So You Wanna Be A Farmer?
When we first started farming, most of my guidance came from books. Eliot Coleman, Helen and Scott Nearing, etc....
Helen and Scott Nearing, for example, believed in producing only what they needed to pay the bills. They had visitors come to their farm to work, play the flute, smoke a joint - whatever....(I never read anything in the book about joints being smoked, but they sure had a sing-song sort of life.)
Eliot Coleman makes it look easy too. He claims that you don't need a tractor. A broadfork will do. Perhaps a walking tractor, but for heaven's sake, you don't need a tractor.
So...it seemed to me that we'd be able to earn a living at this farming thing. Never, in my wildest dreams did i imagine the work would be so challenging. It IS possible to earn a living at this, so let me not discourage anyone with my rant. It is just much, much more challenging than one would imagine.
This is the last two days. Thurrsday and Friday; Up at 5 to capture 125 chickens which must be delivered to the processor. Rich on his merry way, drives 3 hours round trip. I continue work whilst he is away, feeding chickens, untangling sheep from fence, weeding garlic, weeding spinach....you name it. Oh, I planted tomatoes and that night we got a frost so now we get to replant them. Then off to deliver chicken to a store in town. Off to Mineral Point to deliver lamb and chicken, home, sleep. Lord knows what Rich did all day - Oprah? Bon Bons?
Next day - up at 5 again. Rich drives 3 hours round trip to pick up chickens. I feed the remaining chickens whilst he is away. Hand weed spinach. Garlic. Flowers. Weed - weed - weed. Weed the hoop house. Feed the chickens again. and again. Weed the garlic again. Then at about 4 we start to think about the market tomorrow. Harvest green garlic, cut flowers, pack the van, make pricing signs. Good grief it never ends!
None of that accounts for the bookkeeping, housekeeping, etc, that only happens now and again. Plus a few sales on eBay. An antique show next weekend. Customers calling with orders. Us calling others with orders....and on and on. Wait until my rant on 'Producer Only' Farmers Markets. One of which I am going to tomorrow at 4AM. See ya!
