Why in the world do we want to become real farmers anyway? I say "real", because there are lots of folks these days that live on some property, have a horse or some livestock, maybe some chickens and a garden, and call their little place a farm. I guess the term generally applied in such a situation is "hobby farmer". But it's different to truly be a farmer. To me, a "real" farmer earns a good portion of his living by farming (kind of a "duh", I know).
Currently, Milan is a software engineer and works from home. I'm a stay-at-home wife and mom who is blessed to have the opportunity to keep one foot in the career world by doing a little marketing consulting, also from home. So, "inside", we have this one life going. It's a good life, too! Very comfortable, especially for me. I have to say that, on paper, it's about perfect.
For Milan, however, software is not fulfilling. Sure, there are days when it's exciting and invigorating within its own little bubble. Even then, Milan has a hard time finding any real, lasting value in what he does for 8 hours a day. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying that software engineers aren't doing good things. I'm summarizing Milan's perspective. To him, being a certain kind of farmer has more lasting value than whether United's voice-prompt reservation system is fool proof.
That certain kind of farmer is conscientious, honest, hard-working and humble. He sees to the welfare of his animals, ensuring them the best quality of life he can give them. Even if they are going to be steak or chicken cordon bleu, he wants them to be able to be "real" cows or "real" chickens while they're alive. He values greatly his environment and works very hard to balance the ability to make a living with earth-friendly, sustainable agricultural practices, and if he can't viably raise something without compromising core values, he doesn't do it. He (or she!) believes in maintaining the land so that it will still be rich and fertile for generations beyond his own (Ever wonder why the "Fertile Crescent" is now a desert? Hundreds of years of unsustainable farming techniques).
In addition to seeing farming as an inviting way of life, we believe it's important to know where your food comes from. Locally grown food, whether strawberries from the farm stand or whole milk in glass bottles from a dairy in the next county is usually healthier and more sustainably produced than what you routinely get off the grocery store shelves. What's more, being in touch, on a local level, with how and where your food is produced and with the farmer that produces it, makes you more appreciative of the food and all the inputs that went into raising it. As a nation, we have completely lost touch with the fact that those chicken nuggets came from a living bird, or that those potato chips were spuds from a farmer's field. I could go off on multiple rabbit trails, at this point, about how knowing where your food comes from could be fundamental to lowering obesity statistics, heart disease, adult onset diabetes... I'll leave that for another blog, another day.
Lastly, why chickens? Why not beef, which seems easier and, in my mind, at least, is so much more glamorous? For that matter, why not anything else? Hops and bison were two other crops we seriously considered.
It came across in Milan's reading and research that any mono-crop farm is fundamentally not sustainable. This is hard to swallow, as specialization is what generally leads to greater profit. But to have a truly sustainable, eco-friendly farm, you have to be diverse. The model we're essentially mimicking is that of Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms, located in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. For us, that means starting small. We don't intend to be "chicken farmers"; we're just starting our farm business with chickens. We hope to offer eggs, beef and possibly pork in the future, and who knows what else: apples? pears? raspberries? They're all here already, in some form or another.
For us, being this certain kind of farmer pulls together our values and moral ideals about life and how it should be lived. I guess it does sound romantic. In reality, it's going to be a lot of long days of dirty, tiring and even gut-wrenching (butchering?! Hello!) work. But, we look forward even to that: good, hard, character-building work!
That's why we're doing this. Or at least, it's a start!
Michael Pollan's description of Polyface Farms was inspirational and I did not realize until I read this blog that you were aspiring to that model. I think it's great, and even more I've been reading Wendell Berry and Pioneer Women. Real farming should be an adventure!
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