The Store is Now Open!
July 6th - July 12th, 2025
I will be at the Hall’s Way market today from 4-7pm. I will also be at the Depot St market on Saturday from 7-12pm. AND! The farm store is now open 💃💃💃 More details below!
This Week…
Quick breads
Apple pies
Mixed nut tarts
Veggies: carrots, kale, garlic, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, turnips, fingerling potatoes, regular size potatoes, green beans, okra, peppers, and tomatoes.
Flowers - Sunflower, zinnias, cinnamon and lemon basil, marigolds… I mean… Look 👇
The Store is Now Open!
You guys, this is a dream coming true for me 🥹
Here is the story… In 2011, I declared to my very uncooperative ex-husband that I could no longer stay in the city (we had to be there because of his job). I was miserable. I pretty much understood that I was not a city person when I was 6 years old. My parents, bless their hearts, got that, and found me space in a private school and an agricultural commune called a kibbutz (I grew up in Israel). Between the horses, cows, and fields, I felt at peace.
Anyway, you know how they say that in a relationship you have to compromise blah blah blah blah blah… Well, I tried that, which is why I was living in the city again, but I was literally dying. Literally.
So then I decided that I didn’t come to this life to compromise and live someone else’s way, and so I gave my ex-husband two options… Finding land in the American countryside or going back to Israel.
It took me two years to find this piece of land here in Person county, and the miracle that that was is a story for another time (let me know if you want to hear it!), but the bottom line was that I was so so mad at the world back then.
I was stuck in an awful relationship. I was a single mother even though I was married. I hated the city, I had no time to take care of my body or mental health, and not one, not one of my neighbors was able to hold a normal conversation about cows! Or goats, or growing food!
I wanted to find land that I can grow and raise everything I need to sustain my family, and I would never need to leave unless I really wanted to. I was done with society.
When I found this beautiful piece of land it fit the bill perfectly because it had a front field right on the road which meant that I could sell stuff right from the field (i.e not need to leave to make an income), and it had a back field allllllllllll the way to the back where I would build my off-grid home and never see another human ever again.
Perfect.
Or not exactly. You see, I’ve done what I set out to do… I raised goats for milk and made cheese. I grew the garden, I raised the chickens and butchered them, and also ducks. We hunted and used the deer meat and on and on…
And as I did that homesteading, self-sustaining thing, I realised more and more that it’s not meant to be done alone. This farming lifestyle is meant to be lived as a community. We are better together, helping each other.
Suddenly, I had amazing neighbors who could carry on a conversation about cow manure as if it were the most normal thing… Because it was… And they had tractors, and knew about growing crops… I met AMAZING people at the market every Saturday… Suddenly, humans weren’t so bad.
I didn’t want to hide anymore… But the dream of being able to sell veggies right from the field remained. I still wanted to be able to grow for the community and spend most of my time in my own space.
I purchased my farm in 2013. For the past 12 years, I was working towards this dream, and today it happened…
Sweet Francis, who is my neighbor, was the first store customer! It’s so so fitting! I remember the day in 2017 when I showed up on her doorstep, hysterical and crying my eyes out, asking; what do you do in America when you can’t stay married anymore? Do you go to a lawyer? Where do you find one? What kind of lawyer?
I had no clue. My momma was far away. I had four babies at home. I knew back then that I might lose it all… My farm, my land that I had so many plans for…
Today, this sweet lady was the first one to put her money in that box (God, I hate charging her anything!). This meant so much to me!
And here we are. I know it’s just a little shed… It’s just a tomato… But it’s also a dream coming true and the beginning of so so so much more!
You all are a huge part of it, your support at the markets over the years made this possible. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Truly.
Opening Hours…
Urrrmmmm… I have no clue… I was thinking that the store should be open in the evenings, but since NC is becoming FL and we have evening monsoons pretty much every day now, I’m not sure.
It might just be open all day. What we’ll do is just give it a try and adjust as we go. I will update every day on Facebook. So follow the farm’s FB page here » https://www.facebook.com/kismetfarmnc
Recipe to Try…
I sold a million and a half cucumbers at the market last Saturday, most of them to customers who wanted to make pickles.
I made a note to myself to grow more of the picking varieties next year. There are more cucumbers in our future this year tho, since I plan on planting a few more rows during the month of July.
Anyway, I wanted to share with you a recipe for fermenting cucumbers. This is a simple way and an old-fashioned way of making “pickles” with salt. It takes a few minutes to put together and a few days to ferment.
They are salty, healthy, and delicious! Get the recipe here » https://ladyleeshome.com/fermenting-cucumbers/
If you are new here…
Welcome!
Hi friends! I am so excited that you are all here on this email list so I can communicate with you directly. I am going to try to send one email a week with farm and market updates.
This email list is powered by Substack. If you’ve never heard of it, Substack is a platform that combines social media, podcasting, video production, writing, and email communication without being dependent on an algorithm.
It helps us, content creators and business owners, to create content and deliver it to you directly. If you are in my space, we can communicate without a robot between us. Yay!
It also helps us get support from the community. This email list is completely free, and if you want more updates from me, you can download the Substack app and follow along there as well; however, many people ask me how they can support the farm. Substack offers a paid membership option as well. You can learn more about it by clicking the button below:
Social…
Kismet Farm is also on TikTok! If you use TikTok, join me there for farm updates and gardening tips and tricks. Click here to find me on TikTok.
That’s it for now, friends! Thanks for your support. See you at the markets.
~ Lady Lee ~