Birth of a Farmer

My love affair with farming started 10 years ago, when a friend of mine and I decided to drive cross country for as long as we could afford to do so. After several fun filled months of camping out, eating ramen noodles, and working horrible temp jobs, we ran out of money.  I found myself living in my car, and looking for work.  I had always had an interest in organic food, and small scale, diversified agriculture, so when I saw an ad for a farm in Massachusetts that provided housing, I decided to drive up for an interview with my entire life in my car.  Luckily I was hired, moved in and started the next day. I looked at the job as something fun to get me out of my present situation, while giving me the summer to figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.  I had a bachelor’s degree in biology, but had no idea what to with it.  All I knew was that I never wanted to work in an office.

By the time that summer was in full swing, I had found my calling. I adored working hard all day, and collapsing in to my bed at night with the knowledge that I had really accomplished some thing. From there I worked on a string of farms on the east coast. During the winter I worked and volunteered at various other farms in warmer climates.  I picked avocadoes and oranges in California, helped to repair the dams on a rice paddy in Thailand, and worked for a month on a farm in Northern India.

As I get older I seem to spend the winter on vacation, though I still see as many farms as possible wherever I go. I always seem to learn a new technique, or discover a new vegetable that I haven’t seen before.  I just returned from India where I toured several farms in the Andaman Islands, as well as in Goa, where their number one pest seems to be monkeys.  The monkeys delight in pulling out plants, general destruction, as well as eating the produce.  I had no helpful advice for them as their pest has opposable thumbs and I can barely keep deer out of our garden. I did come back with other ideas for this year however, and I’m excited to try them out.

How did you first discover your professional passion?  Did you always know or was it something you discovered along the way?

A few photos from my trips to India.