Market Farming

[KAKerby AT aol.com]

Bill, I've been mulling your question of "looking to the old to teach the new" as well, but from a different perspective.  I'm relatively young at 45 years, and definitely still a greenhorn farmer.  "Punk amateur" would also be accurate; amateur enough that I hesitate to call myself a farmer yet.  I haven't earned that title yet.  One of my main farm mentors (and the owner of my leased parcel) is in his late 80's.  My conversations with him along the line have been......mixed. 

 

He is that quintessential farmer who sees the time approaching when he needs to hand off the farm to someone else.  Most of the folks who have approached him in that capacity have zero interest in farming and want to use his land and big gorgeous barn for other non-farming purposes (such as a restaurant, condos, etc).  His kids have zero interest in farming.  My relationship with him has been akin to that of a grandparent and grandchild, not only because of the age difference but because he has taken me under his wing, started to transfer information, but then stood back and let me do with that information what I will.  In his wisdom and graciousness he has given me latitude to fail in my various projects on his land, not because he wants to see me fail (quite the opposite) but because failure teaches us where simple words would not otherwise sink in.  I think the world of him.  My motivations to succeed in farming are partly to give him some reassurance that his farm is being worked by someone who can someday take the reins in something possibly approaching competency.  But I also know there's not enough time left in our relationship for him to transfer to me a lifetime of experience.  I mourn that loss even as he still walks and talks and teaches.

 

All that said, he and I have had our differences.  His entire orientation on problems, and solutions, are largely chemical.  If an animal's health is failing, it needs some chemical supplement.  If the soil is failing, it needs X fertilizer at Y rate of application.  If a crop is failing, spray it.  He doesn't want to certify organic because most of the tools in his toolbox wouldn't be permitted.  Old ways of farming died out for a reason.  New ways of farming are to be held at arm's length for a good long time (a decade or more) and let someone else experiment with them for awhile before they are validated.  Hoophouses and greenhouses and season extenders haven't passed that litmus test yet, let alone baby greens, locavores or niche markets.  He wants to see me follow some X recipe for farm production, or specialize in something, instead of experimenting with this-n-that.  I can't tell him he's wrong in any of these things.  But it makes for some resistance as I want to do things according to the information I've currently got at any given time.

 

For small grains production, he's dubious.  Threshers and pull-type combines have no place on a modern farm; better machinery has replaced them for a reason.  Let those who have the ideal climate and the big machinery specialize in that production, while I specialize in whatever grows particularly well here.  He still has some old corn equipment and a few years back experimented with sunflowers, but wasn't enamored of what he saw to continue.  When I asked him about small grains harvesting equipment, he questioned whether that was a practical use of my time.  So whatever information he has from his own experience, that experience hasn't made it through his personal filters of "worth it" enough to relay it to me.

 

So we do this dance.  I'll try certain things, safe enough in his experience to be worthwhile, but sometimes two or three decades behind the times.  Those crops or methods too old or too new are simply not considered right now.  Maybe that will change as I get some of these garden-variety (pun intended) crops figured out.  His point to start with guaranteed candidates rather than messing around with experimental approaches is certainly valid for a greenhorn like me.  Still, it's frustrating to see these conversations and try them on our property, which is definitely less than ideal, when I'm pretty sure they'd do really well on his.  But I have to respect his judgement.  Perhaps that "proceed with caution" attitude is one of the more important things he's trying to teach me.  So I put in my time and try to do what I can, and what I'm permitted, with his land.  I'll treasure whatever information he cares to share with me.  But right now a lot of it remains in his mind apparently relegated to the "no longer relevant" category.  And I'm not sure how to change that.  I hope that changes over time but I'm not sure it ever will. 

Kathryn Kerby, punk amateur almost-farmer

frogchorusfarm.com

Snohomish, WA