Welcome back to Beyond the Crops, where farm life meets real life! Join your hosts, Jena Ochsner and Mary Pat Sass, for a heartfelt chat recorded in a rare "sliver of time" just before Easter, as the planting season looms large. This episode blends reflections on faith, the renewal of spring, and the very real hustle (and occasional hilarious chaos) of life on the farm right now.

📌 What We Cover in This Episode:

✅ Reflecting on Easter: Connecting the themes of resurrection and renewal to the hope, anxieties, and faith required for a new planting season.
✅ Personal Faith Journeys: Mary Pat shares the story of her adult baptism on Easter Sunday, and Jena discusses navigating weather scares with trust.
✅ Farm Updates & Planting Prep: Hear how Jena and Mary Pat's families are tackling fertilizing, tillage, and the first days of planting, including Nebraska's unpredictable spring weather and the rare need for pre-plant irrigation.
✅ Mary Pat's Homemaker Adventures: Diving into pressure canning (beef, chicken, broth!), planting fruit trees and raspberries, and the sudden urge to research freeze dryers.
✅ Jena's Fermenting Fun: Recapping a lacto-fermentation class and the delicious world of homemade sauerkraut, effervescent pickles, kvass, and even fermented ketchup!
✅ Balancing Birthdays & Busy Season: Celebrating Levi's (and Mary Pat's!) birthday amidst the demands of planting.
✅ Farm Wife Tallow Update: Exciting news about the upcoming skincare launch – get ready before Mother's Day!

💡 Key Takeaways:

✨ Faith provides essential perspective and hope during the often stressful and uncertain planting season.
✨ The themes of Easter – sacrifice, renewal, and hope – resonate deeply with the cycles of agriculture and life.
✨ Embracing new skills like canning and fermenting can be a rewarding way to connect with food, preserve the harvest, and even "get your pink back."
✨ Life on the farm is unpredictable! Flexibility, humor, and trusting God's plan are key to navigating the chaos.
✨ Prioritizing connection, like pausing for a family meal or celebrating a birthday even during busy times, matters.

🙌 Join the Conversation!
We’d love to hear from you! What's giving you hope or getting you excited as planting season begins? Or, inspired by Mary Pat and Jena, have you tried any new 'homesteading' skills lately? Share your thoughts and tag us @beyondthecrops_.

Remember, new episodes launch every Tuesday!

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