"The Accidental Farmers" :: Chapter 7 Book Report

This chapter, titled "Farming's Dark Side," is in my opinion probably the best and most important chapter of Tim Young's new book. Not that I haven't found nuggets in the other chapters, but rather that this is the most unique chapter (I feel) in the book. There are other books out there that will tell you about management intensive grazing, the benefits of chickens following cows, and even the values behind certain farm choices. But, I'm not sure that I've read a farming book yet (and I've read quite a few) that takes such an open and honest look at the "dark side" of farming. Mr. Young holds nothing back and writes about the realities he has had to face on the farm. You may disagree with his practices or think you would have done something differently, but I think you should respect his honesty, openness, and they way he sticks with his values.

As I have mentioned I think that this side of the farming life is one that has been missing from the books that I've read ... although I don't think it would fit in every book. Most of the time the "dark side" you read about in books, articles, or from the mouths of other farmers is that it just isn't possible to make a living on the farm. I guess I should say that more specifically it is very difficult to make a living on the farm unless you can hit on the right factors (rented land, owned land, right markets, marketing ability, etc.). But, what Mr. Young has done is opened up his farm I guess you could say to the daily reality of making the transition to the farm ... or just farming in general.

The "dark side" of farming has been one of the most difficult things for me. I have a bad tendency to get easily frustrated over a situation and just feel absolutely defeated. And, I'm sure I don't even want people to tell me how many times I have said that I was going to or had to quit the farm. I'll never forget the walk back to the house after the tractor just died (stuck motor because of lack of lubrication due to a clogged oil sump and a non-working oil gauge/light) and the conversation with my dad. I just wanted to be done! The frustration and realization that I just lost a substantial amount of money in a now dead tractor was just crippling! And that is just one of the stories ...

I think it is a great thing that Mr. Young has decided to pull back the curtain as it were (as he has done on his blog/podcast) and show the whole picture. If nothing else ... it's worth getting the book to read this chapter. Just to know what it's like and that the troubles happen to other people too!

"The Accidental Farmers" :: Chapter 1 Book Report

When I heard that Tim Young of Nature's Harmony Farm was writing a book I knew with out a doubt that it would be reading it and I was fairly certain that I would enjoy it. I was able to be pretty confident of those two points because I have been following along with his farm since the beginning and I've enjoyed and appreciated his blog posts, e-mails, and podcasts. So, now that I have my hands on a copy I'm beginning to make my way through the book. The first section of the book deals with the "Birth of a Farm" ... their farm specifically ... while the second section is more about their values, methods, and farm in general. If your interested in a copy of the book for yourself be sure to click through to Amazon.com from the picture to the right.

Chapter one of "The Accidental Farmers" deals with the awaking that Tim and Liz Young had that eventually (and by eventually I mean fairly quickly) to the farm. The Young's were living the typical "American Dream" life in suburban America when a trip to the country changed their outlook on life and on their values and goals ... at least that is what I'm taking away from this first chapter. I really appreciate the honesty and picture that Mr. Young paints in this chapter as he shows how they made the decision to transition to the farm.

I think it is a good reminder to follow our passions and look for ways to make them happen. Thanks to a few suggestions on one of my previous blog posts I'm also reading 48 Days to the Work You Love: Preparing for the New Normal by Dan Miller and I appreciate the idea of making your work your passion. If nothing else this first chapter may give you some encouragement to to form your values and think outside of the box.

"Accidental Farmers" :: A New Book

Way back in December of 2007 I had the opportunity to interview Tim Young of Nature's Harmony Farm (you can read the four part interview HERE ... HERE ... HERE ... HERE). I'm not positive, but I'm fairly sure that at the time of the Q & A interview the farm was in it's very beginning stages and they were just beginning to get their feet wet. One thing that I noticed as I read through the interviews again is that they have remained true to their values as their farm has grown and as they have grown as farmers. I'm sure you'll noticed that they have learned along the way, but it's also obvious that they have worked things through in their minds and they have a focused vision.

