Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers' Movement

by Zoë Ida Bradbury, Severine Von Tscharner Fleming (Editor), Paula Manalo (Editor)

A community of more than 5000 young farmers and activists, the Greenhorns are committed to producing and advocating for food grown with vision and respect for the earth. This book, edited by three of the group's leading members, comprises 50 original essays by new farmers who write about their experiences in the field from a wide range of angles, both practical and inspirational. Funny, sad, serious, and light-hearted, these essays touch on everything from financing and machinery to family, community building, and social change.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, Gardening, Essays, Agriculture

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 8, 2012

Reviews

[Daniel Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This contained a lot of good perspectives based on the experience of all the farmers. It was very interesting and helpful.

[Deanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this little book. It's a collection of 50 short pieces from new farmers, mostly those doing CSAs or other small market or truck farms. It makes farming seem both doable and daunting at the same time. I learned plenty, just like you do when you're talking to someone about their area of expertise, though none of these people feel like experts. Farming is absorbing, important and exhausting work. If you'd like a peek into the world your CSA farmer inhabits or might be thinking of picking up a shovel yourself, I highly recommend it.

[Pam Dawling · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn’t new but deserves much more attention. It’s a collection of short pieces by farmers about things they learned as new farmers that they want to pass on, to save newbies (greenhorns) making those mistakes. Because it is personal anecdotes, this is easy to read, despite the seriousness. Greenhorns presents thought-provoking material, so you can usefully read one piece in a spare minute, and then think about it while you do a routine task. It’s a good companion volume to the more technical books on starting to farm.
There are fifty different short pieces, clustered into topics such as Money, Land, Body/Heart/Soul, Purpose, Beasts, Nuts & Bolts, Ninja Tactics, Old Neighbors, New Community. The resource section is a tad old, but still contains good stuff.
This book is written for the people who are willing to “jump high hurdles and work long hours to build a solid business” around the love of farming.
Some of the messages are encouraging: you will get stronger with practice using a hoe and working outdoors all day, and you can learn diligence, courage and resilience. Don’t expect to be perfect from day one! Especially if you are making the big transition from an urban, less physically-active lifestyle. On small budgets of money and time, it is important to take care of your health, including sanity.
You do not need to struggle alone! Look for opportunities such as incubator farms, where experienced farmers are nearby as mentors, and you rent land, greenhouse space and some equipment. “I laugh every time I stop with a hoe in my hand to text the other farmers to see if a tractor is free”, says Meg Runyan. Beginner farmer programs are another source of support.
Some of the stories act as reality checks, including this from Jeff Fisher: “Cut, cracked, and bleeding fingers are just the start of the physical hardships of farming.” “At the end of each day I was left with aches, pains, cuts, cracks, blisters, infections, stings and sprains.” Not all of those, every day, I want to add! Farming is a very physical lifestyle, so invest in maintaining and strengthening your body for a long career.
“I feel so alone sometimes. It’s overwhelming to have every decision weigh on me. . . Why did I choose to farm alone? I just wish I had some company. Frustrated and full of self-pity, I finish the lettuce in a huff. . . As I work, my tantrum begins to subside.”
You need a sturdy sense of your own worth. How will you deal with a potential customer complaining about your prices (and by implication down-valuing your work? Will you get defensive? Crumple into tears? Go on at length about your own self-doubts? Admit you are new and slower than an experienced farmer? Such issues can lead to Imposter Syndrome (chronic self-doubt despite external proof of your competence).
It can be helpful to learn how to reframe a situation and celebrate the half-full glass. Learn to appreciate rural life. Learn to make friends with neighboring farmers, for what you share in common, setting aside the differences. Listen to their advice, accept offers of help when you can. Build community, a wealth of human connections. As Vince Booth points out, “This project of finding common ground with people who voice conservative ideals would be a lot more daunting if our agrarianism wasn’t an honest attempt to embody the most fundamental of conservative tenets: There are limits to everything. Given that, I believe local farming can be a rallying point for those on the left and those on the right . . .”
