FarmHer

Okay, okay, for all you men who happen to be reading this no, it's not a hand holding sing-a-long-type post so you are safe to keep reading.

Last January, The Husband and I attended the NC Farm Bureau Young Farmer and Rancher Convention in Durham, and I went to a session about Women in Ag.  I'd hoped it would be a collaborative session where women in ag could come together and talk about shared experiences and how we can unite our voice to get the changes we want made into reality.  To an extent it was, but I guess I just didn't get what I wanted out of it.  Listening to the other women complain about their situations (which is pretty much all they did.  It was a regular *itch-fest) did get me thinking about mine and I thought this would be the perfect platform for me to talk about it.  I've tried to write it a dozen times and it's never seemed to come out right, but I saw a post on Twitter the other day (follow me!  @ofcinc) about women running farms and women working in agriculture and they called them FarmHers and it reminded me about this post.  Maybe I can get it right this time. 

I come from a farming family.  Both sets of grandparents farmed, for a time at least, and in both couples the women worked on the farm just like the men did (except really it was twice as hard because they had to come home and cook and wash and garden and take care of kids).  In my Husbands family too, his dad's parents owned the farm we call home now and his grandma worked probably harder than his granddaddy.  In those days, farms were smaller.  Most of the time your own family tended your own family's land.  Neighbors would help each other plant and harvest crops.  Women were just as big of a part of that as men.  That generation is not that far removed from ours, yet it seems like ancient history compared to the world we live in now.  The Husband remembers his grandma teaching him to loop tobacco (they'd hang it on poles in the 'pack house' to dry and cure, and they'd 'loop' it together with twine to keep it on the stick).  My grandma tells stories of helping my granddaddy.  It's just what you did.  You saw a job that needed doing and you did it.  Then the world changed.  New technologies made things better and more efficient.  The world became smaller and more urbanized.  People started getting off-farm jobs and moving to the city to be closer to them.  Farms got bigger due to mechanization and greater effienceny (in the 50's the average farmer could feed 25 or so people, now it's 155), also it took more land to support a family.  Now the family and even the neighbors family wasn't enough to plant and harvest and people were hired.  Women weren't needed on the farm (and they had more choices; they could buy clothes in stores, have children when they wanted, have outside jobs) so they moved back to 'just' taking care of the house and the kids or having that outside job and the modern interpretation of a 'farmers wife' was born'.

I was lucky enough to have grown up in a family where both genders were equal.  No one said to me I was worse or better than anyone else.  My mama always told me I could be anything I wanted to be and at the time I really can't remember what I thought when she said that (I CAN say though, it was NOT 'I want to be a farmer'!) but now I appreciate it, especially since I have a little girl of my own (and let me let you she's a spitfire just like her father hoped.  I'd love for someone to tell her she couldn't...based on what she tells me when I tell her that whoever does is going to be kicking a hornets nest).  I combine that with the role model of my Aunt Patricia, who ever since I can remember has worked on the farm alongside my Uncle Pat.  She drives trucks and tractors and takes care of the hogs just like he does.  I add in the other farming wives I know, those who have direct involvement somehow and those who don't.  Lastly I throw in what I've always seen my family do, if a job needs doing you do it.  That's how I was raised.  So when The Husband wanted to raise strawberries, I saw a job needing doing and it did it.  That's what I wanted to tell those women at the conference who wanted to get in there and help their husbands.  If you want to be a bigger part of the farm, if you want to get your hands dirty, get in there and do it.  It doesn't matter if you're a girl or not.  Do it.  When you count your own self out you're no better than the nay-sayers. 

Last fall, The Husband took a public job.  We stopped raising row crops and decided to focus solely on agri-tourism, and it would be pretty much solely my job to run that.  I can't say it's been an easy transition.  For the most part I was already doing the things I do now, I just had someone sort of around to help me get them done.  I don't anymore, not on a regular everyday basis.  The strawberry season wasn't bad. The CSA has been stressful, but rewarding because I've proven to myself I can do it.  We'll see what the fall season brings.  When I get discouraged, I just try to look at my FarmHer role models and take a lesson from them, or look at my kids.  I want there to be a Odom Farming Company around for them to take over (at some point I'll have to retire right?  Don't laugh, a girl can dream!).  I think what we're doing for agriculture is important, I think educating the public about real farming practices and real farms is important, I think the experiences we provide and the memories we help make are worth it, and it's a job that needs doing.  Looks like I'll be the one doing it.