What is exciting now is that Mr. Young now has a book available titled "Accidental Farmers" that is hot off the presses. You can order your paperback copy here, if you have a Kindle it will be available soon from Amazon (ordering through Amazon also helps support Crooked Gap Farm), and I believe it will be on the iTunes store soon as well. If you would like to check out a sample chapter head to the "Accidental Farmers" website or check out this link.

Last night I took some time to read through the preview chapter titled, "Pig Tales". I think my best one sentence summation would be :: Mr. Young gives you a great inside look at the happenings and thoughts of a couple beginning farmers ... and he holds nothing back! Really it was great to see his honesty and transparency in his writing because it gave a great glimpse of exactly what it was like starting from the very beginning (and pigs were the first animals to come to their farm). In this chapter, and probably throughout the rest of the book, Mr. Young shares experiences from the farm ... insight into their values and methods ... and honest descriptions of beginning farmer experiences (really honest!).

If you know anything about Nature's Harmony Farm I suggest you check this book out. If you don't know anything about Nature's Harmony Farm I suggest you check this book out! No matter what your farming methods are you I think you will be able to take something away from each chapter, and if nothing else you have to respect the work and passion that they have put into their farm and the animals they raise.

NHF Podcast ... "Death of a Farm"

Thank you to all of you have taken time to comment and e-mail over the past couple weeks. I am taking time to filter everything through my mind, but want to say that I'm thankful for the encouragement and ideas. Hopefully I'll find the time to respond and share some of the things that are processing through my head soon! In the meantime though here is something interesting ...

Many of you may already know that Nature's Harmony Farm has stopped doing their blog, but have begun doing podcasts. I have been listening to them lately when there is time while I'm driving around and they have been pretty interesting. But, for me their latest podcast was very interesting ... especially in light of my latest post and thoughts about the farm. You can find it on iTunes or download it from this link.

In the latest podcast Tim and Liz interview Rebecca Thistlethwaite of TLC Ranch in California about her farm experiences and the end of the farm (after 6 years of life). In some ways it was almost depressing to listen to the interview and hear about the struggles and realities they faced as they tried to make the farm go and grow. On the other hand it is important to hear all the sides of the story ... especially when you're thinking about pushing forward. It will eat up a bit more than an hour of your time, but I think it is worth a listen.

I would love to hear your thoughts!

The Farmer's Forum

I thought I would do a little promotion today after getting an e-mail from Tim over at Nature's Harmony Farm. He has started a "Farmer's Forum" (take the link to check it out) that is an online message board for those interested in asking questions, sharing ideas, and discussing various aspects of diverse farming (everything from sheep to marketing and processing). If you would like to read more about the idea behind the new forum check out this post on the Nature's Harmony Blog. And, then go and check out "The Farmer's Forum" and get involved.

I think it is a nice idea and I hope that it is something that will be utilized. Of course the best resource is always going to be face-to-face conversations and experiences with those doing the things you are interested in (and living in your area), but with the busy lives of so many beginning farmers (see yesterdays post) I think an online forum such as this one can be a great addition to the greater "community". I for one am going to make a point to participate ... and ask a lot of questions!

In fact there is already an interesting discussion going on over in the "Free-Range Pigs" section of the board about "Choosing Hardy Breeds". For those of you that have been following my blog lately you will know that pigs are on my brain at the moment, so this is one that I will be following.

So, get over there and join the discussion if you would like!

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 4

Okay, here is the final installment of my four part question and answer interview with Tim of Nature's Harmony Farm. If you missed posts you can check them out here: Post One ... Post Two ... Post Three. These last three questions are a little bit longer, but I feel like they are pretty informational so just make your way through the whole thing, and don't forget to check out Tim's website for more details and to read his great blog. Also, these question and answer interviews are something I would like to have from time to time. If you are working as a farmer or on the way to that and wouldn't mind being interviewed please let me know.

The Beginning Farmer - Tim, again thank you so much for your willingness to answer these questions and share your experiences with us! Here we go with the questions... As you came to a realization that you wanted to begin farming what sort of resources (books, publications, websites, conference, etc.) did you use to get started?

