What's new is coming around again.
Submitted by Dick Wanner on Thu, 07/30/2009 - 6:08pm.
The day he died, my grandfather became, by his measure when he was alive, a rich man. His farm was a hilly five acres in Akron, Pa., and it was destined for higher uses than the alfalfa he planted for his two Jerseys, his small pen of feeder pigs, the Rhode Island reds that provided market eggs and meat, and the garden where my grandmother planted vegetables.
In case you missed Jill and Kevin's big day (or if you're one of the 12 million who'd like a second viewing): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0
The five acres were bought by the Akron Restaurant, which was quite a deal in its day, for a handsome price. The land the restaurant didn't need was turned into a row of houses and a few commercial buildings.
My grandfather worked hard, both on the farm and in the shoe factory, a few blocks away. My grandmother packed his black lunch pail with peaches she canned, a coffee thermos and a sandwich swaddled in the wax paper wrapper that the Holsum bread came in. They made scraps count, pennies count, griped about daylight saving time and when the auctioneer gaveled away their possessions, he knocked down, among other prized objects, the Model T that was only the second car they ever owned.
When I was nine years old, I loved their place. When I was 29, I wondered why they did it. Was it a choice they made or were they trapped by circumstances?
There's a new generation of subsistence farmers coming along, three of four generations removed from my grandparents. But I think if I can understand they, I may understand my grandparents a little better. These new people are watching their pennies, they're saving their scraps (composting what they can), getting their hands dirty, working off-farm jobs, and plotting their next moves on spreadsheets.
The new guys and gals are more educated than my grandparents were - many of them Ivy League graduates - and they have a plethora of choices that were not available 70 years ago. They're like Joseph Gabiou, who farms six acres in Rochester, Washington. He's in his fifth year of farming organically for nearby customers. He plants 40 crops a season, both for the sake of variety, and because if one crop fails, he's got other stuff to sell.
USA Today reporter Elizabeth Weise wrote an article about Gabiou and the growing army of mostly young people who are trying what I would call a new farming philisophy. Except that it's not so very new. The article is here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-07-13-young-farmers_N.htm
