2014 1st of June

Defining a Farm  ~

                                           

How do you define a farm?   Loosely.  

 

     Driving onto a neighbors land my husband and I saw they had put up an entrance gate and fencing.  It was beautifully done and the property was posted with a ranch sign. Having lived in some rural areas in my life the word ranch brought to mind 1,000's of acres of open space.  I had this image in my head of a huge herd of cattle that would cross the narrow road at any moment and keep us penned there for a hour.  Then I noticed other homes in the same community posted ranch signs.

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     Did you know that there are  thousands of definitions for ranch via the internet?  Farm was a real shock to me!  There are so many definitions listed, my tattered old dictionary would argue with the computer, but the computer would win. The days of sheep and cattle grazing the meadows are vanishing before our eyes. Today commercial agriculture companies raise the nations food in feed lots and pesticide laden fields. People rarely spend time on a farm or ranch.

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     To me "a farm" is a picture in your mind that you see, smell, and hear.  I see myself as a child waiting in the field surrounded by the scent of damp green rows of drying hay.   It is loading up wild oats into the back of Chub's pickup truck and listening to Chub sing "you can't roller skate in a buffalo herd" all the way home. It is the fair and the ribbons, the snow cones and the loco steer.  It is my sister giving her chicken a ride on the handle bars of her bike.  It was what I wanted as a child, the same as now - I always wanted more.

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     "Defining the Farm is different than naming a farm".  The farm will have needs of its own.  Nature will play the leading roll in all aspects of decision making.  Goals and the dreams of a farmer must harmonize with the weather and wildlife or, the farm will fail. It is bending one's self like wheat in the wind, a wind that teaches us that there is Someone greater than our goals and dreams.  There is a greater purpose for the land than our human nature can realize.

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     Root Cellar Farm is defined by the crops adapted to the harsh winds.  The crops that grow primarily under the soil.  Root crops ~ for spring, summer, autumn and winter.

                                                                 Laurie Jane

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