Memoirs: Gardening vs. Farming

Produce and chicken purchased
at local Farmer's market

I've spent quite a bit of time reading gardening memoirs this summer which have helped to inspire me in my perennial gardens. I've enjoyed researching the plants that have been written about and compared my plantings to those of the authors, but when it comes to farming that is a whole new ball game. I'm a gardener not a farmer.

My vegetable garden

Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life is a love story, one with the man who would become her husband and with the land they came to farm. Kimball first met her future husband while on a writing assignment. Here was a girl from New York exposed to the fields of Pennsylvania and a whole new world opened up before her. She decided to go out on a limb and leave the life that she knew to go and reclaim a farm in northern New York. Her future husband, Mark, had a dream of creating a farm where people could buy shares of the harvest, but unlike many other programs this one would provide an entire diet - fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, beef, pork, chicken, maple syrup, grains, flours, and herbs.  

Squash

This meant that the two of them would need to get the fields plowed and planted. Mark wanted to work the farm without machinery so the couple had to first find a pair of draft horses and the appropriate equipment. Next came the establishment of their herd and a chicken coop. Kristin and Mark divided the labor and Kristin studied up on animal husbandry and learned how to care for and slaughter the animals that they raised. It was a challenge which was rewarded with success.

Kimball writes of the heartaches and fears that establishing their new farm brought to her and Mark. She revels in their triumphs and happiness. I'll let you enjoy their story.

As for me, I have slowly but surely begun the process of growing more vegetables for my family, and like most home gardeners, being overrun with zucchini has become my fate. I'm thrilled because I'm actually getting tomatoes this year. Last year we didn't have much of a garden as I fell sick in May from a tick borne illness and didn't really recover until July and as a result we didn't get too much done in the garden. With the desire to expand my vegetable raising horizons, I am doing my research and have discovered a way to grow potatoes in a tower of hay and compost contained within chicken wire, and I plan to try it out next spring. In the meantime I continue to work my compost pile in order to be ready.

With the recent Market Basket problems, I have depended more and more on my local Farmer's Market for my produce and even my meat. A farm here in town sells beef, pork, and chicken and although expensive I've decided to make the switch and will probably not go back to shopping for meat at the store. By the way I recommend reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  as a way to learn about what it means to be a locavore, and any of Michael Pollan's work which will make you think about where your food comes from.