Is It a Farm Yet?
Sharon September 24th, 2009
I know a man who wanted to start a farm. So he went out and bought 500 acres, fenced it and grew corn and hay, and ran sheep and cows on it, and then he had a farm.
I know a woman who wanted a farm, so she went out at bought 176 acres, four cows, a bull and a tractor, and then she had a farm.
I know a man who wanted a farm so he bought 49 acres, an old barn and a flock of sheep, and raised wool and grew plants to make dyes with and sold yarn, and then he had a farm.
I know a woman who wanted a farm, so she went out and bought 27 acres and raised vegetables, chickens and goats, and then she had a farm.
I know a man who wanted a farm, and went out and bought a house on six acres, built a chicken coop, grew a garden and sold pumpkins at the farmer’s market and eggs to his neighbors, and then he had a farm.
I know a woman who wanted a farm, and she looked down and saw that she had three good acres, and fenced them, and got a Jersey cow, a garden full of cabbages and some hens, and then she had a farm.
I knew a man who wanted a farm and looked out and realized that he was renting a good half acre, and talked to the landlord and got angora rabbits, chickens and a garden full of raised beds, and then he had a farm.
I know a woman who had a yard full of forest, and who grew shade loving plants under the trees, gathered acorns for her chickens and worms for her ducks and grew mushrooms in woodpiles along the edges of her yard, and then she had a farm.
I know a woman who had a 30×80 lot, and she built a chicken coop, planted raspberries and basil against the house and is trying to convince her partner to let her get miniature goats, and then she had a farm.
I know a man who had no room in his yard for more gardens, but who talked to his neighbors and the city and found two backyards, a vacant lot and a corner of a church, and filled them with vegetables, and then he had a farm.
I know a woman who had no ground at all in her house, but had a balcony with bees on it and a dozen windowboxes full of lettuce and strawberries, worms in her kitchen and the right attitude, and then, she had a farm.
Sharon
- agriculture
- Comments(54)
I was inspired by these stories and wrote this post today: http://farmersdaughterct.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/dreaming/
[...] believe to be necessary to live the life we want here on our little farm. I’m learning that farming has more to do with attitude than the amount of property we own and while it may not be what most people think of when they [...]
Stephen and I have a 3 + 1/2 acre farm, a relict degraded market garden within suburbia, and we have hearts in mouths sometimes as to whether we’ll be ‘allowed’ to stay by council. We have a small old cottage, an old machinery shed, and a combined ’stable and feed shed’ (an optimistic descriptor). We have one large old shed on the hill which is Stephen’s workshop and a small new shed which is Stephen’s doghouse!
We have 2 elderly horses who are family and not going anywhere in their lifetimes. We are breeding a heritage breed of chook, and we now have Pilgrim geese. We hope one day to have goats but not in the horses lifetimes. There’s also 3 house cats.
We have a veggie compound growing some small volumes of veggies in raised beds, and plans for more. We have 3 swales on a hillslope with a mixture of fruit trees and legumes, and nearby there are two relict nut trees, 1 pecan, 1 macadamia. A bit further along there’s a relict citrus tree (species not yet identified). The goose yard has passionfruits growing over it and there’s now feral passionfruit vines coming up under the riparian rehab strip. We have a spot dedicated to the future sweet potato plot and another spot dedicated to future citrus. We have plans for fish farming ‘one day’. We have a paddock dedicated to a future forest garden. We have 2 shadehouses, neither producing much in volume but still producing a little. We have many future shade trees along the new fencelines zig-zagging the open bare paddocks, which will one day give shade and leaf mulch.
Mainly we keep suburbia at bay, and are learning to be farmers while working in the formal economy. Oh, and I’ve just joined the management committee of the new community garden. There’s more farmers out there who don’t know it yet.
I forgot to mention Stephen’s bees: the European hives along the side of the riparian rehab strip, and the native hives in a couple of spots in the garden. Stephen has harvested honey from the European hives, so they too are part of the farm. And there’s 2 worm farms. And a compost bay that has never worked but will ‘one day’. Yep, I always wanted a farm and it seems I may have one.