Some days remind you exactly why you started this whole crazy adventure.
A friend of Jordan’s reached out and asked if her son and daughter-in-law could come see the homestead. We figured it would be a quick walk around the yard. You know… “Here’s the garden. Here’s the chickens. Thanks for coming.”
Yeah…
That is not what happened.
What was supposed to be a quick visit somehow turned into a full-blown homestead tour. We walked through the gardens, talked about what was growing, wandered over to the aquaponics system, answered about a million questions, and just… talked.
The best part?
They were genuinely excited.
Not the polite kind of excited where people nod their heads because they’re trying to be nice.
The real kind.
The kind where every few minutes they noticed something new.
“Wait… you grow THAT?”
“Can we taste one?”
“How does this work?”
Before long, they were walking through the garden eating blackberries straight off the vine, tasting grapes that had been warmed by the Louisiana sun, and dreaming about everything they wanted to grow when they got back home to Texas.
And honestly…
Watching someone experience fresh food like that never gets old.
By the time they were getting ready to leave, we started gathering seeds, seedlings, and plants. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, they were headed back to Texas with just about everything they’d need to start their own fall garden.
That’s when one of my favorite moments happened.
They looked around, smiled, and said they really didn’t want to leave.
That one sentence stayed with me.
Because that’s exactly how we hope people feel when they come here.
1737 has never been about showing off what we’ve built.
It’s about opening the gate.
It’s about sharing what we’ve learned.
It’s about letting people see that growing your own food isn’t reserved for people with acres of land or generations of farming experience. It’s for anyone willing to learn.
Somewhere between the blackberry bushes and the aquaponics tanks…
Between conversations about compost and tomatoes…
Between handing over plants and talking about what to grow next…
Something else happened.
Somehow Jordan stopped being Mr. Jordan.
I stopped being Mrs. Shawana.
And by the time they pulled out of the driveway, we had somehow become “Unk” and “Auntie.”
We laughed about it after they left.
How do you go from strangers to family in one afternoon?
I don’t really know.
Maybe that’s just what happens when people gather around growing food.
Maybe gardens have a way of breaking down walls.
Maybe sharing knowledge creates connections faster than we realize.
Or maybe…
Family isn’t always the people you’re born with.
Sometimes it’s the people who wander into your backyard for what was supposed to be a quick garden tour and leave with dirt under their fingernails, plants in the back seat, and a standing invitation to come back anytime.
If that’s what happened…
We’ll happily claim another niece and nephew.
The garden is always growing.
Apparently, so is the family.
Cultivating Community. Harvesting Home. 🌿
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