farmyard sign, moving a farmstand, finishing the greenhouse and planting it for the first time, expanding our animal herd and getting a horse!

But the highlight of the growing season was planting of our berry patches. In the course of 6 weeks in the late spring and early summer we managed to plant 3,000 strawberries, 2,000 raspberry plants, 150 honeyberries, 150 red, black and golden currents, 30 gooseberries, 10 aronia bushes and 2 maple trees. The kids were real troopers!

Summer was very vibrant and full of farmtastic events! There were no quiet and “oh, I’m bored” kind of days! We hosted 5 amazing wwoofers and 1 awesome wwoofing family of 4. With the help of our hardworking volunteers we managed to win the battles with the weeds on the newly planted berry patches, kept the gardens to a breathtaking beauty, added valuable infrastructure to the farm operation, such as new pastures, a farmstand and began the reconstruction of an old garage to be turned into a country store.

But when we look back at 2014 as a family we feel tremendous joy realizing what a blessing it is to live, learn, work and have good times together on the farm! We have grown closer together as a family because we spend a lot of time side by side, our bodies became stronger and healthier because we know what we eat, our spirits have an opportunity to grow and rejuvenate daily being in constant contact with the natural world around us. Life on the farm is REAL as it gets, with it’s challenges, rewards, ups and downs. The love we’ve been putting into our land is shining back at us! After all, our heart shaped tomato says it all!

But all the physical work we do on the farm, all the hardheaded determination that goes into keeping our animals happy and our land healthy, all the back and neck pains we experience after weeding and mulching never ending rows of veggies, all the scratches, bruises and dirty nails, all the freckles on our sunkissed faces and bleached hair, all our worries of weather not cooperating… all of that is a small price to pay to experience TRUE FREEDOM!

We wish you to find your own path that would lead you to YOUR freedom in the coming new year! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2015 from all of us on “Slavic Heritage Farm”!

With love, Mirek and Julia,

plus the rest of the farming crew: Ivana, Leona, Milana, Evan and Adrian.