It wasn’t some big event. Just a simple moment in time that changed my life. And that I remember as clear as day.
I was fresh out of college. And in preparation for a research fellowship I was doing in sub-Saharan Africa later that year, I joined the crew on a small organic farm outside of Albany.
I thought I was physically fit at the time and wasn’t too concerned about the manual labor aspect of the job.
But I clearly didn’t know what I was getting into because within just a few days of farming, I was in rough shape…hungry, dehydrated, skin scraped, and muscles sore.
One afternoon, about two weeks into the job, we were tasked with trellising peas. As we finished the final row, I looked down at the blisters on my hands and then looked up and scanned the area around me.
With that late afternoon yellow summer glow pouring over the field, I saw the day’s work right there in front of me. The sight of the peas fully trellised, a field full of veggies planted and weeded.
I’d never in my life felt that sense of accomplishment before. Chemistry, my usual wheelhouse, was interesting, engaging, and relevant. But farming, I learned, was gratifying and immediately impactful.
Sometimes I get asked how or when I realized I wanted to farm. And this is the exact moment that always comes to mind. The only problem was that I just wasn’t ready for it yet.
It took me 5 years from this moment of pea-trellising bliss for me to answer the call and start farming professionally.
And as I’m rounding out my 8th year farming and our 5th year here at our Farm, I couldn’t be prouder to be doing the work I know I was just destined to do.