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When I first decided to switch to agriculture, I knew I needed to look for mentors but also work on different ranches/farms to get a feel for where I will want to start my own. This is why I chose WWOOF , which stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. How it works is in exchange for your labor, you get housing & food. Every place is different, including expectations.
I knew I wanted a ranch long-term but wanted to experience the other side of it, vegetables & fruits. I found a beautiful 150-acre farm in rural Pennsylvania that had chickens (broilers & laying hens), sheep, cows, pigs, turkeys, rabbits, and so much produce I could type the next 5 minutes and still not be done.
CSAs operate can depend upon the farmer/rancher. How B, the owner did his:
You pay a lump sum in exchange for discounted meat, eggs, and produce
Every Wednesday you are able to visit the farm and buy directly there
Leading up to that week, everyone in CSA is emailed what produce is available
Top priority for eggs - when laying hens stop producing nearly as many in the cold, they’re still able to buy unlike folks that attend the markets later in the year
Orders can be delivered
When I got on the farm, B showed me around the property, where I met the farmhand and others working on the farm. I stayed in one of the houses on property.
The schedule was pretty straightforward and went as followed:
Monday we would do chores (will explain further down in this post) in the AM, typically between 7-8:30am and then have the morning off until after lunch. After lunch we have afternoon chores & then on to actual work. I would work until 5:30-6pm.
Tuesdays are our early days where we all meet at 6:30am at B’s house. This is talk as a collective of how the previous week went, our highs/lows/what we’re grateful for and then gameplan the week ahead
Once meeting is complete, we do the typical AM chores before working. That usually goes on until around 12:30pm when we stop for lunch
The really cool aspect of this farm, everyone has a designated day of cooking lunch & dinner for everyone on the farm. All fresh meat, eggs, produce, and sometimes bread from an amish neighbor.
We get an hour an a. half break, including lunch. So afternoon chores would typically be around 2pm.
I’d finish the day usually around 4:30-5pm.
Wednesday - Friday
Start time same for each day, 7am with morning chores.
Lunch around 12:30pm. Afternoon chores around 2pm
Work until 4:30-5pm
Saturday we have the same starting time at 7am for chores and work until 12:30 unless you are working the market (which means be ready at 4:45am). We are done for the day after doing afternoon chores
Sundays were days off except for anyone doing the Sunday farmer’s market. Whoever does that market has the next day off (except for helping out with chores)
Every morning we would do the following:
Let laying hens & turkeys out of their pens
Feed & water the pigs, broiler chickens (meat birds), chicks, rabbits
Make sure the water lines are working properly for sheep & cows
In the afternoon:
Feed & water the pigs, broiler chickens, chicks, rabbits
Collect eggs from laying hens
Everyday we would go out into the woods to forage shiitake mushrooms. They are incredibly easy to make and have included a tweet below with the process.
https://x.com/RegenaisanceMan/status/1577267343499022336?s=20&t=PcyzLjBwrh72epDwJvWrTA
Rotate sheep and cows to next paddock
Half the property has built in fencing which is mainly used for sheep
Other side is where we built paddocks using polywire with step in posts
All the workers would take weekly shifts putting the turkeys & chickens back in their pen right at dusk. This is to avoid predators at night that will easily snatch them up for dinner. The turkeys were a pain in the ass to put up, so you had to make it fun (see video)
I helped out with the markets the week I got there. There I learned I have a knack for it and quickly became the market guy. The 2nd or 3rd week I was there I ended up doing all four in a row.
The markets are one of the main sources of income for Ben and other workers. I felt like I had gone back in time when I did the first market because most transactions were cash-based. I barely keep cash in my wallet (maybe like $5-10 max). This is the first time in my life ever lived in a rural area where it was predominately cash and food stamps.
It became one of my favorite things to do on the farm. Even though I wasn’t there when all the produce was planted, it was rewarding hearing customers, especially repeat customers rave about the food they buy (some folks literally jumped for joy seeing our shiitake mushrooms). It was a common occurence having conversations about the quality of our food vs in grocery stores. From that, it became evident how badly America yearns for healthy, quality food.
One aspect of farmers' markets that many might not think about, is how far of a drive it can be for some. For ex, on Saturdays, we would have to be ready by 4:45am to drive an hour north and set up by the time the market starts at 8am. It made me reflect on when I was at one of the main LA farmer’s markets and how many vendors would do the same. Why would we do such a thing, especially with the internet now and the opportunity to market products and ship domestically?
Many reasons:
Don’t have the funds to do such a thing (carrying considerable debt, barely scrapping by as is)
Want to provide food to the nearby communities
Don’t have enough help to start something new, especially since that would require $$$
Markets are a great way to build your CSA
The farm had practically zero wifi and spotty cell service
I was pretty exhausted every Saturday morning and would nap in the van. The crazy thing I would be energized once the market would start, interacting with so many folks and vendors. This particular market had more affluent neighborhoods, which gave us the ability to increase the price of certain goods.