Josh Morgenthau shares his realization that reality can crowd out the ideals (which are the root of the disdain some farmers have for the organic movement). He grew fruit without chemical sprays, but was he prepared to lose his whole crop and go out of business rather than spray? How great a benefit to humanity would that be? “Even from an environmental point of view, running tractors, fertilizing with organic fertilizer, and putting untold other resources, human and otherwise, into growing an organic crop, only to lose it on principle. . . well, that just didn’t seem reasonable.” “Getting today’s customers to accept apples that bear more physical resemblance to potatoes than to fruit turns out to be even more challenging than is growing them organically in the first place.”
Those with romantic notions about working with horses will find Alyssa Jumars’ story sobering. Ignorant bliss, obstinacy, passion and ambition are not the way to go. They unwittingly taught their draft horses to throw a fit or act terrified, so the people would take away the work, talk soothingly and stroke their necks. This big problem split apart the farm partnership.
Some of the tales are cautionary. Teresa Retzlaff and her partner leased farm land from very nice people they knew. “Be sure to put everything you are agreeing to in writing. Be explicit. Then have both a lawyer and a therapist listen as everyone involved explains exactly what is being agreed to. And still have a backup plan in case it all goes to hell.” She doesn’t cast blame or say anything nasty, but clearly she speaks from experience.
Be realistic about your finances, consider loans and debts carefully. Have a backup plan, and regularly compare your daily realities with where you need to be financially. Don’t dig deeper into a hole. You’ll be putting your hearts, souls, energy, time, family and livelihood on the line when you take out a loan. Don’t rush to own and lose sight of your actual goal of farming. Bare land with no infrastructure is going to be hard to wrest a living from if you have no money left over for building the farm!
Luke Deikis advises walking the land before sitting down to discuss details with sellers (saves time drinking unnecessary cups of tea!) Even better, get a map and do a drive by before scheduling a meeting!
Ben Swimm writes about losing tools as part of a chaotic spiral that’s especially dangerous for new farmers. It’s connected with being over-ambitious, spreading yourself too thin, getting flustered and disorganized. This can lead downwards to a state of demoralization. Adding to the challenge is the seasonal nature of farming. It gets too late to fix a problem this year – you need to move on from this year’s mess and do something different next year. Triage is as valuable in farming as in hospitals.
Sarah Smith writes about farming while raising two young children. As a farmer-mama, “there are no vacations, Saturday gymnastics classes, or afternoons at the playground.” Sure, the kids thrive in the outdoor air, learn math making change at market, and develop good social skills by being around so many different people, but “on many days, all this comes at a cost to our family.” Being a farmer and a mama are both full-time jobs and among the most difficult in the world.
Evan Driscoll combined an unpaid 20 hour-a-week farming internship, 40 hours a week earning money, and childcare. He thought that was reasonable, on his way to becoming a farm owner. He hadn’t realized that having his partner in law school meant he’d be the primary caretaker for their child. That’s definitely something to clarify before you get too far down the road.
Maud Powell was shocked to find herself in the conventional women’s role on her farm, after her children were born, while her husband did the fieldwork. The couple apprenticed on a farm together, doing all the types of work interchangeably. She imagined continuing this way on their own farm after her first child was born: farming with the baby strapped to her back. Like many pre-parents, she underestimated the amount of energy and time breastfeeding and childcare would take. She also underestimated the love and devotion she would feel for her child, and how her focus would move from farming to mothering, and taking care of the household.
After her second child was born, her struggle continued. For efficiency in their time-strapped lives, they let their gender roles become more entrenched. This changed when they started growing seed crops. Preserving the fruits that contained the seeds increased the value of the kitchen work. Maud later branched out into community organizing around shared seed cleaning equipment, farm internships, and a multi-farm CSA. She became the one “going out to work” while her husband stayed home on the farm.
Farming includes many aspects we cannot control, including the sometimes devastating weather. Unexpected frosts, floods, hurricanes. As farm-workers, we learn to work outdoors, where the weather is a matter of personal comfort. But it is only as farm-owners that the weather affects our livelihood. We learn to do our best to prepare where we can, surrender when we must, and pick and up and rebuild afterwards.
Kristen Johansen says, after Hurricane Ike destroyed their chicken housing in the night, “It was our first year farming, and the learning curve was steeper than you can imagine. It was demanding, stressful, frustrating, exhausting, dirty and beautiful at the same time. When we took the leap into farming, overnight we became responsible for several hundred tiny little lives, and the weight of that responsibility was heavy.”
