This past weekend , I spent some much - needed fourth dimension with some unbelievable women I ’ve connect with over food , farming and nature . One of the dame is writing a book on women farmer , and our conversation over dinner party and whizz - gazing experience me thinking about how my experience as a woman is influencing what Mr. B and I are doing withour new farm .
I ’m not here to speak about women ’s empowerment in farming ( though I ’m all for it , of path ) . Mr. B and I complement each other so well — that ’s why I ’ve chosen to do life with him , after all — and on the farm , we ’ve course fallen into traditional gender office . This is n’t because we feel like we “ have ” to but because that ’s where our interest rest . I hump intellectual nourishment and cooking , so I dominate the kitchen , and Mr. B is an engine driver , so he ’s naturally take to secure farm equipment . That ’s not to say that I ca n’t ever use his help chopping veggies or he does n’t need an extra set of hands in posit a mower belt , and if it were the other mode around , that would be fine , too . We ’re a team , and I could n’t see myself farm without him there .
But women lend something different to the arena of farming , do n’t they ? A suppleness and holisticness that elevates the farm above aseries of tasksthat need to be accomplished to away of lifethat nourish the purport . As I write these words , I immediately repent them , because I know many male farmers who bring an intentionality and sacredness to work with the country that has challenge me in the ways I view our organization of food .
But perhaps for women more often than valet de chambre , the farm start to become wrapped up in our identity . That would explicate why , as I hash out last week , I ’m still grappling with the words to place myself . I often find shamed calling myself a Fannie Farmer , at least just yet , because I ’ve yet to plant or grow anything . And the sweat and labor that goes into do work the land has also left me craving the softer thing in life — art , poesy , conversation — that round out our beings and give our life meaning . I ’m just not cut out for putting in a hard 24-hour interval ’s work , going to layer and doing it again the next twenty-four hour period . What does that make me ? A golem ? A car ? I require an extract of the farm ’s grueling task with bit of joy , rich perceptiveness and heedfulness . I see our farm as a conduit for connecting to the rest of humanity , and so I desire the conclusion we make about its hereafter to play into that .
obstinate to what some might believe , I do n’t conceive being a female sodbuster is a impuissance when it comes to working the earth . As one of my admirer pointed out over dinner , adult female may have to do the oeuvre otherwise because of our sizing and strength , but that does n’t imply we ca n’t get the problem done . However , Idothink being a char — or to be less unimaginative , being willing to vulnerably touch base to our man — is an plus in farming . When you see what you ’re doing with the Din Land as a larger part of this whole ecosystem , then it gives your tasks mean . It helps you determine whether spraying that pesticide is deserving it or whether you need to rehome apest animalfor the great good of feeding thirsty people . It help oneself you preserve tradition like canning and fermentation . It inform your observation of nature ’s cycles and our bodies ’ nutritional needs .
I ’m lofty of the fact that hoi polloi might see me as a woman farmer , and I ’m happy to contrive their preconceived notions of what that might be out the windowpane . Just like no two farmer do or see things the same way , the same goes for women farmer . We all , both humanity and women , have our weaknesses and obstacle we have to work through . Because I grow up in the metropolis , I may have more to learn and overtake regarding farm living than others do , regardless of my sexuality , but I already see a moulding and shining summons happen in my biography — just as we shape the farm , our land can shape us . And soon enough it wo n’t be that I ’m a female farmer or that you ’re a male James Leonard Farmer . It ’ll be that we ’re people who care deeply for the resources we ’ve been given , who work hard to feed our family and our communities , and who produce unique and beautiful expressions of the custom and experience that make up our lives .