Nature's Harmony Farm - What haven’t I read or watched. Liz and I have totally immersed ourselves. Here’s a sampling.

Podcasts – We listen ever week to Deconstructing Dinner (highly recommended), Geek Farm Life, Cooking up a Story and Gardenfork (very entertaining).

Magazines – We subscribe to Graze, Acres USA, Progressive Farmer, Stockman Grass Farmer, Backwoods Home, Countryside & Small Stock Journal and similar publications. And we read them, cover to cover.

Web Resources – We’ve extensively used ATTRA (what a great site!), I frequently read and post on Cattle Today, LocalHarvest, and Weston Price. I use the University of Georgia and other sites if I’m researching something...thank you Al Gore for inventing the internet!

Blogs – There are too many to list. We maintain our own blog to let people know what we’re doing, ask questions and stimulate conversation, much like Ethan’s doing here on his excellent blog. If you’re into pigs, visit Walter’s blog at Sugar Mountain Farm...a GREAT resource and he’s great at sharing! I subscribe to over 25 blogs and have developed online relationships/resources via Cattle Today and similar sites. Find blogs that speak to what you’re interested in and get involved.

Farm Visits – I visited farms in Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, North Carolina and Joel Salatin’s farm (Polyface) in Virginia. We spoke to everyone we could, were obviously influenced by some, but infused our own values and let that set our course. And, like driving a car, you can make course corrections along the way. I definitely recommend visiting whatever farms you can, and we’ll always be open to visits and to help others. No purchase necessary.

Conferences – We went to the Georgia Organics conference last winter and are going again in 3 months. We’re going to the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Conference next month in Louisville. We attended the Georgia Grazing workshop, as well as a six week Sustainable Agriculture School put on at West Georgia College.

Books – Ah, books. Yes, well, I started with the Joel Salatin series from You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise to his latest which I just finished called “Everything I want to do is illegal”. Right now I’m reading Grass-Fed Cattle by Ruechel. I’ve red Gene Logsdon, Wendell Berry, Andre Voisin, Storey’s guides to sheep, pigs and cattle, 5 Acres and Independence, Making your Small Farm Profitable, Charcuterie, Pig Perfect, Small Scale Livestock Farming, Living with Sheep, Greener Pastures on Your Side of the Fence by Murphy, Omnivore’s Dilemma, Botany of Desire, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral and countless other books. Liz has read some of these, but has focused more on gardening/preservation books like Stocking Up, The Complete Herbal Handbook for Farm and Stable, Harvest, Keeping the Harvest, Carrots love Tomatoes, etc.

In the beginning, if you’re new to this, it all seems overwhelming. Later, some of it still does, but you start to migrate toward what you’re interested in. For example, when I read Stockman Grass Farmer, an excellent publication, I skip over a lot of talk about dairy cows unless I have tons of time (not lately). It just doesn’t catch my attention. Now, the articles on teaching cows to eat weeds...now that’s a different story. It all starts to come together and get comfortable and the internet makes it great to have discussions like this where we can learn and share.

We find the time to do this by not watching TV. Maybe an occasional football game, but that’s it.

The Beginning Farmer - You mentioned in a few other answers that you have background in entrepreneurialism and business. How do you think that will help you in your farming ventures?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Well, I really like this way of life as I suspect a lot of people do. Yet farming has a reputation that it’s hard work and you can’t make money. Why is that? Largely because farmers are disconnected from their customers or, as we say in the high tech world, “end users”. So they get squeezed. Business isn’t overly complicated. You need to focus on a niche where you can have an advantage and deliver a great product to your customers. We’re lucky that there is a swelling demand for naturally raised, grass finished beef, pork and poultry products. We’re also lucky that there’s just not enough land for the growing demand to be met, so a sustainable farm model can be realized. What’s the catch? Well, for one, you have to be comfortable with customer and marketing issues. You do have to find the customers, meet with them and build lasting relationships. The bigger catch, however, is you’ll need perseverance, because our governmental friends won’t make it easy. Want to sell raw milk to meet the growing demand for that? Sorry...our government (in most cases) says your customer doesn’t have the right to make that decision. Want to process your poultry on farm, like we’re going to do? Don’t look for clear legislation on this and be prepared to fight. Georgia like many states is a “Big Ag” state and legislation is supportive of the loud voices of big agriculture. Want to find a processor for your animals so you can sell retail cuts to your customers? Good luck...they’re few and far between, and the growth in the sustainable farming segment will further stress this supply chain clog in the near future. What about liability insurance if you’re selling products to customers? The list goes on. But that’s where business experience comes in. These are all just obstacles. They’re not “the end”. They’re just barriers. You just have to go over, around or below to win. If you have the passion, it’s worth it.