A Walk Down Memory Lane

Every summer when I was a kid until I was probably twelve (my mom deemed me capable then of staying at home with my younger sister and not killing her or burning the house down), I stayed with my grandma Doris and granddaddy Donald (my mom's parents).  We had all sorts of adventures, but there were certain things I could always count on: we would go stay at Mrs. Bea's beach house at some point, granddaddy would take me to the tobacco market to see how Uncle Pat's tobacco sold (the best smell ever!), my Aunt Alice and Uncle Allen and Cousin Adam would come home for about a week from Europe (and all the rest of my out of town family would come in and it would be a huge party, loved it), we'd probably get enlisted to pull mustard out of Uncle Pat's field (to this day if I see it I pull it), and when the blueberries were ripe we had to pick them (I am literally crying writing this because they are some of the best memories I have of being a kid, and for those of you who don't know I lost my sister eight years ago in a car accident, and those are what I have left of her.  Okay, time to dry it up.  Who knew blueberries were so emotional?  This is supposed to be a funny blog.)

Katie and I at Mrs Bea Lamb's Beach House

Me, my cousin Adam, and Katie in one of our favorite poses

Katie and I in my grandma's kitchen.

I don't have memories of picking strawberries, but I distinctly remember picking peas, butter beans, and blueberries.  Grandma had these old ice cream buckets (grandma wasted nothing, she'd buy those gallons of vanilla or Neapolitan or orange sherbet and vanilla swirl and make us kids ice cream cones all summer, and then save the buckets to use around the house) that we'd strap to ourselves with old belts (sadly no picture, this was before cell phones guys) and she'd send us out to forage over the five or six bushes she had in her yard.  We hated it.  This was before the time of iPods or iPhones and earbuds.  We could have used a Walkman, you know, with a cassette tape and those earphones with the big black sponge headphones, but we were kids and we were supposed to have imaginations and not rely on outside things to keep us entertained (saying you were bored was worse than saying a four letter word to my grandma, and it is to me even now.  With everything there is to do in the world you're bored?  Go outside.)  But everyone else (come on, you know I'm picky.  Do you really think I eat blueberries?) loved the rewards.  Blueberry pie was one of my sister's favorites.  As soon as I could get in the kitchen I made blueberry muffins (I always made six for me without blueberries.  They are still my ultimate favorites and I would die for one right now).  I made them as long as we had blueberries and even after because we'd freeze them.  Nothing freezes better than blueberries (just pick the trash out and freeze.  NO WASHING!)  

We put blueberries in the CSA boxes this week that we got from McFarms Blueberries in Seven Springs (talk about how someone does it, they have five kids, most of which are younger than five and two are newborn twins, I'm stressed for them just writing that!).  That's what got me started on this jaunt down memory lane.  I love it when we can put two fruits in a box, and especially two berries.  This year we have more members than ever and even though I swear I will have a nervous breakdown every Tuesday, I kinda love it at the same time.  It's a logistical nightmare but that's what I like doing, organizing people.  It will get a little less stressful too when the strawberries are over, which they are almost.  But that's another post for another time.  For now, lets savor the blueberries.  

They were delicious (or so I'm told!)

This weeks full share

Here's my grandma's blueberry muffin recipe:

Blueberry Muffins

1 egg

1/3 cup oil

¾ cup milk

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour

½ cup sugar

¾ t salt

2 ½ t baking powder

¼ t nutmeg

1 cup blueberries

Mix and bake at 400⁰ for 25 minutes.  If you have someone in your house that doesn’t care for blueberries (like me!), they are delicious without them too!