Climate change is undeniable; we must develop resilience. Ginger Salkowski says, “A successful new farmer in today’s (and tomorrow’s) climate has to have a serious package of skills. You have to be able to live with less. . . get very creative with very little money and time in order to make your season happen. You have to thrive on uncertainty. . . You need to be strong in body. . . You must be strong in mind . . . You must be strong in spirit: In times of high stress, there is grace to be found in pausing to observe the first sweet-pea blossom . . .”
Farming is mostly an exercise in managing chaos, as Courtney Lowery Cowgill points out. She shares her twin defeat of seeds that would not germinate and a hoped-for pregnancy that wasn’t happening. Proactive people make good farmers, and yet we must remember we can’t make everything turn out the way we want. We must learn not to blame ourselves for things we could not control or predict. While also getting better at predicting. “Farming in an ecologically responsible way involves good timing, and when we need to get something done, we git ‘er done!” (Paula Manalo)
Some of the stories describe unconventional (risky) ideas that helped the farmers get through a tough patch, like using a credit card with a year of zero percent interest rate to finance the first year of farming! Or getting a farm loan that didn’t allow for earning any off-farm money (very hard while starting up), followed (when that didn’t work out and they had to get off-farm jobs) by a home loan that didn’t allow any farming! “The irony of having to quit farming so we could finally get a loan to buy the land . . . was made even harder to swallow when we had to provide written assurance to the lenders . . . that although we had indeed spent five years running a ‘hobby farm’ we . . . now had nice safe real jobs, and only wanted to buy eighteen acres of land zoned agriculture-forestry so we could continue to live a ‘rural lifestyle’” “I can’t say I recommend lying to your bank as a road to farm ownership.”
Don’t feel a failure if you need some off-farm income to make the good life good enough. It doesn’t make your farming any less “real”! Casey O’Leary surveyed neighboring farmers and found she was not alone in needing some off-farm income. There is no shame in doing paid landscaping work two days a week to fill the financial gap. By embracing the part-time nature of your farm, you may be able to increase your dollar per hour, as Casey discovered. Focus on the best-paying farming and walk away at the end of the day. “My relationships with my lover, friends, and family have improved because of my ability to keep my farm in a part-time box.”
Some passages are about why we farm. If your goal is to grow nourishing food with and for those with limited access, while also meeting your own needs to farm full-time, then don’t focus on making money from farming. Find other sources to support your financial needs. Douglass Decandia had a dream of this sort, and found paid work with a Food Bank. “Most of us don’t need to search for meaning in our lives, because we see it every day. Thankfully, the work itself propels us on to the next task.” (Tanya Tolchin)
Jenna Woginrich is an office worker by day and “a farmer by passion”. She attributes her happiness and success to two things: “I always believed I would (not could, not might, but would). 2. And because I wrote it all down.” Only 2% of people with goals write them down, but of that 2%, 90% achieved their dream.
Emily Oakley and Mike Appel write about their decision to run their 100 member CSA of 50 crops on five acres, with just the two of them. It’s their full time job, and they designed their farm to fit this preference. Their goal is to be as small as possible while still making a living. What a refreshing perspective! Bigger means more responsibilities, more worries, and not necessarily more money. Their farm can be smaller because they are not paying anyone’s wages. Why pay for more land just so you can grow more food, so you can pay employees? Staying small also meant they can have an off-season break. The limitations are that there are no sick days; it can get lonely; it can put strains on the relationship.
Farming may not be easy, but it sure isn’t boring. Sustainable farming includes some pioneer spirit and also giving back/paying forward. Respecting other farmers, customers, neighbors. Mentoring newer farmers, sharing tools.
Some stories share the magic and the sense of connection with past farmers. Sarajane Snyder says: “Farmers, understand what you’re doing in the context of interconnectedness, of caring for multitudes of beings. Take refuge in the care you are generating and the sustenance you are providing, for humans and bees and microorganisms, for gophers and spiders. Our dirty work is good work.”
Ben James describes the day he realized the rusty spots on the right fender of the John Deere he’d recently bought were caused by the palm and fingertips of the previous owner twisting in the seat to see the row behind the tractor. He shares his realization that “Time on the farm is not static, it’s not a given. It’s not like a ladder with all the rungs evenly spaced. Rather it’s a substance, a material we try to manipulate just as much as we do the tilth and fertility of the soil. How many tomatoes can we harvest before the lightning storm arrives?”
Jen Griffith writes about watching the sunset towards the end of her year as an apprentice living in a tent, watching a great blue heron twenty feet away, swallow a gopher whole.
Don’t miss the bonus flipbook in the bottom right page corners. Watch the seed germinate and grow. Use it to distract that young child while you do your accounting! Or for yourself - wind down and cheer up after a hard day

