this week on digging deeper I'm digging deep inside talking about
my first few years in farming where things weren't that easy and we're really talking about
how hard it can be and what it takes to go through it and the subject came about for me last week I
traveled to a farming conference and wow that was really great by the way to get back to
these farming conference after two years of covid it felt good to meet people from other farming
communities and at the keynote there was this beautiful young couple with their two-year-old
that was talking to to the farming Community about how hard their work
is has vegetable Growers and you know there were other Farmers so everybody knew how hard it is but
I was really touched by their message of how hard it is and how the community their community that
comes to the farm and helps them every week and the farming Community that's there for support
was the reason why they stick they they're sticking with farming and they're going to
go through that adverse time that they're going through in man I was really touched
by that uh brought me to brought a lot of emotions back because I remember my first
few years in farming you know that was before I knew all the stuff that I know about farming now
and it really reminded me how difficult it was and how one particularly here I think it was year four
where things just weren't going our way uh we had worked so hard to set up
the greenhouses to set up you know the washing pack station the field blocks
you know we were getting established with our markets with everything we were growing solid
mix at the time and that was pretty new we had a lot of things going for us but it was a year that
you know the weeds were terrible because it would rain often and then we couldn't outgrow the salad
mix with the weeds we just had to sort all the weeds out of the salad mix all the time and that
was taking so much time Farmers Market didn't have a roof it would rain every Saturday morning it was
like on 18 weeks we had probably 14 rainy days so sales weren't there the truck the delivery truck
broke transmission a couple thousand dollars and just like all the traction that we had we kind
of lost that year and I was really thinking yeah this is my fourth year at this and it was my worst
and I was I was discouraged to a point where I kind of was reflecting if this is really what if
I'm cut up for it and if if if we would stick it through you know we had a three-year-old at the
time and it was when they start to move around and you kind of need to fence them in so that
you can look after them and then there's the farm and this and things are starting to break
it's difficult and so I started to reflect on that and you know what happened to me and that was that
was that was a Kickstarter for me to kind of look elsewhere for answers and one of the first thing
that we did that's that winter that was really amazing is that we reached out to other farmers
Farmers that had like us kids and I worked kind of in the certain age same age of farming and then
we got together twice a year for the next three years to share some what we call here which like
hit or missed of our season we would get together spend the night and then we would go and solve
problems together troubleshooting and that was so huge and you know that was a big part of us
learning and becoming better Growers because bottom line is that you know we ended up keep
on farming but we we learned how to better farm and I think that's such a big part of farming is
like you can go at it with heart and you can go at it with courage but there's there's a lot of
things that in vegetable growing and you can't you kind of need to know and apply it makes such
a big difference and at that time we also uh were lucky enough to get some grant money to go
to France and visit some Farms there that really inspired me to look at how they had some technical
itineraries for the crop and how they would do things and everything was systemized and it
wasn't improvised it was all cleverly laid out and they would show me these guide books about how to
do things that got me going fired up saying okay I need to systemize things more so that we don't
if we fail at least we'll have answers above perhaps why so that was so huge for us and then
I think that the fact that we didn't give up and we stuck with it
and we decided to invest in ourselves to just to become better Growers that was a big part of
why our farm is still here today after 20 years and you know honestly of all these
years they've been like this one bad ones and hard ones but it's it's never easy regardless
but investing in in ourselves and investing in on how to be just like better Growers and
reaching out to the community reaching out to yes our family that came to help but also
the community of farmers where where we're at that was such a big that was a big big thing
for us and I'm encouraging anyone that's going through these hard times you know this is will
be spring soon enough perhaps last year wasn't a great one man I think if you have the courage
to stick with it and to make some improvement on certain things that you know need to be improved
it's worth it because you know Looking Backward there was some years that it wasn't easy like the
year I'm talking about but all in all the quality of life that we have at the farm and the level of
you know kinship that we have with our biota with the farm in itself with the
community with what we do on a daily basis how we can improve that's that's just such a big
part of being creative and and learning and applying yourself and and making a difference
and so I think it's important at one point to stick with it and if there's a few advice that
I can give to anyone that's kind of in that space is that you know saying that farming is hard is
you know it's is not enough like you need to change perhaps the dialogue and say you know
how can I be a better grower how can I invest in myself what can I do to improve my situation
and it's not about buying stuff it's not about buying equipment or tools sometimes it's just
really about learning learning how to be a better manager learning how to be a better communicator
by investing sometimes a DOT sometimes that's free
um and you know if you're not in the space where you can do that because you're perhaps too tired
or you don't have the motivation then perhaps that's when you you have that grinding gear where
you just like just give it more time and just kind of be hopeful that things will look up for you
and that's worth a lot and although you know my my fourth year in farming is a long long time ago
you know in business and all the other projects that I've faced and that I've done in the last
10 years seven years adversity is a big part of anything that I've undertaken adversity to a
point where you're not sure if it's a good idea you're not sure if you're sunk sinking yourself
too deep you're not sure if you know you're not gonna get out of that alive and that has happened
to me on several projects and what I can tell you is that if that's not what you're growing through
at one point that means that you're not being stretch enough and that so you're not growing
so adversity and having skin in the game when you're all in is in my opinion the only way
to get something extraordinary done and if you're in that space or if ever you are in that space
I would say that my advice and the advice that I follow and I try to follow it as much as possible
is just to clear out any doubts about what you're trying to do because doubt doubting
is your worst enemy just creeps in you and then you second guess and then you don't have
the energy and the focus to really just do the work sometimes sometimes when it's hard it's
just about doing the work and not thinking it too much just like plowing through just like if if you
know there was the saying if when going through hell just keep going and that's that I think is
really true and just like making sure that you're not doubting and they're you're not letting that
skepticism or that second thought creep into your mind and in your heart
but besides that farming is is not for the faint of heart and uh there's gonna be Adventures every
year still today still today in my farming world I'm you know I'm designing this project here this
is the first time I do any of this uh it's costing me money I'm not 100 sure about what I'm doing
but I think I'll figure it out and I have faith in my good star and in my spirit and I think that
that's the that's the way for everyone so you know if the message is kind of resonating uh
perhaps remember that we all go through some hard times in farming and those of us have been
there for more years doing it we'll all say the same thing we just stuck it out and uh you know
one year at the time and now you know the Farm's in a better place and hopefully you will be too
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