As If It Were His Own: James's Corner

Hmmm..... a blog eh? What to say, what to say...



I'm a farmer. I have the opportunity to tell people that fairly often these days. It seems that as you get older, people are more likely to ask you what you do for a living right after you introduce yourself. So I tell them as casually as I can, I'm a strawberry farmer, knowing full well that an interesting reaction is not far behind. ''Reeallly....a strawberry farmer, that's one I haven't heard before.'' Or better yet, ''So really, what do you do?'' It's actually become a fun part of meeting new people now. Apparently strawberry farmer wasn't listed in those career assessment tests you take in junior high. I remember seeing taxi driver, dentist, things like that listed in the back of the book. But no strawberry farmer. Given peoples' reactions sometimes, it seems that strawberries, although undeniably one of the favorite fruits of the nation, must be expected to grow wild in large quantities in the Rocky Mountains and harvested by a band of mythical elves much like the ones you see in the Keebler commercials. Thankfully, people at least know that they can't actually be grown INSIDE the hollowed-out trees.

It was even more amusing to tell people I'd known for some time what I was up to since I'd graduated. And by amusing I mean I didn't really care to explain all the details of why I was monkeying around with what I was monkeying around with. So I mostly just kept my ''big ideas'' in my head and went about my business according to plan. Let me tell you, more than one person has been visibly disturbed, flustered even. When you go to a college for four years for a finance degree, especially a pretty pricy one, when you leave, you go get a finance job. It's just what you do. There's no screwing around with the system.

I only have vague ideas about what regular everyday people think about farming. I probably will never reallllly know because I've always been a farmer and people are never going to be entirely frank with you about what they think of your job, (unless you're a drug dealer or something.) The three basic principles everyone seems to have learned at some time or another are: 1) Farming is a lot of HARD WORK. Sweat dripping off of you at times. Aching muscles. And what I gather from listening to ''advice'' is that this is something a person should avoid if they're at all clever enough to get away with it. 2) Farming is longer hours for not enough pay. 3) Farming is very important. Someone must do it. As with all things, some of this is true, some of this is false. (From my own experience, that is.)
Farming is a lot of hard work. Yeah. That's true. Lots of exercise at times. Definitely in the berry business. Dairy as well. But there's no avoiding paying the piper. You don't move around on a regular basis, you get out of shape and fat. Neither one I want very much. So whether you meet your exercise needs during the workday, or you put in your time at the office and then spend the weekend on the treadmill, you'll be sweating. There's no getting away with anything in this life.

Farming seems to be longer hours, definitely, than most jobs. Not enough pay? Depends on how much pay you need, I suppose. Also, on who's doing the farming, and what kind. I've known poor farmers, rich farmers, and all of the in-between. What you're paid is up to you, in large part. I have quite a bit more freedom in determining my price for a quart of strawberries than my grandparents ever had for their gallon of milk. (There are trade-offs, of course.) But I'm not writing to teach you all of the particulars of ag. economics. And lastly, farming is important. Sounds like a good fill in the blank for a kindergarten class that just got back from a field trip to the Jones farm. "What did we learn today? Farming is ________.''

If you've been reading this blog or talking to Anna lately, you may know that part of my current scheme is to run a large portion of our first big crop of strawberries to New York City for sale in the GreenMarket farmers' market system. For me, it offers the opportunity to sell directly to the customer at a high volume. And the prices down there are roughly double what they are here. Nothing's ever easy, though...a packet of paperwork and requirements, insurance, surveys, forms forms forms etc. And in one of these forms I am asked this question: "Why do you farm?'' If you don't farm, and you read this blog, (which is probably everyone who reads this blog,) I've been writing what I'm writing to give you an inside look at the mind of a whackjob who goes to college for finance, comes home, realizes he hates cubicles, and goes back to his roots. So below you will find my reply. Until next time...James.

.......... My greatest satisfaction...is providing people with food that is the best that food can be. I want to remind people what the big deal is about strawberries, about raspberries, and whatever else I may be able to grow. And I want to do that by handing them a beauty that was picked the afternoon before, or the morning of, even. Ripe. Glossy. At the peak of its taste. I think we've lost an awareness of the true quality and flavor that basic natural food can have, in favor of 'cheap cheap cheap' Honestly, it kills me to think there are people who know nothing more of strawberries than whats been purchased from the supermarket in clamshells, picked green on the opposite side of the country, trucked here, and put in a room to be flooded with hormone gas until it at least looks ripe. That's an atrocity. I don't know why its fruit that I love so much. I just do. I farm because I love to eat. I love the soil. I love the air. I love rain, the weather, and the sun. Most of all, I love freedom.