[Christi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greenhorns was inspiring, funny, relatable, and thought-provoking! It contains humorous stories and moving accounts mixed with a sprinkling of practical wisdom and advice. I especially appreciated the realness of everything: the vulnerability of shared mistakes and lessons learned, along with the willingness to wrestle with unanswered questions - such as how one is supposed to make a living off of a small-scale organic vegetable farm. I like that the chapters are short and therefore easily digestible. The book is also very well-organized with well-written introductions and a helpful set of resources and recommendations at the back! Also shout out to one of my favorite chapters: "Moral Clarity through Chicken-Killing" by Samuel Anderson (pages 148-152). Overall, a great book that I will keep on my shelf to come back to again and again.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Douglass Decandia has a passion for donating his food. Casey O’Leary relies on off-farm employment to supplement the income from her collection of small urban plots and one-third acre homestead. Jon Piana holds harvest celebrations and hosts local musicians at his CSA pickups. All different kinds of people can be farmers, and farming can take many forms. Greenhorns: 50 Dispatches from the New Farmers’ Movement, a book of short essays written by small organic farmers, opened my eyes to these ideas and created within me a sense of possibility. I started reading it a couple weeks ago when I found myself lacking motivation to cook and daydreaming about farming instead, and this book makes me think maybe farming isn’t as out of reach as I thought.

