Comments on: Are You Insane Enough To Farm? http://www.yourlocalmarketblog.com/2007/09/25/are-you-insane-enough-to-farm/ Organic Grocery Market, Shop Local, Small Farms, Family Farms Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:01:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jeff Kendrick Memphis, TN http://www.yourlocalmarketblog.com/2007/09/25/are-you-insane-enough-to-farm/#comment-5517 Jeff Kendrick Memphis, TN Mon, 10 Aug 2009 04:03:29 +0000 http://organictobe.org/index.php/2007/09/25/are-you-insane-enough-to-farm/#comment-5517 Thanks Roxanne! Had never heard of SPIN farming until your post. Googled and found out that I'll be a SPIN farmer next year!! (That was an exciting shocker!) I'm retired, and have begun to prepare a half acre for next spring's planting. I'm spending time with the local farmers at their farms and the Sat. morning Farmers' Market. Some are organic as I will be. One new friend just received her organic certification after the three year period. I hated to hear that you had to wait three years, but after thinking about it, I'm glad it takes that long. In three years when I'm certified and look a potential customer in the eye, my salesmanship will come to the forefront. And if I can't sell organic, I'll stop farming and volunteer as a patient at the local dental school. Farming is in my blood, at least my father's blood, and that gene was passed down. Although I've been in the corporate world forever, I'm used to hard work; my Dad made sure of that. Best gift he ever gave me. I've hauled and stored hay, plowed behind a team of mules, planted, watered, weeded, then weeded some more, harvested, cooked and eaten the best food I've ever tasted. And weeded some more. And the past 10 or 15 years I've landscaped and had small organic gardens at every one of our homes. I spend a lot of time growing things. (Planted 93 flowers last spring, and am continually having to stop what I'm doing to give guided tours. Of course, I don't mind that one bit.) Great articles, too, except for that one young fellow, Dave, who is so negative, at least that's the tone I felt. We need to do this, and we need to do that. No, you need to do that. Don't wait until a committee can be formed to discuss it and foul it up. We need to be positive, and soon we'll find positive articles on new farmers in places like this, and, as they say, the rest is history. Anyone who wants to get into farming, but without the land and an a sizable investment, can, and should, first become a SPIN farmer, as Roxanne stated. They can expand as they want. Jeff P.S. My wonderful wife and mother of our twins, can do all those things Dave mentioned, plus more. Never met a good woman who couldn't out think and out work us fellas when she set her mind to it. Thanks Roxanne! Had never heard of SPIN farming until your post. Googled and found out that I’ll be a SPIN farmer next year!! (That was an exciting shocker!) I’m retired, and have begun to prepare a half acre for next spring’s planting. I’m spending time with the local farmers at their farms and the Sat. morning Farmers’ Market. Some are organic as I will be. One new friend just received her organic certification after the three year period. I hated to hear that you had to wait three years, but after thinking about it, I’m glad it takes that long. In three years when I’m certified and look a potential customer in the eye, my salesmanship will come to the forefront. And if I can’t sell organic, I’ll stop farming and volunteer as a patient at the local dental school.

Farming is in my blood, at least my father’s blood, and that gene was passed down. Although I’ve been in the corporate world forever, I’m used to hard work; my Dad made sure of that. Best gift he ever gave me. I’ve hauled and stored hay, plowed behind a team of mules, planted, watered, weeded, then weeded some more, harvested, cooked and eaten the best food I’ve ever tasted. And weeded some more. And the past 10 or 15 years I’ve landscaped and had small organic gardens at every one of our homes. I spend a lot of time growing things. (Planted 93 flowers last spring, and am continually having to stop what I’m doing to give guided tours. Of course, I don’t mind that one bit.)

Great articles, too, except for that one young fellow, Dave, who is so negative, at least that’s the tone I felt. We need to do this, and we need to do that. No, you need to do that. Don’t wait until a committee can be formed to discuss it and foul it up. We need to be positive, and soon we’ll find positive articles on new farmers in places like this, and, as they say, the rest is history.

Anyone who wants to get into farming, but without the land and an a sizable investment, can, and should, first become a SPIN farmer, as Roxanne stated. They can expand as they want.

Jeff

P.S. My wonderful wife and mother of our twins, can do all those things Dave mentioned, plus more. Never met a good woman who couldn’t out think and out work us fellas when she set her mind to it.

]]> By: Roxanne Christensen http://www.yourlocalmarketblog.com/2007/09/25/are-you-insane-enough-to-farm/#comment-441 Roxanne Christensen Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:08:37 +0000 http://organictobe.org/index.php/2007/09/25/are-you-insane-enough-to-farm/#comment-441 Farming and hardship have become synonymous, but to attract new talent, we need to offer an easier way to farm, and to re-cast farming as entrepreneurially-driven, rather than a downwardly mobile profession of last resort. That is what SPIN-Farming is trying to do. It injects the joy back into farming and makes it more accessible to many more people by showing them how to create high-revenue producing farm businesses, wherever they happen to live. SPIN farmers are not crazy. They are showing how you can live large yet be small, and make more from less. They are helping us all re-imagine not only how to farm, but what it means to be a farmer today. Farming and hardship have become synonymous, but to attract new talent, we need to offer an easier way to farm, and to re-cast farming as entrepreneurially-driven, rather than a downwardly mobile profession of last resort. That is what SPIN-Farming is trying to do. It injects the joy back into farming and makes it more accessible to many more people by showing them how to create high-revenue producing farm businesses, wherever they happen to live. SPIN farmers are not crazy. They are showing how you can live large yet be small, and make more from less. They are helping us all re-imagine not only how to farm, but what it means to be a farmer today.

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