Is farm life the good life? This year (and most, really, truly!), I’d answer with an emphatic yes, last year… maybe not so much, the year before… I think so? Wish I could remember! Like most things, farming is up and down and all around, and our attitude towards this life we’ve chosen fluctuates with the changing weather, seasons, world events, personal events, and the state of our minds.
The glorious things about this gig are kind of obvious and very real. It’s wonderful to be one’s’ own boss, working outside with the birds and bees, producing something that is well appreciated (especially on South Whidbey!). An we sure appreciate communing with nature (even the mosquitos, ok, no- not the mosquitos) and the rad community that supports small scale organic farmers. And of course, we LOVE the abundance of fresh food for us to consume and share.
The downsides are often less appreciated; the hours, pay, wear on the body (especially 15 years in!), the stress of managing the needs of dozens of crops and outlets, the unpredictable weather, and the isolation that many growers feel (thankfully that one’s not a problem for us). There is a cool pilot program in WA, which started in 2019 that offers farmers free vouchers for therapy. There’s been other legislation in our state that supports farmer mental health and that’s awesome, as we see the legit strain this life puts on some of our pals and on ourselves at times as well.
That being said, I think we are in a pretty special place here on Whidbey, where the farm community is tight knit and very supportive of each other, where the broader community carries us in times of difficulty (we had volunteers readily help throughout our career) and where we can make a reasonable living in this difficult profession thanks to all the incredible local support of individuals and other markets.
When we try to think of something we’d rather be doing, we actually can’t! Working for the Conservation District? Nah, we’d have to commute. Working for a local non-profit? We’re not good at being inside. Hmm… we will have to think about what’s next once our bodies can’t physically pull this job off, but that’s a conversation for another time (despite our families wanting us to solve that dilemma asap). For now, we take the good with the difficult and always come out feeling grateful we’ve landed in the field we have. Yay farming!!