It's going to be a beautiful day.
But yeah, I started off just seven years ago wanting to raise food for myself.
We started with I think like, a hundred broiler chickens, a few lambs, and seven acres and
a dream.
That year, we raised Thanksgiving dinner for my entire family out of the garden.
We had three turkeys named Thanksgiving, Backup, and Christmas.
After that Thanksgiving dinner, Covey Rise Farms began to take shape, and today, Charlie
and Kerissa direct market 100% of what they raise.
The environmental concern I would say is big for you.
Like you want to heal the soil.
Like that’s...Like, he gets so excited like walking out to the pasture and like seeing
like, new grass grow.
Like, I don’t know, like he just gets so excited, like, he just nerds out.
And I just love watching it.
So, he’s very passionate about soil health.
Tell me about it.
We did not plan to have a baby quite yet.
We had definitely wanted to expand our family, but Sadie kind of took us by surprise.
Especially being pregnant, Charlie took on a lot more responsibility.
And that was hard for me to deal with, too.
I think just because we were like, I guess a team, we were like equal partners, right?
Like, we can’t do this without each other.
Dr. Shoshanah Inwood, an associate professor in the School of Environment and Natural Resources,
recently did a study about child care on farms.
She says that Kerissa’s experience is a very common one and is probably the dominant
story of what happens in agriculture.
One of the things that we heard from farm families across the country, especially those
with young children, is we need to make some very hard decisions and cost calculations
about, do I invest my time and energy into growing my farming operation?
But who’s going to watch the kids?
And when I look at the cost of child care, that’s really expensive.
And in order to pay for that, I’m likely going to need an off-farm job.
I mean probably the biggest terrifying part of all of it is, you know, just the financial
implications.
You know, Kerissa still has an off-farm job that pretty much she maintains 90% if we’re
honest, for benefits and insurance.
And her going back to work once her maternity time is over is going to be really tough because
we’re going to have to figure out child care.
As much as I would love to say that, “Oh yeah, Sadie will just ride around with me
all day,” that’s not realistic with an infant.
And insurance is expensive.
I mean, we’re growing a farm from like, nothing, like we put all this here, even fencing.
So, I mean, for us to have to build a farm from scratch is hard enough and then adding
in the fact, that like you know, what happens if we have a huge hospital bill?
You know, how are we, you know, going to combat that?
Like, what happens if he cuts himself?
Like, we have to have insurance.
And that terrifies me not having that.
And then finding a job that would offer us insurance for now,
Sadie too, and then me also being able to still work on the farm is, it’s a lot.
Farmers really want the nation to pay attention to these issues of health insurance and child care.
To recognize that these are real economic development issues and real quality of life issues.
And for them to keep doing their jobs, we need to figure out ways that makes health
insurance more affordable, that makes child care more affordable.
(Kerissa): The hope is, that I think too, is like, Sadie won’t have to deal hopefully
with as much of the pressure of, like, the finances.
Like, hopefully, we can get to the point where it’s stable.
Because like right now it’s constantly like...
(Charlie): We’re one disaster away from bankruptcy half the time it feels like.
(Kerissa): I mean like you make one mistake.
We don’t want her to have that pressure.
So I mean that I think that’s hard, too - is to know, like...
(Charlie): American dream.
(Kerissa): Yeah.
You make one mistake, you could lose it all.
There’s no backup plan.
And then at that time it’s like heartbreaking because like, I can’t imagine living any other way.