Spring Fever

Today, I planted onions.  Or I should say, The Husband and I planted onions while The Girl picked them back up off the ground and put them in a bucket (once she tried to eat one, this is the same girl who eats lemons, but she took it out of her mouth and said 'nasty' before I could get to her to get it out) and The Boy threw them haphazardly down in some kind of ninja move (which The Girl then tried to copy unsuccessfully).

The Help

I should preface this by saying I did not want to do this.  It was probably on my top ten list of things I didn't want to do today.  I guess in the end I should rejoice because I thought I was going to end up cutting up 100 lbs of potatoes (I have psoriasis on my knuckles, and when they get wet for extended periods of time they crack and bleed and get sore, not to mention it would make my fingers raw).  Compared to that, dropping onions isn't that big of a deal.  Still, it's been crazy around the farm lately.  We're knee deep in getting our 2nd We Dig It Ag Day together (we have three weeks and two days to pull everything together before almost 1600 kids+80 FFA students+sponsors+politicians and dignitaries come out to the farm for our event.  Yikes!), plus strawberry season is coming up (if a bit later than I'd like), and CSA signups are still going on (we've got more members than we've ever had at this time of signups, yay!!!)  So honestly after running errands all day, I was anxious to come home and have a minute to check my e-mail and work on some of that work, not go outside and plant onions.

However, we are on a huge push to get these early vegetables planted.  We are behind since the month of February was pretty much horrible weather (it looks like another late start to the strawberry season around here.  Boo!).  This week has been the first week we've been able to get in the field without miring to our shins in mud (trust me, I tried to pull weeds in the strawberry field and it was a disaster, but, I didn't face plant at all!  I am sure I will pay for that good fortune later).  So we've been working double time to get things planted.  Yesterday we disced (not sure on the spelling here and spell check is not up on farming terms) land to get ready to run rows.  I've been wanting to learn how for a while.  I can drive a tractor, but I wanted to go a step further.  I am NOT mechanical at all.  Pulling more than one lever at a time while trying to look forward to drive straight and backward to make sure that end was going well proved to be a little challenging for me (go ahead and laugh, but remember my teacher was The Husband and didn't even explain the levers to me until after argument #1 plus he had it hooked up backwards).  Once I learned the process (and what all the levers did) I managed to do pretty good even if I was a little slow.  Just today The Husband planted beets, collards, kale, radishes, carrots, cauliflower, garden peas, and rutabagas (CSA members take note, this will probably be the first couple weeks of boxes + strawberries).  So I felt a bit obligated to help out since we're on double time.

He got out and threw me to the wolves to get this picture.

It's pretty easy to drop onions.  You just take the onions and place them in the dirt a couple of inches apart.  The ones we planted were spring onions, and they resembled garlic cloves.  It was all good, except they stunk, well, like onions (I do not like onions), and some of them were mushy.  I tried not to think about that as I placed them in the dirt.  I plugged my earbuds in my phone and tried to zone out (well, as much as I could, remember said kids picking up onions and throwing them and all, so of course I had to stop and call them down and explain again that his row needed to look like daddy's and if he wanted to keep getting new clothes and toys and movies he needed to help out every couple of minutes).  In the end I dreaded something that probably took thirty minutes and that's one thing down.  Now to tackle those potatoes...

Sometimes you just have to go old school

ONIONS!

Winter Vacation

Okay, I say this every time but I am serious.  I even set a phone alarm.  MUST START BLOGGING MORE OFTEN!

The Farm in Dormancy, except The Kiddos & Lily

I have a couple of ideas for blogs but they were all serious, so instead I figured I'd just talk about what's going on on the farm right now.  I know it looks like a big fat nothing, but in reality it's pretty busy.  At least that's what I've felt like lately.  Here's a breakdown (I did a Myers-Briggs test a couple of weeks ago for a program I'll talk about later and it said I'm an INTJ, and the J part means I like lists, so here's further proof it was right):