There were back to back markets where we forgot certain produce (fresh baby ginger, our higher ticket item) which was a bummer. One simple mistake can cost hundreds of dollars, which is a lot when markets are a primary source of income. You have to take into account the cost of gas driving two hours in a van, in hilly appalachia. How can such a thing happen, seems straightforward making sure you packed everything, right?
Multitude of reasons:
Short staffed, which added to the stress considering we’re out in the field harvesting all day
Exhausted in mornings, prone to make mistakes
There is so much that needs to be done around the farm, your mind can be in a different space
The most fun aspect of working on the farm is hanging with the animals. You learn a lot about them just from standing there and observing. Turkeys are the dumbest and goofiest farm animals by far. They have no sense of direction and will run into anything. They also love following you around, gobbling their little hearts out.
Most of the cows were afraid of us but not the brown bull. He at times would get a little too comfortable. He will bump his head into which you quickly realize how strong they are (intimidated the shit out of me when that happened).
Although we had a ‘typical’ schedule of the hours worked and what needs to be done, you never know how each day will play out. For example, it was around 5pm on a Saturday evening and was heading back to the farm before going to a local jazz show. When I pulled in I noticed all of the cows were on the opposite side of the farm where they should be. To make matters more difficult, I was the only one there. So, I had to call the farm hand (Will call ‘E’ was in the parking lot about to get sushi with his gf) to come help.
Cows get easily spooked, so you need to be careful how you go about handling them. I tried to keep them in one place before E arrived. Things didn’t go as planned and one cow jumped in the pond nearby! As you can see in the videos, the poor fella was stuck in the mud. When E got to the farm, we had to use rope to pull him out but before that, we had to corral the rest of the crew to a safe paddock.
The interesting part about this, all of the cows surrounded the pond, all moo’ing at one another. They clearly knew something was wrong and when we started moving the cows, the one stuck in the mud would begin to moo really loud :(.
After about an hour of pulling, we were finally able to get him out of the pond and move him to the paddock where all his friends were! Notice in the video how the others react when the cow finally made it back? They were quite happy and following him around. This was just one of many adventures that happened during my 2ish month stint on the farm.
A couple days later we had to move them all the way back to their original paddock, on the other side of the farm. The video helps show how we had to do that, which required 6-7 of us in order to successfully move them. Fortunately, it was smooth sailing given the sheer amount of help we had.
You hear it all the time that growing up on a farm/ranch you will be exposed to death early on and it’s constant. Well, it’s true. There were times going to the laying hen coops and we would find one on the ground or like the turkey in images below. I was doing afternoon chores and noticed a dead turkey. I’m not sure what happened to it, but had to load it up on the 4wheeler and feed it to the pigs. You read that right, the pigs will devour just about anything. It was wild to witness.
Another aspect of death on the farm is butchering day. I won’t share videos or pictures outside of the one that’s full of chicken carcasses. Before we butchered chickens or rabbits, B would say a prayer. Leading up to butchering the chickens, they had a great life on pasture. They were never crammed in cages, had access to sunlight, food, water, shelter. They were well taken care of. I truly believe it’s part of the circle of life and it’s just one bad day (more like one bad hour).
It was a surreal experience when I first took the life of a rabbit because leading up to it, I too said a little prayer thanking God for providing us food that will nourish our body (yes we need meat). Being the one who actually kills and harvest the animals takes it to a new level of meaning for life, death, and most importanly, health. It’s taking full responsibility & becoming a sovereign individual.
With death comes life, and a lot of it. One day there weren’t any lambs and the next, there were 2 newborns. And a few days later 2 more were born. Another day, all of a sudden there were 5 new barn kittens. Again, living on the farm is just one giant adventure!
I was blessed with working on an amazing farm with an even better crew for my first ever farming experience. These folks bust their ass off, day in, day out. It can be quite stressful, especially for the owner who also has a family with 3 kiddos (one being a 6 month old). They cultivated a family esque atmosphere that made me want to immulate the same when I have my own ranch.
I learned a lot just by doing and observing. For example, how ruthless pigs are to one another, how sheep and cows communicate to you when wanting fresh pasture to graze, how newborn lambs follow their parents every footstep, etc.
Harvesting produce is literally back breaking work. We are out there the whole day, hand picking it all. Conventional farms use machineary to harvest, which destroys the soil. I gained a deeper appreciation for how I can eat fruit & veggies knowing how much work goes into it.
Seeing how much B’s kids loved being on the farm, wanting to help brought me a sense of purpose as well. I can’t wait to have a family on a ranch, where they get to experience the circle of life at an early age & connecting with nature.
It’s mentally & physically stressful, working on weekends and expecting the unxpected BUT anytime I would eat or hear from a customer how much they love and appreciate what we do, makes it all worth it. It’s the most fullfilling thing I have ever done and will do be invovled in agriculture for the rest of my life.
It brought me closer to God, which I would have never expected after watching cancer take my brother. When you’re out in the field, just you & nature, it forces you to think about how everything is connected. From beneath the ground, to the plants, to the animals, then to us. There is absolutely no way it wasn’t by design.
Cheers,
Ryan
