You can browse the news headlines and social media postings claiming we are in the last few days of the current decade, but it just isn’t true. This is not the end of a decade. 2020 is the final year of the decade we are currently enjoying (or not enjoying), and it’s about to begin!
So, with that now off this farmer’s chest, “Happy New Year!” Let the final year of this decade begin! I want to start off the year by adding a little more information about myself to help answer one the of most common questions I answer: “What was my path to becoming a farmer?” What I have written below only begins to tap into the answer, but here goes nothing!
2020 is an inspiring time to start new and get ahead of the decade coming. It’s the year previously predicted to be the end of our world’s rainforests and the beginning of crazy climatic events. I was only a child when these predictions were made and I remember them vividly. I based a lot of my plans and aspirations on these predictions back then. It’s hard to believe, but it is all very true.
These predictions shook me hard. And this foresight helped me to understand what would be necessary in my future life as a farmer. I delved deeply into the issues to prepare myself for the work I am currently doing by building a ‘toolkit.’
Amongst my most important tools was perspective. And I knew I needed to get out of my small-town, hometown to get it. So, I saved up and I decided to travel to the Amazon rainforest while in high school because I feared that future college plans, work, and other undertakings would distract me from seeing the rainforest in its final years. And I wanted to know the rainforest. I wanted to see it with my own eyes, walk on its bare ground, and learn more about what I expected to be substantial truth in both predictions from my younger days.
While in the Amazon, I conducted a botanical survey of various transects, identified the plants there, examined native life and culture, and also farming practices. And this trip changed my life. It changed the way I saw the world in so many ways. So, I made it my goal to see more before I settled into a farming lifestyle. I took every opportunity I could afford. In college, I traveled to Belize, before eco-tourism took-off, living amongst jaguars on preserved lands, studying bleaching in coral life and other impacts on riparian ocean life while staying on the cayes. Most certainly, that was an eye-opening experience as well.
Later, also during my college years, I joined the Audubon Expedition Institute, and lived on foot for a substantial amount of time, exploring bioregions of the United States and meeting with ranchers and farmers, and land and border agencies in the Desert Southwest, the Adirondack mountains, and in the Delmarva Peninsula. My supplies were stowed in the pack on my back for this period of time, and this was also a truly awakening experience.
After college, as I began my own farm work, I learned about Holistic Management, graciously accepted a scholarship to take a unique two-year course, and found my connection to how I wanted to farm. I explored case studies of women farmers in South Africa working in arid conditions and needing crucial skills to produce results such as good soils to produce nutritious food. This led to further exploration of U.S. farms and visits (and sometimes stays) to many operations in Northern New England, New York State, and elsewhere. I gained so much perspective and knowledge about the way our country’s farmers produce our food supply, and also the way the struggled. The benefits. The hardships. The never-ending work. And the passion one must have to fully engage with it.
Add in my college education, my work on various farms and with various organizations, experience in homesteading, and having operated my very own farm business for the last 15 years. It has been a wildly educational ride.
So, all of that back story leads me to 2020, the final year of a whole decade devoted to building up my own farm business. After leasing and owning portions of land for years, I have finally arrived at the place I will die. That doesn’t sound very palatable, I know, but what a relief! I have operated 3 farms in the past 15 years (10 of those years with Cold Spring Farm) and I now take great solace in knowing I have arrived at my final destination. And with a supportive partner who is dedicated to the work of this farm life, along with all my inclinations and goals, I couldn’t be happier, BUT….
…There’s more! The story isn’t over just because I now live where I will die. The work is just beginning, although I’ve certainly been at it for awhile now. Like a ‘honey-do” list, the work just keeps on growing. And that’s the thing about passion. It keeps you on your toes and hyper focused on what’s next. Yes, I have accomplished some of the goals on my list and I’m grateful for those experiences, but like I said before, I keep adding more as I learn more. And some of these goals are a decade or two old already and the timing takes time to be right. In my long-term planning process, which I re-examine every year right around this time, I predicted that 2020 would be the biggest year of change for us yet. And my friends, we have most certainly arrived at BIG CHANGES.
I hope you will all ‘jump on the wagon’ and join our email newsletter list to keep tabs on all the incredible happenings scheduled for 2020. I am confident that some of your own personal goals will be met if you do. There will literally be something for everyone and the projects will be flowing this year to produce the most wonderful farm you could ever set your sights on.
Big Love, Amazing Health, and Happy New Year to all of you!
Jess the Farmer