the timing of March

March was an interesting month. Most of it was spent excitedly researching and thinking about a great opportunity in North Carolina that surfaced a week after my last post. I had been talking to Crossing Point Farm about possibly working there. After they couldn’t take me, they forwarded me an email from Eric at the Milk & Honey Farm in Yadkinville.

Essentially, Eric & Melissa were offering their previous house as an incubator “farm” to a new farmer for them to get their start. They were offering an 1100 sq ft, 2-bedroom house with a full, unfinished basement on 2/3 of an acre to the right person/couple to live in for free! I almost couldn’t believe how good of a fit the opportunity was. I immediately contacted them via email. And, I dove in sorting out details from the moment I read the email to see if this move was feasible. (Here’s a link to a real estate listing for the house.) Here’s a google street view image of the house. (image used without permission …)

Eric called me back the same night and we had a great conversation, the first of many, about farming, Wilkes County North Carolina and the possibility of me moving there.

For most of March I spent a ton of time researching the area, the nearby farmers markets, towns, farm supply places, land for rent, moving costs, etc. I spent almost a whole weekend just researching crops to grow in North Carolina, planting dates, harvest times, where to buy seeds of varieties suitable for the region and on and on.

I had decided originally to just go. No visit, nothing. Just pack up all my stuff and head to Ronda, North Carolina sight unseen. It was invigorating, exciting and felt like just the challenge and change and adventure I was hoping for. The house sounded great. Eric had some concerns about me fitting into the area socially, but I brushed them off thinking I could deal with the change and I’d find a way to get what I need. I was so ready to start my own farm. I even put my motorcycle up for sale within a week of hearing about this opportunity in NC, knowing that I can not be a farmer with a motorcycle. If I wanted to get serious about being a farmer, I needed the money I had tied up in that fun machine to buy a more practical farm truck and farm tools.

However, after much prodding from friends and relatives who thought I was crazy to just up and leave Seattle without visiting the house in North Carolina first – I caved and went to visit the house in Ronda, meet Eric & Melissa and do some on-the-ground research. They were incredibly generous – delivering me to/from the airport, and providing lodging, meals and even a car to use while I was there.

Alas, in the end, the visit was a huge reality check. After actually seeing the area, driving around the first day by myself, being at the house alone, stopping by the local hardware stores and such – the first day was a bit of a bummer, really. I had a sinking feeling in my gut when I first drove up to the house in Ronda. It was cold, the garden was in bad shape (tons of weeds gone to seed, remnants of past crops left to rot, untended, forgotten), the house was empty and somewhat uninviting. I felt very lonely and realized that’s how I’d be, at first and for a while anyway, as a stranger in a strange land, very much a foreigner in a small town culturally the opposite in most ways from where I am living in Washington.

I ultimately decided the timing was all wrong for me to uproot and move all the way across the country to that place. This was even after being there and deciding that yes, I would definitely be making this move … after deciding that dammit, this is what I want to do, right? Start a farm? Here’s the opportunity, stop hemming and hawing and do it! 

I didn’t decide until I got back to Seattle. After thinking about everything on the flight home, sleeping on it another night, and spending the night and next day with my good friend Robert and meeting up with another friend Danielle for coffee in Fremont … I just couldn’t see moving to NC so suddenly at the end of April. It was a beautiful day in Seattle and that along with being with good friends made me realize that I didn’t want to leave … yet.

It wasn’t only my social connections that I didn’t want to sever with such an abrupt and monumental move. I’ve been wanting to get this all down, mostly for my own purposes to get a wider grip on things.

1. First and foremost, starting a new farm as a new farmer completely new to the area – the end of April is about the worst time to start. Timing is a massive part of farming, and since I’m not in dire need of starting a farm right this minute and I have the flexibility and option of starting when I want, right now is the wrong time. From a marketing perspective, a new farmer needs to be at the local markets as soon as possible in the spring, showing their face and products to become familiar and establish relationships with the locals. Getting an early jump on CSA recruiting is crucial too. From a farming/garden perspective, missing out on the winter down time to get things established, make compost, plan for early and spring crops, get spring plants started, etc., etc., etc… coming late in the game is a significant disadvantage in more ways than I’ve listed here.
2. Wilkes County, and Ronda specifically is most likely not where I want to settle long-term. Eric read my blog and correctly deduced that the area might be a challenge for me. In his own words: “Wilkes County is dominated by people that grew up there, that have rarely left the state, let alone traveled internationally, that voted for McCain-Palin, that attend Baptist churches every Sunday and Wednesday evening, that shop for seemingly everything at Walmart, etc.  Would you rather find a way to live closer to a place like Chapel Hill?  Are you going to find the social life you want living in Wilkes?” No. I would have a very hard time relating to people like that and finding what I need and enjoy in the area. I am a very tolerant, patient and accepting person, but if I have a choice, I would not want to live in a place like that. I don’t think I want to say any more about this. It also doesn’t make sense to start establishing a customer base in an area I’m quite sure I won’t remain.
3. When I spent all this time planning on North Carolina, I had been stuck on the island with only a motorcycle in the cold rain and snow for literally months. (i.e. I was severly limited in where and when I could go anywhere.) I was isolated, albeit voluntarily, didn’t get out enough, didn’t spend enough time with the people hor at the places that I really enjoy spending time with. The motorcycle idea was stupid. In hindsight, anyway. It was fun in the summer. But now I look back and don’t know what I was thinking.
4. Spending the summer in Seattle is a reward for suffering through the winter … there is no better place to spend a summer that I know of. I’ve started so much over the winter, so many things that I’d like to see take root and grow this year. I’ve grafted trees, planted dozens of things, built buildings, dug trenches, prepped beds. I want to finish what I’ve started, or at least see them through a bit longer. 
5. I want to more carefully plan what I hope to be one of, if not the last big move I make! As much as I think North Carolina is where I want to be, I think it behooves me to do a bit more research. And, talk to my family a bit more and seriously think about where I want to be in relation to them. I keep saying I don’t want to live in Florida again. But I want to be closer to my family. I think I want to be really close to them, like within an hour. And if they don’t ever see leaving Florida, and I don’t want to live in Florida, that’s not going to be possible. Maybe I could live in Florida again? I don’t know. My dream is to cooperatively buy 100 acres with my family and each member have their own house on a corner of it. And not in Florida … We all like the mountains, and North Carolina has them. But maybe I’d like Massachusetts, or Vermont, or Upstate New York, or somewhere else a little less … “southern.”
6. I really have an aversion to being a bachelor farmer. It’s just really not what I want to do. Food is closely related to community for me. Growing it with help from family, friends and neighbors is the only way to do it “sustainably” in my mind. I’ve been thinking since I started envisioning being a farmer that I would not do it alone. And I won’t. 

So, anyway. That’s the recent story of my farming adventures. For now I am happily staying in the container at Sun Island Farm with Joe & Celina and the kids.

March was very educational, and very helpful for me. It got me thinking about things in ways I’ve never thought of them. I’ve taken many more steps towards my goal and will be better prepared when the time comes! (And, I have a truck again now, too!)