[Wolfie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ve had this book since 2015—one of those titles that always felt important to keep, something I should read someday. Now that I finally have, I think I would have preferred just watching the documentary—maybe. The book itself was okay, but not something I’ll remember or take much from personally.

The core messages aren’t new: gardening and farming are hard work, devoting your life to it is even harder, community matters, and most of us are simply doing the best we can. All true, just not presented in a way that stuck with me.

[Benji Pesto · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a current farm worker and future farmer, this book has been so helpful in giving me advice on how to embrace the definition of a greenhorn in all its glory. I will always keep this book as a guide book and a sense of comfort, knowing that there is a community of new farmers experiencing the same triumphs and tribulations.

[Owlneck · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're looking for a reflection from a monotonous group, up and coming small business owners, married or hoping to be, the quickly becoming conventional small scale organic grower, etc, this is it. A book of Instagram picture captions, mini essays, which left me wanting more.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a beginning farmer, I found some of the stories relatable. However, there were quite a few that I felt were extremely novice.

[Hanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays from new, young American farmers joining the local food movement. A times funny and heartbreaking but always hopeful, this is an engrossing read.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greenhorns is a collection of essays from new farmers. Some have been farming for a few years and some are in their first year. The book is divided into subject area sections like Money, Land, Purpose, etc. and each section has an introduction written by one of the editors of the book. It was very uplifting to read of all these new farmers who are determined to make a go of farming even when it seems discouraging. They know they won't make millions farming, but it's important enough that they keep going anyway. I love talking to the farmers at my local farmer's market and having a year-round market where I can buy fresh, local vegetables and meat - this book shows that the same thing is happening all over the country. It reminds me of what Joel Salatin says in The Omnivore's Dilemma - you don't have to legislate changes to the food industry to get better food, when people know more about where their food comes from and choose to buy from their local farmers you make the industrial food system irrelevant in your own life. That's my goal and this book shows that as well.

Some quotes I particularly liked:

"The best things in life - growing your own food, living and working with your neighbors, being outside in an open space - are being lost." (p.113)

"It's a foregone conclusion in the big poultry industry that, as the University of Georgia's broiler information web page bluntly puts it, 'Having an independent broiler-growing operation is no longer feasible.' In fact, according to the site, there is actually no such thing as an independent chicken farmer anymore; 'approximately 99 percent of all broilers are produced under contract, with the remaining production occurring on integrator-owned farms [those that are owned by the same vertically integrated company that owns every stage of production, including the processing facility and the retail brand].' The argument is that small-scale production can't compete with the low prices of the ultra-efficient industrial operations...There are still independent chicken farmers in the world, and they've proved that it can pencil out. In 2010, three Massachusetts producers utilized a mobile poultry-processing unit to legally process their chickens. Each raised, hand-processed, and sold between eight hundred and twelve hundred, all grown on pasture. Through farmers' markets, restaurants, and presales directly to consumers, these birds fetched from four dollars and fifty cents to six dollars per pound...Compare that to contract chicken farmers. They get paid between 3.8 and 4.6 cents per pound of live weight. That means that a particularly efficient producer might gross a whopping twenty-five cents for each bird. During the ten to fifteen years it takes a contract producer to pay off the hundred thousand dollars in up-front cost of building and outfitting a poultry house that meets Tryon's and Perdue's standards, the farmer needs to grow well over a hundred thousand birds a year just to net five thousand dollars." (p. 149-151)

[H Grimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is an important book if you're looking to start a small farm. It's a collection of essays written by new farmers on their experience starting a farm. Some are wonderful, insightful, and inspiring. Others are downright tedious and in desperate need of an editor. All and all though, it's well worth your time to peruse these essays. The essays contain honest experiences with no sugar-coating, and does a good job at giving you an idea of what to realistically expect in your first few years and what hurdles you can expect to face. It is hard work and you're bound to hit roadblocks on the way, but farming is not an impossible dream.

I felt the book was particularly heavy on CSA vegetable farms and wish there was a bit more livestock farming representation and non-CSAs. I also felt most of the essays were merely reflections, and lacking in any practical information - How did these farmers become farmers? How did they find land? How did they start a CSA? What possessed them to farm? How did they fund everything? I would have liked to read some essays on new farmers' full experience, from start to finish. Maybe my issue is that the essays were simply too short, and left me wanting more details, including the gritty boring details. I did appreciate the large number of female farmers included in this collection though.

The resources at the very end of the book are extensive and invaluable!

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned of this book through Jenna Woginrich's blog where she chronicles her life on her own Cold Antler Farm in upstate New York. This book is filled with short essays from a variety of young and new farmers across the country, covering a range of topics and organized roughly by topic. Weather, vegetables, livestock, finances, physical work, and so on are all covered in honest, interesting, touching, and usually funny stories by many good writers. All of the stories were well written and edited well, which is not always the case with anthologies, so that was excellent.

This book will give you a varied and vivid picture of the state of small farms in the USA as they stand today. It's not all bleak, although there are lots of challenges, and some of the more interesting stories were written by farmers who are not in the typically progressive states where the locavore movement has taken hold. I definitely feel that I learned a lot from reading this book, and while I'm not planning to farm any time soon, I am certainly going to continue my support of local farms and the farmers who grow food for me there.

