Thursday, June 23, 2011

A Message for Prospective Farmers and Homesteaders in Eastern Massachusetts

Ok, a bit of background before I deliver my message - A few months ago, Marc woke me up on a beautiful Sunday morning and told me to get dressed because we were heading to church. Knowing that Marc is an atheist, my immediate reaction was, "who are you and what did you do to my husband?" It had been more than 15 years since I'd attended church regularly. I was raised by a rather strict Roman Catholic father and attended Catholic school up until I went off to college. Plaid uniforms, scary old nuns, holiday processions - I will admit that I truly enjoyed every minute of it. In fact, if the Catholic church wasn't so opposed to my "lifestyle", I would consider sending Jonathan to Catholic school...but I digress. Despite this, I still reacted to Marc's request with a pound of skepticism and a dash of sarcasm.

Anyway, Marc told me that it was not "that" kind of church service - and so began our current (yet slow) journey towards Unitarian Universalism. Whether or not we'll ever fully get there is still up in the air but we like what we've experienced so far. (I'll save the church stories for another time.) Ok...ANYWAY, one of the best things to come about from this journey is that we met fellow church-goer Kate, who along with her husband have quickly become our good friends. They even have a son Jonathan's age and they get along like two peas in a pod. Kate, like myself is really into growing food, learning artisanal skills, eating responsibly - locally - ethically and basically all things having to do with sustainable living. When you're passionate about something, you instinctively want to share it with others and learn from others as well. I'm grateful everyday for my readers and blogging buddies. Without you guys, growing my lonely little plot wouldn't be nearly as fun, which is why there are times I wish I had a plot at a community garden. Kate is the first local person I've befriended who shares my same passion.

Recently, Kate and I came up with the idea of starting a local group of farming/vegetable gardening/animal husbandry/urban homesteading/sustainable living enthusiasts (we haven't come up with a formal name yet). Currently it's just a group of two (LOL!) but we would like to reach out to our fellow MA residents and invite all who might be interested in joining.

Our mission is pretty simple at this point - Kate and I want to learn as much as we can about small-scale farming, market gardening, animal husbandry, artisanal crafts (like cheese making, craft brewing, etc.) and some good old fashion country skills. Both of us have always wanted to intern at a farm but because of our careers and life commitments have never been able to do so. We are interested in learning real skills and practical knowledge - those that we can apply to our own gardens (and potentially our future farming/homesteading endeavors).

In a nutshell, this is what we had in mind:

To start, we would like to organize a series of farm tours several times a year. Our idea is to reach out to our local small-scale farmers and ask if they would be willing to offer our group a nuts and bolts look into their farming operations. These tours are meant to be instructional (and open to adults only). As the tour progresses, our group will be able to ask questions and seek advise on all things having to do with the running of the farm from the big picture (like soil fertility, animal health, etc.) to the mundane (state regulations, equipment maintenance). We are hoping that these tours will greatly expand our current knowledge and offer us a realistic glimpse into small-scale farming as a skill/career/lifestyle. In the end, we think that these tours will appeal to the artisan, veggie gardener, prospective farmer or urban/suburban homesteader in each of us. For the farmer, it would mean a small fee for their time and an opportunity to share their expertise with members of their community. We would like to keep each tour group small - anywhere from 5 to 10 people max. At say $30 a person, that would mean up to $300 dollars for 2 to 3 hours of the farmer's time.

Currently, Kate and I are working on a farm tour for sometime in August. We have found a local farmer (who has a 10 acre vegetable and poultry farm) willing to conduct our first tour if we can get at least 3 other people to participate. We are also speaking with a local goat farmer, who has a small cheese operation, about a possible tour later on this year. Obviously as the group grows we can discuss ideas for future tours.

Anyway, if any of my fellow Massachusetts readers would like to join our group/help us get it started/be on our farm tour email list, please email me at agrowingtradition@yahoo.com. And if you are a small scale farmer interested in giving a tour, please reach out to me as well!

Footnote - I probably should have mentioned that Kate and I are not planning on making this a for profit enterprise. For us it's about building a local community of like-minded people and giving us an opportunity to make some new friends! All fees associated with each tour will go to the farmer. Also, $30 is just a hypothetical
figure I put out there. The cost will be negotiated based on the length of the tour and the activity involved. The last thing we want to do is make the cost prohibitive for members of our group. I'll let everyone know the cost well beforehand, whether it be $10 for a basic hour-long farm tour or $30 for an intensive morning-long chicken processing workshop.

18 comments:

  1. Very nice massage of prospective i am very inspired from your blog.
    Thanks for post..

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  2. Very nice massage of prospective i am very inspired from your blog.
    Thanks for post..

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  3. And I thought your message was going to be: Kill the wabbit.

    What a great idea, Thomas, and you are starting it in the way you do best, properly :-)

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  4. Now I want to move to Massachusetts and become a farmer. Good luck, Thomas, if anyone can get this group going, you can!

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  5. So cool!! It all...'church trip' included, sounds so wonderful and enlightening.

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  6. Oh my goodness! It might include a trip to a goat farm? Brando and I are totally interested. We aren't around much of August, we will be at Pogue, but we would love to get involved in this group. As you know I grew up on an animal farm, and am presently starting to learn about growing veggies....so I could offer some insight to the raising animal side and get good advice on the growing veggie side. Of course, in light of your recent animal hunting adventures to further your veggie growing, we will also have a mash-up of the two as well. Keep us posted!

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  7. I hope you find a lot of like-minded people, Thomas. If I lived in Massachusetts, I would definitely be there.
    Don't limit the tours to your group though. You might be able to have discounted tours for school groups, or people interested in learning more, but not able to farm/garden themselves yet.

    Wish you much luck!

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  8. This is such a great idea Thomas. I am sure you will be able to find a nice group of people in your area that would share your interests.

    We are lucky to have a local farm in our area that does what you are looking for Pineland Farms in New Gloucester, Maine. I bet you will find many farms in your area willing to share what their day to day activities are. Have fun!

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  9. Thanks everyone! I wish some of you were closer. We would have such a blast!

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  10. If you're interested in starting off with some cheese / beer / soap / chicken videos, you might want to check out "The Greening of Gavin" blog (one of my regular reads). He's made some really good how-to videos (he also has a youtube channel).

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  11. Being that I formed a similar group here, I wish you luck! It's hard to make a go of it since at first you will have lots of interested parties that aren't very serious at all, but you will be left with a nice core group of reliable people and good friends to go forth with, have fun with it!

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  13. Sorry, I was interrupted a few too many times while commenting and my sentences were a jumbled mess, thus the deletion.

    So much to learn out there, I hope you find lots of farmers willing to teach. In my limited experience many small farms we visit are leased, both for animal and vegetative harvests. The NOFA Mass website will likely have some good contacts as they do classes for all sorts of things you are interested in learning about, though many of the farmers seem to be in Western MA.

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  14. wish i lived close enough to join your group also. on a side note, picked blueberries and made your blueberry scones. they were very delicious! thank-you for sharing your recipe.

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  15. In fact, this is a serious problem even in our country. I think you are doing right that you are writing about it!

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  16. I'm sending you an email right now!

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  17. Thomas, I love the idea...I have been farming for our local Community Supported Agriculture and we have discussed many of these same ideas...love the concept! Can't wait to hear how this goes for you.

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