1- Conferences.  Yep.  It's that time of year where every organization we're involved in has some get together somewhere where we all sit through sessions that deal with everything from financing to weather to social media to legislative issues.  Yep.  They're all about that boring too.  I think I yawned writing that.  Okay maybe I'm being too harsh.  I do like hearing about other farms and what they do (we all know from previous posts I like to spy ;)) and I do get some good ideas.  This whole blog came out of the first NC Strawberry Association conference we went too.  But in the end the sessions tend to run together and everything after lunch pretty much goes downhill (usually I don't take the kids because none of us would enjoy it; not me, certainly not them, and definitely not the folks who have to listen to them whine about not enjoying it, so I'm always thinking when can I go to the room and take a nap!).  Why do we go if they're so boring?  To meet and talk to other farmers.  How many other times of the year do I get to meet other people who are working in agriculture, who understand what that means, and who are just as passionate about it as I am?  I love bouncing ideas off them and giving them whatever advice I can.  We just got back from the American Farm Bureau FUSION Conference in Nashville TN (lots of firsts here, first time to TN for The Husband and I, first time flying for him [he now claims he wants a jet, smh], first time being away from The Girl for longer than 1 night [she did fine and when I got home so did I], first time in a hotel that measured their sq footage in acres [57 under the roof to be exact]).  It was awesome, except for the whole snow/ice storm that crippled Nashville (God and Luck were on our side and we managed to get one of the only flights out of there Tuesday morning, we had many friends not so lucky!).  We met people from all over the country and heard from great speakers (first time I ever went to a conference and wanted the motivational speaker to speak longer).  We came back excited, and that's the whole point right?

The Casey's, Us, & Mrs Overman at the AFBF FUSION Conference

Nashville Airport AKA The Skating Rink

Adding this just because I think it's beautiful - Glass sculpture in the hotel lobby

2- Planning.  I'll be completely honest, last year, that whole entire adrenaline fueled disaster, last year almost broke me in the best way.  We really saw the word of mouth thing start to pay off and we were really busy (which we are so, so, so grateful for), and it took us completely by surprise (I never want to get my hopes up too high and be disappointed, so I tend to be cynical, but this year I was blown out of the water).  I felt like we were running behind the entire year and by the time November rolled around I was exhausted and burned out.  It didn't help that I had a 1 1/2 - 2 year old trailing in my wake needing TONS more attention than The Boy did at that age (I was seriously not prepared for the differences between a girl and a boy).  I felt like I couldn't give either The Girl nor The Farm the attention they needed and I played catch up all year with all of it (lesson learned, this spring she's going to daycare!).  I needed a break from The Farm for a bit.  When you own your own business it can consume your life, and I think it's worse with farming /since it's not just a business it's a way of life.  Today with the ability to always be reached and always be available it's even harder.  So when we ended the Corn Maze I think we took a good two months to breathe before we started talking about 2015.  Now it's almost March (already!) and the CSA signups are in full swing (biggest turn out ever!  I refuse to be cynical this year.  I am ready for the challenge!  Keep them coming!) and we're planning strawberry season now and already thinking about what we're going to add new this fall (I'm pulling for real bathrooms!).

These things don't just create themselves you know

3- Meetings.  There are two things I've learned in this farm life I've chosen, and they really apply to everyone not just farmers.  One - no one will promote you if you don't promote yourself.  That's true for our farm as much as it is for agriculture.  No one is going to promote Odom Farming Co for me.  No one is going to try and combat all the negative press Ag gets but farmers.  Whenever someone asks me to do something, I find a way to do it.  Whether it means we take our propaganda to an event to get the word out about our farm or we get asked to be a part of a leadership program to help get ag issues considered in our community.  This winter I am taking part in the Karl Best Ag Leadership Program through the Wayne Community College Foundation and Cooperative Extension and it's been wonderful.  It's making an ag-vocate of me (he, he!) Two - You get out of things what you put into them.  If you join a group your heart isn't in, if you blow it off or show up with no enthusiasm you might as well stay home and not bother because it's not going to do anything for you.  Another program we're involved in, the Wayne County Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers, is busy coordinating the 2nd Annual We Dig It Ag Day.  The Husband and I chair this group, and since we have the most available time and since it's kind of our baby (and The Husband will literally talk to anyone about it, seriously don't stand around him too long or he'll give you the pitch!) we take on a lot of this.  I love it, because I love organizing events and coordinating people (who'd a thunk it'd take me 30 years to figure out what I want to be when I grow up!).  It's one thing I like about the CSA (it can also be the thing I hate most about the CSA!).  Ag Day is great because it's amazing to see what a group of people can get done when they are determined.  Last year everyone looked at us like we were crazy.  We had to pull teeth to get sponsorship and jump through tons of hoops with the school system.  This year it's been smooth sailing (my cynical insides are keeping their fingers crossed!).  We have an awesome group that is just getting bigger and better and makes what seems like a job to other people a pleasure to us and because we all care so much it's a group I'm proud to be a part of.

