My first year on the farm was a pretty good year, I grew my first watermelon, had a heifer (she was crazy and I ended up selling her), and I raised sheep and pigs. But I didn’t feel like a farmer. It wasn’t until my second year on the farm that I finally felt like I had made it. Made it might be a big way of talking about it because what I did was not big, it just felt huge to me. I don’t know what others would define a farmer as. I like to go with a very simple definition, something along the lines of growing and selling food/products from your farm.
About this time last year I felt I needed to make the move to farmer. I didn’t have a whole lot growing in the garden but I did have a whole lot of alpine strawberries (wild strawberries) that had started taking over this one spot. I talked to my neighbor about what I could sell, and mentioned I was thinking about thinning these strawberries and selling the ones I took out. My neighbor is awesome (I have some really good neighbors and recommend everyone get to know theirs) she said it was a great idea and she would buy some off me. She did buy some off me, they look great and produced throughout the winter! I could not believe how successful I felt at that moment!
She gave me a level of confidence that made me feel like I could do this farming thing. She backed my idea with more than words, her action was like a catalyst. I went and dug up a bunch more, made a tray and sold the whole try. Now the truth is, I did not make a lot of money. In fact, it might be a laughable sum but I don’t even care, it was a success and I was a farmer!