The Beginning Farmer - This may be a pretty long answer, but you are starting to get livestock on your property. How did you choose the breeds that you already have and what are some livestock breeds or animals that you will add in the future?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We decided off the bat that we wanted to feed ourselves. That meant pork, beef, chicken, turkey, eggs and probably lamb. Since we would raise those for ourselves, we assumed others might want the same for their families so we committed to this approach. In some cases, breeds were important to us, and in others, not as much. Here’s an example. We really researched cattle and ended up with raising registered Murray Grey. Murray Grey because they are docile, have low birth weights, are fast growers, do very well on grass and in drought and have excellent tenderness and marbling qualities. The registered aspect gives us a second potential income stream as we can either sell the meat or sell the live animal to complement someone else’s herd. With pigs we researched the more rare breeds, because that felt right in the spirit of what Nature’s Harmony Farm is all about. We were very intrigued with the Ossabaw pigs, particularly after reading Pig Perfect and since they are from Ossabaw Island off the coast of Georgia, so we searched for and found breeding stock. The Ossabaw’s take twice as long to be ready for market as other breeds (about a year) so we’ll have to factor that into our pricing. We also selected Berkshires because of the excellent meat qualities. In both cases, there is virtually NO competition around raising those so it makes us unique. Differentiation is an important element of business planning. Finally, regarding turkeys, we opted to experiment with Bourbon Reds. We loved the story about them in Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and the growth in popularity of heritage breed turkeys makes this a sound choice.

With chickens, we’ll stick to breeds that exhibit great productivity in growth and egg production, as long as they do well in a natural environment. Right now, we’re researching sheep, and are looking mainly at Katahdin sheep, as they exhibit great meat qualities and do well in Georgia.

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 3

Today we are going to tackle part three of my question and answer interview with Tim of Nature's Harmony Farm in Georgia. If you just stumbled across the blog today I encourage you to check out "Part One" and "Part Two" of the interview to get a basis for these questions and answers. Also, in this part of the interview Tim took some time to answer questions from a couple of readers. I hope you enjoy the interview, and come back tomorrow for the final part of "The Beginning Farmer" Blog Q&A with Tim.

The Beginning Farmer - Tim, first of all thank you so much for being so willing share with me and anyone who has a chance to stumble across the blog. I just hope it is as much of a benefit to others as it is for me. Here is a multi-part question from "The Beginning Farmer Blog" reader, John. Tim, you made a pretty big cultural change (or are making ... editor) from having a high-tech career and income to farming. Looks like this kicked off in earnest in 2007 and will be in full motion in 2009. What do you miss from that former way of life? What did you do right? What would you do differently if you had to do it again?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Hi John. It’s a great question, and it’s one that I’m wondering how my answer today will compare to the answer I might give you in 3-5 years. Honestly, I don’t miss anything at all. What’s there to miss? I used to travel a lot...coast to coast every 2-3 weeks, and to Europe every 6-8 weeks. Now, you can’t get me to even travel for vacation. I don’t miss the board meetings, the sales calls, the servers crashing, the difficulty recruiting in times of growth and the process of cutting back in times of decline. I don’t miss being “the guy”.

Now I’m outdoors, using my muscles and observing nature. Sure, I still have corporate projects that I consult on, but find myself on the farm trying to figure out how to sell a ten dollar chicken instead of devising a new market penetration strategy for a client like I’m supposed to.

