We were tempted to do it all when we first started our farm. We had visions of a fully diversified farm with a little bit of everything – veggies, livestock, fruit trees, draft horses, and hay making.
But early on, we realized that this wasn’t our style. We decided, instead, to focus on a few things. And then to do those things really, REALLY well.
Some farmers told us that this is a bad idea. They said that diversification is like an insurance policy – at some point, every farmer will have a bad crop. And if you’re a farmer who’s only growing one or two crops, you’ll be in trouble.
I think this may be true. And could prove to be true for us someday. But, having a million balls in the air distracting us from the parts of farming that we love the most, just didn’t appeal to us.
This was how we found ourselves sitting with a pretty big question that first year. If our focus is going to be livestock, we had to ask ourselves what one or two vegetable crops did we want to grow?
We landed on ginger and turmeric, two crops that aren’t particularly well suited to grow in this area. But with the right farmer mindset – high attention to detail and stamina – can be grown well.
Despite having a husband whose middle might as well be “details,” we’ve had our fair share of challenges growing these two special plants. But somehow, every year, our ginger and turmeric plants have found a way to grow big and strong in our soils.
It’s too early to say what’s growing beneath the giant green fronds this year. But next week, we’ll start the ginger harvest and we’ll all find out!