Much of vegetable farming revolves around listening to the land. Soil should not be worked when it is too wet. Crops must be irrigated before their roots get too dry. The presence of certain weeds, bugs, or diseases can tell a farmer a lot about what is going on, and why, if she listens.
Timing is crucial for the success of crops, and for the health of our precious soil. I didn’t always get it right by any stretch of the imagination, but I did learn to trust my observations and respond accordingly.
Farmers have to listen to their own bodies as well. I still remember Jane Fisher-Merritt insisting on finding a band-aid and antibiotic ointment for a small cut on my finger, back when I was an intern at Food Farm. She wisely said that even a small injury can turn into a big problem if you let it get infected. Self-care is important.
My lower-back issues began in the summer of 2021 … or they began in 2010 with a minor hip injury, depending on how you look at it. Regardless, my assumption that my sacroiliac issues would subside after a few months of rest in early 2022 did not pan out, and discomfort began taking a lot of the joy out of farming for me this past spring. Treatments and therapies that I tried did not solve my problems, and by June, I needed to focus on the work instead of running to appointments.
At some point, I tuned it to my inner voice, and my spoken words as well, when I found myself saying things like, “I wish I could just grow a market garden,” “I wish I could just grow cut flowers this year,” and, “I do this work because I enjoy it. If I ever find that I’m not enjoying my work, that’s when I’ll know it’s time to quit.”
I finally told myself that I was not locked in to Community-Supported Agriculture, and though my love for the model had not faltered, I did not have to continue offering CSA shares, just because I had started on that path.
I began doing my work with the knowledge that perhaps this would be the last time I would do these tasks, at this scale, or perhaps not. It was a gradual decision, but seemed more and more like the right one. I let my 2022 CSA members know at the end of the season that I would not be offering CSA shares in 2023. Perhaps I will come back to it, but probably not.
I won’t stop growing things, and I won’t stop caring for the land at Stone’s Throw Farm. There are many options for the use of the fields I have cultivated, though they also are in need of some rest and rejuvenation. I am looking forward to growing my own food, at the home garden scale, and finally having time to do some landscaping around our house. There is other paid work I can do, and, I hope, enjoy. Change is good. This is not a sad story, but one that I hope might encourage others to do more listening, too.
Stone's Throw Farm 