I think it needs a border

So thanks for bearing through my long blog absence and this windy post.  Maybe you didn't fall asleep half way through.  Hopefully I will start paying attention to that alarm.  Like I said I have ideas, I just have to get them out, and if there's ever something you'd like to hear me talk about (or read me write about) then pass that idea along!

Fitting In

I've had this in my head the whole time I've been writing.  Now it's in yours.  Your welcome. - - Why Am I Such A Misfit?

All my life I've felt like I didn't quite fit in.  I don't want to use the word 'misfit' because I think that gives it a negative connotation.  Though not fitting in hasn't always been easy, I don't necessarily consider it a bad thing.  I like the word eccentric.  I think it comes from my Herring family (we're all a little different).  Nothing has changed now that I'm 30 (yes, my name is Emily and I'm 30.  I turned 30 in February and I know age is a number and all that, but all year it's been hitting me that I'm grown up now.  I'm 30, I have 2 kids, and I own a business.  Wow!).  I look around and don't really see myself fitting into any category neatly.  Then again who does really?  That's what makes us as humans great right?  We're all different and unique, but the same enough to understand other's circumstances.

I guess it should come to me as no surprise that my farm doesn't quite fit in anywhere either.  I'm a woman farmer.  I'm a farmer with a history major. We're liberal farmers (shhh!  Don't tell anyone.  Everyone automatically assumes we're ultra conservative or something.  Nope.  Not even a little bit.).  We're small farmers that come from larger conventional farming backgrounds.  I never wear overalls or chew on hay, though, sometimes I do wear pigtails.  We're also young farmers who didn't inherit our farm.  It is a family farm, but we had to buy it and we're doing it on our own (sometimes by our fingernails it seems).  We're a small farm that's not a hobby farm.  We don't do it for fun though it is fun at times and we don't do it to lose money though we've done that too.  We don't do it because I'm bored and need something to do (when I grew up, the word bored was a bad word.  It was the equivalent of cursing to my grandma.  If I'm bored, I get up and find something to do and with 2 kids there's plenty of that!)  We do it because we love this life and we want to build something great to share with our community, and we want to make money doing something we love.

Another way we don't quite fit in.  We're a small farm that's not not organic.  I'm not against organic.  I see us going that route in the future (or at least all-natural, same result without spending thousands to be able to use the word organic).  Personally I don't get the organic deal (not that there's anything wrong with it.  Every family has to do what they think is best for their family).  I think it's just a gimmick to get people to pay more for their food.  Organic produce has not been shown to be any more nutritious than conventional (from the research I've done, some of which is here [http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/organic-food/art-20043880?pg=2]), it's just not sprayed with the same things (because if you didn't already know, organic produce CAN be sprayed) or had anything added to it at the end.  Organic produce gets recalled just like regular produce does (Trader Joe's Peaches anyone?)  I'm all for not adding anything I will say that.  Why mess with something perfect as is?  Then again I'm not shipping my produce hundreds of miles either.  I think the best route to take is local whether it's organic or not.  At least then you know it wasn't picked early and shipped across the country to ripen in a box.  It was probably picked the day before, probably from a farmer you know, and there was absolutely nothing added to it to make it look better or stay fresher.  And I don't know this to be true but I suspect it's part of the reason why someone buys organic - really all people want to know it's what they're eating - and the organic label does at least tell the consumer what's been done to the product.  Knowing your farmer takes some of the mystery out of it because you can just ask them.

