How I got here
I couldn’t be more grateful for how everything has aligned to bring me here! I’ve been farming or working similar outdoor jobs my whole life and this has always been a dream of mine. I‘m still pinching myself every day. I felt like starting a farm wasn’t for people like me. It was for people with money. Maybe it was for people with family land, But it never felt accessible for someone like me (even though I’ve spent more than 10 years working on farms)
Well, fast forward to having my baby and moving into town. I had to get a job closer to Madison because I, of course wanted to spend as much time as I could with Rosie, and driving two hours a day was cutting into that! So, I spent the last year working at a farm that didn’t sit right with me, my values, and my purpose. I thought the money would be worth it- well you already know it wasn’t because here I am. No one wants to be a vegetable farmer to get rich right? And if they do, they will likely be disappointed. I knew I loved farming for so much more than the money.
After working for the newly popular type of wealthy corporate farm brand in the Midwest, I knew I needed to do what feels right, not what pays well. I needed to farm in the OG, community oriented, organic, barefoot type of way again. We are watching our farmland disappear before our eyes. Our green spaces are getting bought by developments, or small farms to data centers, and our big fields to corporate farms. Pretty soon all we’ll have is land owned by Bezoz and Gates.
So, I started this farm very suddenly! Early this year I sat down with Renewing the Countryside to discuss land ownership options for me. Do I buy someone else’s vegetable farm? Start from scratch? And they gave me the advice to have at least one year of farm ownership under my belt to get the best loans and grants.They told me about the Farley Center. I knew about a neighbor, Terra Growers. I remember thinking “I have nothing to loose. Might as well just call” And I fell in love with both spaces, both land managers, and signed my lease!
Farley Center offers incredible community and assistance. They are an incubator farm and a community farm, There’s a dozen of us there! There’s tractors, cold storage, and business assistance. I can’t wait to put down roots there. Who knows, maybe I’ll never need to buy land. And Terra Growers is where I see myself growing my long season fertility-hungry crops. This land is rich and the owner is a former pot growing hippie who won’t even use plastic row cover on his part of the farm. I can see a lot of potential opportunities for me with this land so close to town and some partnering with Terra Growers
Cheer’s to what’s to come. I’m excited to watch this farm unfold and to work my ass off to make it the best it can be.
