Nailing down what’s considered normal seasonal weather is a challenge for farming corn and soybeans, but also for the fruits our family takes to the farmers market. By the time this article is published, a good portion of the farmers in our county may be finishing corn planting, including me, and hopefully we won’t need to replant.

In this article, I connect experiences in farming with what I hope will be to parent more intentionally — at its best, this means having the patience to outlast the tantrum of a child or my own temptations to sometimes act on impulse rather than with an eye on a bigger picture.

For the first time in my father’s life, this year we did some field tillage in February. Some corn stalks needed to be worked down, and in delight we discovered the soil was as mellow at that time as is typical in May.

Even more interesting than February field work has been the timing for the fruit tree blossoms that followed. Our 300 or so sour cherry bushes seem to bloom at a different time every year. Blooming on April 15, this was the earliest in the six years we’ve  had them. Last year was April 28. In 2022, they stayed dormant even longer, blooming the week of May 10.

I watch the blooming period closely to indicate harvest time. Such data helps me to inform customers when to expect this addition at our farmer’s market table. I expect ripe cherries the first week in June, and honeyberries by May 25th this year.

Allow me to contrast these early season fruits with what I have observed in apples and aronia berries.  Yes, these were early to bloom this year also. However, these are longer season fruits which take time to develop, and finally ripen just before seasonal changes on the cusp of fall.

There is a universal lesson here which at first perplexed me. While the blooming date of cherries and honeyberries is an indication of harvest time, we can always plan for the annual aronia berry harvest being on Labor Day weekend — without regard for when the spring bloom took place. Apples are like this also. By the time school starts in the latter part of August we are chomping into the delectable Honeycrisp apples in our backyard.

While early fruiting honeyberries and cherries run a very short race, longer-season fruits have the ebb and flow of the entire summer to average out fluctuations in growing degree days. The more time a plant takes to develop, the more consistently this principle holds true.

Are we so different from the other living things of God’s creation? There’s more wiggle room for growth when we have our sights on the long game.

We could really improve our prospects for a more abundant life if our goal outlook were more long term–like apples and aronia berries.

One example is instead of the quick and easy pleasure of playing on the iPad or iPhone to spend extra time reading or being read to, playing outdoors, or creating art — using imagination and creativity.

I am gearing these examples toward what we create as the foundation for children because early childhood is when people first “bloom.”

These activities require more time and slow down our minds, so they may seem boring.

Boredom is the long lost art of learning to love oneself. Truly, boredom is like having to make friends with someone who may not impress you that much at times — yourself.

This certainly means having the patience to outlast the tantrum of a child now and then who is bored and wants to excessively play on an iPad. Let’s try to remember we want to take the long view over simply what is most convenient; we want kids to mature like the biblical fruit of knowledge and the Greek mythological symbol of wisdom — apples.