What else makes our farm a misfit?  We're not completely against GMO's (genetically modified organisms) where most small farmers are.  We DO NOT, and WILL NOT, use GMO seeds in our produce production don't get me wrong, but I do see a place for them in the row crop industry.  I know, I know, they're 'bad' for you, but by the year 2050 there will be 9 billion (yes, that's billion with a b) people on this planet who need to be fed and we're losing farmland at an astounding rate every day.  This new 70 bypass that's being built so folks from Raleigh can get to the beach quicker?  It took somewhere around 1000 acres of land out of production.  I know what you're thinking, 1000 is not that much.  Well, our farm has 46 acres of cleared land, that's what you see when you come.  Think about that multiplied by 21.  It's a lot of land.  So we have to raise more crops on less land, and don't even get me started on the water issues (water, not oil, is our most precious resource.  Wars will be fought over this in the future. You cannot convince me otherwise).  How do you think that's going to happen? Only by being more efficient and increasing yields.  One way to do that?  Genetically modify plants to produce more.

Lastly, and this one makes me proud to be a misfit, I'm not into what I call 'farm shaming'.  Like people who raise free range chickens versus people who raise them in a chicken house.  Or people who do farm organically verses people who don't.  It's like fat girls verses skinny ones or stay at home moms versus working moms.  We're all in this together.  Why fight against each other and bring everyone down?  Agriculture takes such a beating as it is.  Let's work together to educate the public.  I think working together and learning from each other is a better way to have this conversation.  Like I said, I think everyone has to do what's best for their family.  If having that kind of food is more important than getting the best deal go for it.  If you think it's better for your family be my guest.  If you can't afford it or don't see the need that's okay too.  It's a personal choice and I don't think anyone should shame anyone else for doing it.  The problem with food is there are so many choices and a lot of people really don't know what they all mean.  I don't.  I'll be the first to tell you.  I wish the government would come up with a simpler labeling system.  I wish companies had to prove what they were calling one thing was actually that thing (like the 'creme' inside of an Oreo, which has no dairy content at all. [http://www.wral.com/many-processed-foods-lack-advertised-ingredients/13446178/] Don't get me wrong, I know it can't be good for you, but they shouldn't be able to call it creme if I have to be strict on what I say about my produce).  What I recommend is do your research before you decide (just beware everything you read on the Internet).

So that's how we're different in a nutshell.  Sometimes I feel like we're straddling both sides of the fence.  Not quite this but not that either.  I guess I just feel like farmers get a bad wrap in general and a lot of organizations we're involved in because we are a small farm like to bash larger farmers for this or that and it's hard for us because we do understand both sides, but we don't quite fit into either.  That's okay.  I think our farm is relatable to you guys (least, I really hope it is), and as long as it stays that way I'm happy.  Now all this is MY opinion.  I'm not interested in getting involved in some big debate about it.  Like I said, everyone has to do what they think is best for them.  This is my blog about our farm and I just wanted to put my thoughts out there.  I guess when it comes to having opinions I'm not such a misfit after all!

Why I Do What I Do

Confession time: as a woman, as a mother, as a business owner, I feel like I never do good enough.  No matter how much I put in, no matter how hard I try, it's never enough.  I'm sure all you other women/mothers/CEO's (hey, when you own the business you get to pick your title.  Mine's Director of Agritourism.  Sounds important doesn't it?  Tomorrow I'm pulling weeds in the cucumber field.  Today I picked up trash.) understand.   Some days it doesn't matter how hard I try to be everything to everyone it's never good enough (of course I know it's because NO ONE can be everything to everyone, no matter how hard they try to make it look like that on Facebook or Pintrest.  It's physically impossible. But sometimes I forget and think I can be superwoman.  It's those times when I get slapped in the face by reality and it turns into an epic fail).  Some days it's like the stars are all out of alignment and everything I touch turns to s*** (sorry, there's really no other way to put it).  Some days I sit and look at the stresses I have going on, whether it's money or employees or the kids or the weather or The Husband and wonder why in the heck I'm doing this.  Why don't I go get some desk job somewhere where someone else tells me what to do and I never have to make decisions and I get weekends off to take my kids on wonderful vacations or little league practice and I don't have to plan everything around the oh-so-impossible-to-predict rain and I get a set paycheck every single week.  Why do I want to keep beating my head against this wall?