What I did “right” was I found something that I was passionate about. That’s crucial. I’ve always done the same thing in business, and I suppose that’s why I don’t really miss business. I was never just into the technology or the growth. I always put myself behind something I was passionate about. At this stage of my life, I’m passionate about humanely raising healthy food for our family and our customers, and helping others to feed their families great food.

If I had it do again, what would I do differently? So far, I like the choices we’ve made. They were well thought out and I don’t believe in a “right decision”. I believe in making a decision and then making it right. People who know me know that I describe some people as “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim...” instead of “Ready, aim, fire”. I’m a “Ready, FIRE, aim, FIRE” kind of guy. But I have learned a lot in the last year, and if I had to name one thing I would have liked to have done differently I’d say that I would have paid more attention to the soil of the property I was buying rather than the location or lay of the land. I would have done a soil test first, better understood the forage capacity and factored that into my decision. As it turned out, we got lucky in that regard, as we have a great sod of fescue and Bermuda, and no chemicals have been put on the soil in over a decade. But I get no credit for that...we just lucked into it. If you raise animals, you need good grass and an ability to hold moisture, particularly given our drought. So I’d recommend looking closely at that.

The Beginning Farmer - Now a question from reader, Devin Rose. I have read Joel Salatin's books as well, and I recall in You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise , he recommends first leasing land and gaining experience for some number of years, then after that buying a plot of land, that way you know what to look for better, have experience without having sunk a lot of money into land, etc. So why did Tim buy land right away instead of leasing it?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Yes, Joel does make a number of recommendations like that. Joel has been a great spokesperson for the industry and has inspired countless people. But my recommendation is to listen to the essence of what he’s saying and not follow everything he says. For example, he says lease it first. I didn’t. I jumped in and have had no problem learning what I needed to know. But I’ve committed myself. I’m sure that Joel would agree that if a person was fully committed and driven, they’d find a way to succeed. Joel also says not to get involved in farming if you’re over 45. That’s a ridiculous thing to say, but the essence of what he was saying is that farming is hard work requiring energy and stamina. So does starting and running a business, yet some CEO’s and entrepreneurs are going strong at 70 and beyond (right Sumner Redstone?).

To answer your question, I bought land right away because I was committed to this, and by buying the land, I solidified (forced) that commitment. As an entrepreneur I learned that you can commit yourself to a strategy if you burn the bridge behind you. Then you have to make it work. And don’t worry, you will. The animals know what they’re doing. We need to listen and get out of the way.

Nature's Harmony Farm Q&A - Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of my question and answer interview with Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm. Today is round two, so dig in and enjoy! Also, I'm going to ask a few follow up questions. If you have any you would like to ask, just comment in the post or shoot me an e-mail.

The Beginning Farmer - What are some of the sources you used when looking for your land?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Our criteria were to be within 2-3 hours of Atlanta and to have at least 50 acres. We used online resources extensively, such as landandfarm.com, etc. We knew that we would have to generate some income from home and not have traditional jobs, so we looked at income opportunities such as getting into real estate, etc. We looked into that because everyone says that you can’t make a living just in farming. In the end, we decided to commit ourselves to farming and to find a way to make a living in it once we’re up and running. That requires us to direct market to consumers and restaurants, handle the meat processing and retail cuts and run the farm like a business. That was something that I did understand.

The Beginning Farmer - Do you have an overall plan for your farm as far as livestock, products, or management systems? What are they?

Nature's Harmony Farm - Our plan is to mimic nature as closely as possible. That achieve that, there are three things I want to focus on. 1) a multi-species animal environment, 2) a multi-species grazing environment, and 3) no artificial inputs into those environments.

1) Nature doesn’t raise just one animal. To achieve our goals (which include improving nutrient cycling, increasing topsoil and decreasing parasite loads) we could not have just cows, even if we wanted to. We have to have chickens (or birds) to follow their grazing patterns. It’s nice that a lot of people want farm fresh free range eggs and pastured poultry, and we will attempt to fill this need. But, really, we don’t have a choice. We have to do this to accomplish our larger environmental goals.