[Karen Mahtin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a collection of short essays by beginning farmers (I eat this kind of thing up). It includes people who grow everything from veggies to animals. Some people will find the farmers' stories depressing, while others will find them inspiring. I mostly found them to be too brief. The book is a quick read, because it really doesn't have that much content- there's a lot of blank space and cute drawings. Better than the podcast by far, but I'm not sure if I should give it a 4-star rating. There are a few very thoughtful pieces, and a few nice stories about connecting with neighbors and local customer bases. I'm partial to the piece by a local farmer who I interviewed for a class last year ;).

[Jennybeast · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were a lot of interesting points of view represented in this collection of essays, and a few memorable moments, but ultimately I fear that quite a few of the farmers featured are more excited about farming than they are about writing – as they should be. So, it’s a great resource if you’re looking to sample some of the better farm writers out there and maybe as a name recognition tool, but not so great as literary feat.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of short reflections on starting farms. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for guidance or inspiration regarding beginning to farm. It is a collection of very short essays and is not in any way in depth. To really learn skills you'll have to look elsewhere but I found it to be an encouraging read which gave me ideas about how one would go about starting a farm and the types of difficulties and opportunities that one might face when engaging in such a venture.

[Evan]

“Even though we might dress like liberals, have been educated like liberals, create products generally bought by liberals, or come from liberal families or communities, at heart and in deed we are quite conservative. I do not want to attempt a takeover of conservative ideals, but…once we recognize that we have the same goals, we can unify our means.” Vince Booth in "Coming Full Circle: The Conservatism of the Agrarian Left"

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting reading and I think it will really appeal to people entertaining the idea of starting to farm as well as struggling new farmers. I enjoy reading about farming, though I have no plans to till the land! I think it reads better in snippets, rather than reading in one or two long sittings.

[Karen Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book as an introduction for those considering organic farming, or just interested in farmer memoirs! It did not disappoint, with overall optimistic outlooks despite challenges, stress and frustrations one might encounter. It approached the movement with humor and insight, it is worth checking out!

[Piper Mount · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really awesome organization and fantastic book. About half the stories are awesome and insightful and most of the rest are only flawed in that they are just written by young people that try too hard to convey something powerful in too few words. It was inspiring to read before I spent a season working on a farm, but rereading it is also a hefty dose of realism now that I have.

[T Crockett · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any anthology, there were essays I loved, a lot that I enjoyed and just a couple that I didn't finish. I'm a gardener, with no intention of making a living from my growing abilities, but this book was eye opening.

[Jayme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stories from young farmers all across the country making it work! Truly inspiring stories that will make you think more about the food you eat everyday. I got to meet and hear Douglass DeCandia, author of "Growing Not For Market," speak at Stone Barns Center in New York and it was amazing!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting through this book, even though all the individual stories were really great. I think I just needed time to think about each one and how it made me feel about the idea of working on a farm... Overall the entries were inspiring.

[Peter Cusic · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for first hand accounts from newby farmers trying to execute their dream, then this book is for you. Inspirational in more ways than one. Enjoyable easy read. Perfect for reading slowly as you find time, or perhaps squeezed in between the other books you're already reading.

[KJ Grow · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poetic and inspiring collection of essays from the scrappiest, most motivated, and idealistic young farming entrepreneurs, determined to change their communities and their world through dirt, sweat, and seeds, one long growing season at a time.

[Fernleaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully inspiring read composed of essays from 50 new farmers. We need more people with this kind of passion in our world and in our foodsheds.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every field of work should have a book like this--essays from newbies describing their experiences, both positive and negative. A great resource list at the end as well.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It inspired me to not give up on my small garden.

[Sophie Ackoff]

SO INSPIRING. a must read for all young farmers

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read- collection of short stories- by beginning farmers. Highly suggest for farmers, gardeners, and people who appreciate their farmers!