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  • From: "Kathy Somers" <SomersFarm AT kingcon.com>
  • To: "market farming" <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Making a living
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 18:49:51 -0500

Hi Everyone,
I have been reading all of the posts on making a profit from farming.  Although we are not just a vegetable farm, we do have a 50 milk cow dairy farm, we are expanding into berries and veggies with a roadside stand.  Although we have not made close to what would constitute a living for a family of 5, I too like Liz can not imagine doing anything else.  We have steadily seen our business grow during the last few years, by leaps and bounds.  I don't know where that will take us, we will have to wait and see. 
 
It is true...Where there is a will there is a way.  My husband and I do all of our farm work, we have not help, except for our girls who are still young.  It is very hard work, but so rewarding.  Whenever I visit my family in the city, I am reminded of hw wonderful farm life can be.  Yes, there have been many many times I have wondered how the bills would get paid, but they always have. 
 
I am beginning to wonder after reading all of the posts, if we are making a mistake to widen our horizon into vegetables, and berries.
 
Kathy in Vermont
 
 
Thanks to all of you for all the wonderful insght.  I am still a beginner in all of this.  I appreciate being a part of this Newsletter
-----Original Message-----
From: Liz Pike <strawbry_wine AT yahoo.com>
To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 10:50 AM
Subject: Re: Making a living

It's been quite awhile since I've posted, and I can't resist jumping in here when discussing discouragement & making a living on the farm.  What I have to say is a bit on the personal side--fair warning to those impatient with chattiness.  I've kept up with this list for the past few months, and am glad to see all the newcomers. 
 
I grew up on farms, and was blessed enough to buy one in the early years of my marriage (while I was still young enough to work like a dog).  I farmed it for 20 years--40 acres of conventional & non-certified organic crops, along with several "value-added" products I developed from what grew on the land. I sold through organic food co-ops, friends at my back door, florists, and 2 years ago, began selling at a farmer's market.  I'd planned to start a CSA this past year, and open an on-farm stand.  That was, until I lost it all, quickly, in a divorce. 
 
When you feel discouraged, try to imagine NOT farming.  No patches of dewy grass in which to sink your toes, no steam rising off the nearby slopes in the early morning sun, no mosquitoes to swat, no call of the whippoorwill while you finish harvesting by headlights, no fresh veggies to bite into--relishing the warm flavor while ignoring the grit.  This is the romance of farming, but there's a flip side, a harsh reality.  It is one of the hardest ways to make a living.  But as farmers, for whatever craziness we possess in our psyches  ; ))), we see beyond that harsh reality, with all the nuances that make memories, feed the soul, and nourish our spirits.  We see into the romance of the land, in the play of sunshine and insects, rain, and wind, full harvests and bad years. We're making a life, with a passion that escapes those just making a living.
 
I know, I know.  We can't eat passion, and romance doesn't pay the light bill.  But, pardon the cliche, where there's a will, there's a way.  You have to find it--you must.  Because the only alternative is to give up, walk away.  Can you do that??  I know I can't.  And won't.  Somehow, someway, come hell or high water,  & seeing as how I've been through both--Floyd's flooding and losing my farm, you can bet your bottom dollar that I WILL farm again.  Because that's what I am--a farmer--an eternal optimist gambling with Mother Nature, and a society that pits everything against me. 
 
Liz Pike
Market Farmer without a farm......
Winston Salem NC
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