2) In our part of the country, lots of people grow Coastal Bermuda or another mono-culture species of hay. Mainly this is for horses. Closer to us, most farmers grow another mono-culture crop, cotton. While I appreciate that and love cotton T-Shirts it’s not exactly the best thing for the soil and requires TREMENDOUS inputs. I’m not interested in advising others what to do, especially people who have far more farming experience than I. However, to meet our objectives, we needed to NATURALLY encourage the growth of a multi-species grazing environment. Largely, this is accomplished by frequently moving animals to fresh grazing areas after they’ve uniformly grazed down the previous area. This is accomplished via portable electric fencing. Before you ask “how is using an electric fence mimicking nature?”, I’d like to suggest that the electric fence plays the role of the predator in nature. It keeps the grazers mobbed together for protection, and keeps them moving. We mimic that behavior.

3) Grazers have thrived LONG before our celebrated chemical creations of the past 60 years. There is nothing that traditional farmers put on their crops that I want in my body. Is it easier to add chemicals? Sure...there are times I’d love to reach for RoundUp. But there are other ways. One way is to mix the animals. Just as we feel the need for chickens to follow the grazers, we feel the need to mix sheep with cattle, as they have different grazing preferences. We may even add goats, although I think we may not need to. Another way is to manage the rotations so that the weeds don’t have a chance to shade out grass and inhibit growth, but rather are mowed down (by the grazers) which stimulates their growth and thickens the sward. Over time, other plant species come back and the goal of a multiplicity of plants should be accomplished. When it is, the animals will be able to thrive, and we’ll all be happier. All it takes is some patience and the ability to get out of the way.

Another thing we believe in and that we think is sorely missing is complete transparency. Anyone is welcome to visit our farm and see exactly how their food is being raised and what they are eating. We have nothing to hide, everything to share and lots to learn.

The Beginning Farmer - What are some of your short term goals and do you plan to work off farm for a while?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We will work off farm some for one year. Actually, I’m not sure we have to, but agreed to get the farm going, market some products in 2008 and commit ourselves full-time to the farm thereafter. We have already had more requests for product than we will likely be able to fulfill in 2008. So, why aren’t we fully committing ourselves to the farm? Because we must resist the short-term temptation to just “sell product”. I could probably sell a lot of grass fed beef next year, but if I did and culled too many cows, then how would I establish the size herd that our land needs for the above mentioned goals, and to supply the demand that will come in 2009 and beyond? We have more flexibility with pork and chicken, given the size of litters and/or length of time to harvest, so we’ll probably emphasize those products more this year. But it is important to keep in mind our larger ecological goals and not give in to the temptation to make a buck. I mean, if we were all about “making a buck”, I would have stayed in the corporate world.

**If you would like to read part one of this interview click here. Also, don't forget to check back next week for some follow up questions.**

A Q&A With Nature's Harmony Farm

I've got something a little different for today's blog... Recently I contacted Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm to see if I could conduct a question and answer series with him to share here on The Beginning Farmer blog. Well, I'm excited to say that he agreed to do it so for the next couple of days and possibly more I'm going to post some of the questions I asked and Tim's answers.

You can check the link to their farm website and blog above for all the details, but let me give you the rough sketch. Tim and Liz have done the urban corporate life for a while now and decided that maybe they wanted a place in the country that they could enjoy. The more they thought about it and the more they thought about the lifestyle and culture around them the more they became interested in raising livestock, growing food, and running a small sustainable family farm. So, the jumped right in. I mean they really jumped in and now they are really starting to get some momentum going. I encourage you to check out their blog for all the details ... maybe even work your way through all the posts over time because it is a pretty interesting journey. I hope these questions and answers will shed a little more light on their whole process.

So, without further ado...

The Beginning Farmer - Alright Tim, thanks for agreeing to take some time and share with us a little bit about Nature's Harmony Farm. I hope this isn't too overwhelming for you, but I know that I, along with others are interested to learn about the steps you are taking and have taken in the beginning of your farm venture. I guess the first question is what led you to farming? And, do you already have a background in farming?

