Category: Blog

It’s Mom Sense: Farming in Focus

You never know where blogging is going to lead you.  Since starting this blog in 2012 one of the things that I have enjoyed most is the friendships and connections I have made.  Not only with other farmers across the country, but other foodies, bloggers, moms and the like.  So when I got an e-mail from another blogger who I met at a conference in April, asking to come to our farm and take some photos, I jumped at the chance.  I always enjoy having people come and visit our farm.  Seeing our operation through the eyes of someone else, especially a photographer is always something that I admire.  New perspectives, new insights, and great questions have always motivated me to never turn down a chance to show someone around our farm.

The blogger I showed around is named Sara, and while not a farmer by trade, she is a mom and a consumer who wants to know more about where food comes from, who are those behind the wheel of the tractor, and in general more about our food and agricultural industry.  You can check out her awesome blog that covers everything from bees to junk food, food dye to GMO‘s at ItsMomSense.com.

So for her most recent Farming in Focus post she wrote about and posted photos of our farm and all the crops that we have growing this time of year.  She even got to come out and watch some pea harvesting!  Just click the photo below to check out some great photos and good commentary from a new set of eyes about Kirsch Family Farms!

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The “Other” Blog & Women as the Minority

Awhile back I mentioned that I’m going to be writing on another site for their Women in Agriculture section.  There are four of us who blog for them, covering all things from farming, mommy-ing, cooking, well just about everything.  Last week I posted after seeing a photo on Facebook.  Here is the photo I wrote about…

1797956_10205508251535220_5776286646351391761_nMy post received quite a few comments regarding my opinion on our role as women in agriculture.  Here is the post, let me know what you think!  Do you agree or disagree?

I saw this picture from another woman in agriculture just today on my Facebook feed.  It was from Jenny Burgess who is from Sterling, Kansas.

It got me thinking.  I have been a minority for the past 8 years as a farmer.  I looked up the statistics and of the 3% of us who are farming in the US, only 4% are women.  Of those 4%, only 8% are under 35, and only 1% of those are principle operators.  You can do the math on how rare a 31 year old woman running a farm is.  Basically I know that when I walk into a meeting, it’s no shock that I am usually one of two ladies in the room.

But to be honest, I never really pay any attention to it.  Since I left my small town to head off to Los Angeles of all places to go to college, I know that not many people expected me to return home to the family business of farming.  And I still have people that say they are surprised that I’m doing what I am, even after 8 years.  But I never let that frustrate me or get me down.  I know looking back now, I never really even noticed that I was the minority, I just joined right in. 

I think that is had made me work harder though.  I remember one farmer said they bet I would get rid of our open cab sprayer soon since I had to be out in the cold weather.  But instead of getting under my skin, it just made me hold my head higher when I was out there in the elements.  True confession though, we now have a cabbed sprayer.

I just feel like women in agriculture sometimes get caught up in the fact that they are women and we need to get recognition for it.  I hear a lot of frustrations when women hear the phrase, “When the farm is taken over by the son….” But let’s be honest here, for hundreds of years farms have been taken over traditionally by the sons.  And that’s ok, we are living in a different world now where because of mechanization among many other cultural changes, women can now do many of the jobs that quite frankly I know I couldn’t have done in the past.  I am guessing that 50 years ago I would be at home with my kiddo while my husband was farming, and that’s ok! 

We need to be proud of how far we have come as women, but I think that we also need to quit trying to exclude ourselves by going too far over the feminist line.  Like the photo says, see it as an opportunity to show off your stuff, be the hard worker, the smart business person.  But don’t do it just because you’re a woman, do it because you love what you do and you’re thankful that we can. I don’t want to be a woman that farms, I just like that I’m a farmer, for me it’s that simple.

Prairie Californian…Queen of Toxic Wheat?

I wanted to write today about a gal that lives in North Dakota, Jenny Dewey.  I’ve linked to her blog, Prairie Californian, a few times before but she wrote a post last week that really hit home for me.  She is a wonderful writer with one of those unique stories of how she ended up marrying a farmer and becoming connected to the land in a way that she never thought was possible.  Check out her love story on her blog, you won’t believe it!

I relate to her story because as someone who started on a farm, couldn’t wait to get away, and then eventually ended up not being able to get back fast enough, I see similarities in our story.  I also see a passion for agriculture that when you read her writing seems to come from a very sincere and heartfelt place.

Lately she has been coined the “Queen of Toxic Wheat” for her stance on the safety and use of round up.  A topic that I wrote about recently as well in response to the Toxic wheat article going around.  While the name may not seem fair, she has taken it in stride and with humor.  The post that she wrote most recently was entitled, “If you Chose to believe Bad Science, then you are the one with the disadvantage.”  This was written in response to just another article to add to the list of using bad science to claim that roundup and other pesticides are the reason for autism and other diseases.  This might sound like a harsh title, and I have to admit that I was a little taken a back at first, but then I started to read and the sincerity and common sense of her post came through crystal clear.

So today I just urge you to read her post, take a step back and a deep breath and realize that so many times we read stories that are scary, overwhelming with science and mumbo jumbo it’s almost hard to not believe them.  But take a moment to realize that as farmers I think many times we are more like our urban neighbors than they give us credit for.  Our offices may be out on the prairies and in the soil, but we are still trying to do what is right and good for the people we feed and the land that we cultivate.

Wishing you all a good Monday to start off your 2015!