This entire strawberry season has felt like this to me.  It seemed everywhere I turned was an obstacle, everything I tried to do backfired, the help I hired (bless her heart) just didn't get it.  You name it it went wrong this season, the strawberries wouldn't seem to grow and when they did it was erratic, we had our first hailstorm, we had truck and tractor breakdowns, vehicle accidents (my car got backed into a tractor by the new employee while a group was here) the pickers didn't show half the time, I actually fell down in the middle of the field while talking to a group of students and parents from PPK (yes I did.  I was simply trying to explain where they needed to walk to get the least muddy and not to fall when my foot slipped right out from under me and I just slid down on my butt.  So I had to sit there while forty or so people stared at me as my thighs cramped like crazy and my face turned as red as the berries they were supposed to be picking while the force of irony set in).  It was our best and worst season all at the same time.  By the end I was just so ready to be done.  I wanted to erase the whole miserable 6 weeks from my brain.

Then three things that happened in our last few weeks that renewed my sense of purpose in this profession I've created for myself:  1 - I had customers plan their trip home to Kernersville (near Winston Salem) from their vacation just to come by our farm.  (They got lost in Nahunta and I had to tell them that they knew they were doing right when they passed the giant dinosaur.  Thank you Benton & Sons for giving me a reason to say that!)  How many farms did they pass?  10, 20?  They live in the Piedmont (the mecca of strawberry growers) and they came to our farm because they said they were the best strawberries they'd ever eaten.  I might be partial (or even a bad judge since I don't eat strawberries) but I have to agree.  2 - I went to the doctor (because of course I had to get my spring [I get one every season usually right before I have to speak to a group] cold during strawberry season.  Couldn't have waited a couple weeks or come a little early.  That'd be too much to ask) and I asked about making an appointment for The Husband and then told her i'd have to have him call since we farmed and his schedule was erratic and she thanked me for farming.  I've never had anyone thank me for farming.  3 - Just today, I was cleaning out my car getting ready to pack for our first CSA drop offs (I NEED a delivery vehicle, one not filled with random happy meal toys and old mail) when a couple pulled up.  She actually hugged me and thanked me for what we do, for having a farm where kids could come and see what farming is like.

Things like this have renewed my faith in this little career I've picked.  It makes me think that all that stress is worth it in the end.  Even though The Boy and The Girl aren't involved in every activity I might wish they could be and I can't be there to do fun stuff with them all the time, The Boy still tells me he's a farmer and gets mad when he can't go to meetings because 'he's a young farmer too' (plus they have a corn maze in their back yard, I'd have to say if I was a 6 year old boy that'd be considered winning).  If one person goes home with a new wrinkle in their brain, if one kid goes home and remembers the time they came out to the farm and had fun, if one person eats a great dinner from our CSA boxes, then that gives me the meaning and purpose I've been looking for.

My strawberry eatin' fool.

The Bossman

And apparently people are because we've had more groups than ever and more families coming out to have fun with us.  Enough that we're planting another acre next year (finally, after 5 years, it's all starting to pay off!  Thank you!!!).  A lot of times people leave and you don't know what kind of time they had.  The haters are always the first and loudest to give feedback, but you don't always hear from the people who appreciate what you do and enjoyed themselves.  To know that at least someone is gives that sense of satisfaction I needed to get me through the summer.  It makes me excited to do it all over again next year.  It also gets me looking forward to the fall.  It's a new season and who knows what it's going to bring!  What new learning opportunities will present themselves?  Hopefully I won't face-plant while walking through the corn maze.  Fingers crossed!