Nature's Harmony Farm - We started by not trying to farm, but rather we just wanted to “opt out”. Opt out of industrial food and not knowing where our food comes from or how it’s grown. Opt out of supporting inhumane treatment of animals. Opt out of contributing more than our fair share to carbon footprints by buying food (in restaurants and grocery stores) that had traveled 1,500 + miles to get to us. Opt out of forgetting our heritage and confronting the fact that, despite all of our glorious technological accomplishments, we did not possess basic survival skills that our grandparents had. Such as knowing what seeds to plant, how to raise and kill the chicken and how to can and preserve our food. We just became aware that we were part of the system and therefore part of the problem. We knew that we couldn’t change the system, but at least if we could change ourselves, maybe we could help others change as well.

At first we thought we’d have horses because we thought they were pretty, and in addition maybe raise enough food for ourselves. We were fortunate enough to buy 72 acres with 45 in pasture. We knew that we only needed maybe one cow and one pig for our food needs, but there was lots more land than we would need. We started reading voraciously, all of Joel Salatin’s works, but of course MANY other authors as well, in addition to reading the Stockman Grassfarmer, Acres, Progressive Farmer, etc. We visited farms in Georgia, South Carolina, Ohio, North Carolina and Polyface farm in Virginia. We thought about the soil, how animals should be raised and our responsibilities, and all of a sudden, the idea of raising a few horses seemed pretty selfish to us. I mean, they would be there for our enjoyment and entertainment, but how would that benefit our community? In the end, we decided to have no horses, and to focus on more productive animals in the food chain.

So, we made the leap and decided to farm. And we approached this from a very different point of view from most farmers in the sense that neither my wife Liz or I have any farming experience. Nor did we grow up on a farm. I had spent the past 25 years in corporate America, founded an Inc. 500 international company and was a serial entrepreneur. The business world is one that I understand well, yet it was always impossible to explain to a 5 year old (or my mother) exactly what I did. We have all complicated the world too much. I longed to commit myself to something more fundamental AND more important. Farming felt good. Food was going in the wrong direction, in our opinion. And, Liz and I LOVE animals, and we wanted to know that any meat we ate came from animals that received GREAT treatment. Not just “humane”, but rather raised in a way that nature intended so that they, as Joel Salatin would say, could “express their physiological distinctiveness”.

The more conferences we attended and farms we visited, the more excited we got. And we committed to roughly emulating Polyface Farm (with some differences important to us) and bringing high quality food to our local communities. We knew this decision would not make us financially wealthy, but we sensed it would make us wealthy in every other way. So far, I think it has.

All of this has happened in only the past 12 months. A year ago, we didn’t even own the property. We’re moving fast because we are passionate and motivated.

The Beginning Farmer - What is the story behind your farm's name, Nature's Harmony Farm?

Nature's Harmony Farm - My wife Liz came up with the name, and it’s a good one. We discussed what we wanted to accomplish and we wanted our name to reflect that, rather than being named after a physical feature of the farm (such as Seven Maples Farm or something like that). More than anything, we care about the animals; how they are raised, what they eat, how they feel and how they are treated. However, I am adamant that we want to mimic nature. That means that if one of our animals, a pig, for example, gets a limp, I won’t call a vet. Neither would nature. Nature has a way of helping to make culling decisions, and our goal is to allow nature to happen to a great extent. But we have set the animals up in their natural environments. Pigs are in the woods with some pasture as well. Cows are on grass, and we are working hard to keep them on nothing but grass year round. We won’t even build a barn for them. Neither would nature. Chickens are free to roost, scratch, eat insects and wander.

When you get a mental image of this description, you may see why Liz thought of “Nature’s Harmony”. We just want to stimulate an environment where everything is working in harmony with nature.

We’re far from perfect at this, but are clear in our vision for what we want. We’re working hard to accomplish it, and have chosen this way of life over what we knew previously. I think it’s the best decision we’ve ever made.

**This is just part one of a multi-installment interview with Tim from Nature's Harmony Farm. In encourage you to check out our blog for more tomorrow!**