Fifty Shades of Farming. Yes I just went there.
Before you go getting too concerned , this post doesn’t involve any hanky Panky in the barn between the farm hand and the farmers daughter.
Although, there’s an idea for my next…ummm nevermind!
It was all just a ploy to get you to click on this article of mine! You might be cursing me now, but your already here so you might as well read on!
When I say fifty shades of farming, I’m simply referring to all the many shades of farmlife. The highs, the lows…there’s lots of ups and downs involved in agriculture, believe it or not.
If your thinking of starting a farm, I sure hope you enjoy rollercoasters!
There are moments of pure bliss when you bring in the harvest you worked so hard to grow, and then there are moments of self doubt and frustration when things go wrong. When working alongside nature it’s important to expect the unexpected and not take your failures too personally.
It might not seem like it from the outside looking in, but there’s a lot on the line when you start farming. Suddenly your responsible for the welfare of all these critters you took on (one million chickens, two cows, three pigs, a handful of ducks, and a partridge in a pear tree!). Plus, you have a ton of money tied up in the start up (Tractor Supply Company totally saw me coming). It’s easy to get discouraged when your initial plans start to crumble, and things tend to crumble pretty easily too.
The highs of farming are obvious ones…filling your table with homegrown goodness is by far the best reward for the hard work you put in. Forming trusting relationships with your animals is also up there with the highs!
The lows are pretty rough though. Animals get sick and die, crops fail, weather gets in the way, and you lose money sometimes. It’s all part of the journey.
The best thing you can do in those sticky situations is adapt and overcome. For each hit you take to the face, come back swinging even faster.
My lows this year consisted of bombing carrots (I literally only got like two and a half carrots), losing over half of my laying flock to a raccoon ninja, and every single piece of equipment I needed over the summer broke down at some point.
For these I recommend alcohol or cake and a good laugh!
My highs were excellent though! We grew corn and stored it despite all the early spring flooding, I canned homemade, homegrown tomato sauce for the first time, I worked up some killer back muscles in the garden, and the Rocky Boot Team came out to the farm for a photo shoot with me!
Luckily, there was just enough good stuff from this year to keep me coming back for more! That’s all that really matters. The fire inside me still burns, despite mother nature’s efforts to smother it out.
We live, we learn, we grow, and we keep on farming…through all fifty shades that comes our way!
Farm To Table Mama 