Blogger's Block

I promise I really have been meaning to sit down and blog about the misadventures that occurred this fall on the farm.  However every single time I would sit down to do so, I would freeze.  The words would escape me and the post would feel forced, like I was just writing crap to be writing crap (as opposed to what I'm doing right now).  I felt if I couldn't just sit down and write the story, if it felt like I was pulling it out of my mind like pulling teeth, then the post would be awful and no one would want to read it (assuming it gets read now!).  Therefore, I didn't post.

However now that I've had almost a month's reflection and blog ideas are again bubbling in my head, I thought I'd tackle one of them.  Which idea is the lucky winner you ask?  Public Opinion.

Last year, in 2012, we had a representative from Groupon call and ask if we wanted to work with them on a deal for our corn maze.  Being from a relatively small town (as opposed to Raleigh and points westward) I was skeptical.  I had heard of Groupon from TV and other attractions such as ours around that used them.  I had never personally used them though and wasn't sure if other people in our area would (then again I'd never been to a corn maze before we opened our own, so obviously I'm used to taking leaps of faith).  We figured what the heck?  We'll try it.  If it doesn't work we don't have to work with them again.

Overall our experience was what I'd call so-so.  We didn't make much off it but we did get our name out to areas who would previously not have known about us.  We figured it was worth the advertising.  What we didn't count on was the ability of the purchaser to rate us.  Of course we knew they could but it wasn't until they started coming in that we thought about the impact of someone reviewing our farm.  Personally, I'm not a reviewer.  I'll give you a couple stars or whatever, but I'm not the type of person who is going to take the time to write a review.  However when I go online to purchase a product I read those reviews.  Especially for something I've never bought before, a company I'm not familiar with, or something for my kids.  What I've never thought about until I was on the other end of the deal is how the person who created that product feels upon reading them.  Now I'd imagine if you were reviewing a Graco stroller the inventor of said stroller probably doesn't care.  They aren't going to go home that night depressed because some user a thousand miles away found it hard to use or difficult to clean.

But when I read a review that someone wrote of my farm, I take it to heart.  Now I know you have to read them with a grain of salt.  After all, there are 'those people' who you are unable to satisfy.  If we brought them here on a limo and let them in for free and gave them the a list treatment they'd still complain.  It's still hard though when you've put everything into something; all your nights without sleep, the times you couldn't take your kids to that birthday party, all the days where you ate fast food, or the laundry didn't get done, or your baby had to take a nap in the car because you had no choice.  When you invest your time, energy, and money and give whatever your are doing 110% of everything you have, for someone to say that wasn't good enough stings.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I never want someone to say they had a good time when they didn't.  I know we're a small farm, still (and always will be) centered on agriculture and not how many more amusement attractions we can add to the place.  If it gets done, it gets done by me or The Husband.  I know that in some ways when I speak of some of our 'competition' it's not comparing apples to apples.  I've been to those places too (shh!  don't tell anyone!) and I know what they have.  Our motto is Rome wasn't built in a day and our role model (a little place near Beulaville that some of you may know about...best Christmas lights in North Carolina...for now!) didn't become what it did over night.  We love that some of our customers have been coming since the beginning and have seen us evolve and continue to evolve.  Still, if someone came to my farm and had a bad experience I want to know it even if it does hurt just a little, so we can improve.  If we don't know what we're doing wrong we can't fix it, especially if it's a service issue (I can't stand how customer service seems to have just disappeared!  Everywhere I go it seems like the person waiting on me is too busy playing with other employees, or checking their phone, or won't even speak to me.  It's like they've forgotten that I'm paying their salary.  I can assure you, I haven't forgotten that my customers pay my salary and if you come and don't get excellent help you let me know!).  And then you get the good reviews too and it makes you feel great to know that someone came out and had a good time.  That's the whole point of our operation, is to get people back out on the farm having a good time with their friends and families.  Those good reviews are what makes it all worthwhile.

So this year when we partnered with Groupon we were ready, and when we started getting reviews, mostly good, some still bad, we made sure we addressed it so we got less and less bad reviews and the ones we got were about things we had no control over.  In the end we've grown a thicker skin and realized you can't please everyone.  You do the best you can with what you have, you try to provide the best experience and service possible every time, and let the haters hate.

After all, tomorrow is another day!