John's Backstory - Part Two: Starting My Farm
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If you have not yet, I recommend that you read John’s Backstory - Part One: Inception
After my wife Kate and I finished our year-long, 6,000-mile bicycle trip across North America, we had a pretty clear idea of how we could live our lives as farmers. We had met so many incredible people, and learned so much about farming – and about ourselves. So, we hopped on a flight from California, where we had ended our cycling trip, and came back home to Connecticut. As one journey ended, another was beginning. Farming was what I wanted to do. Succeed or fail, I was going to be living my life on my own terms.
Once back home, Kate and I were accepted into a year-long internship at a farm in northeast Connecticut. We had to learn the nitty-gritty of how to farm for ourselves. During that time, we helped raise vegetables, cattle, and pigs. In my spare time, I also raised my first batch of about 40 broiler chickens from start to finish, in a back field of the farm. Chickens are the “gateway drug” to raising livestock. After a first failed attempt to slaughter my own birds, with only YouTube tutorials as a guide, I decided to outsource to a slaughterhouse in Rhode Island, which I still work with to this day. But I considered my first experience with chickens a success, and I knew livestock was a direction I wanted to go.
The most important takeaway from that experience was that, even though farming was hard work, it was totally worth it. And the freedom to choose my own path, as I was doing, was exhilarating.
In the autumn of 2012, Kate got pregnant with our first daughter, and that winter we were searching for a new place to live after our internship on the farm had ended. We were in a tight spot—in-between homes, with no jobs, and a baby on the way. We eventually decided to settle in northwest Connecticut because it was the halfway point between where our two sets of parents lived. We temporarily rented from Kate’s cousin in New Milford.
After Kate landed a job as a teacher at a nearby school, I broke out a topographical map of the area and began hunting for some farmable land. Whenever I found a promising plot, I looked up the owner and made a phone call or knocked on their door, to make my pitch about why they should let me use their land to farm. I would present the owner with a one-page plan, complete with business card and links to our website. By the end of my search, I had about a half dozen options to choose from.
The winner was a piece of land owned by a hay farmer in Gaylordsville, CT. In-between hayings, he would let me use his land to raise my chickens and vegetables. It was a mutually beneficial partnership—the chickens would fertilize the soil in-between cuttings, and I had access to an old, leaky shipping container with its own electric supply, where I set up shop.
Our daughter, Mabel, was born in July of 2013, right as I was in the middle of ramping up my operation. That year, I raised and processed 1,300 chickens, plus a few herbs and vegetables. I had a 50-member CSA, which was selling out each week. My dream was (and still is) to provide healthy food for the community, and I was finally beginning to live out that vision.
Nearby, Kent Falls Brewing was in the process of starting up Connecticut’s first farm brewery, under an umbrella company with the name “The Food Cycle.” The name struck me – when Kate and I had blogged during our cross-country trip, we dubbed the website, “Food Cyclist.” What were the chances that we would cycle 6,000 miles across North America, only to find a farm with such a similar name just 11 miles from where we ended up? I took it as a sign.
So, after a phone call to David Birnbaum and Barry Labendz, owners of the Food Cycle, I grabbed a six-pack of beer and some chips and hummus, and showed up at the farm to talk about how we could all work together. My philosophy is that, in small-scale agriculture, there is no competition, only collaboration. Once they realized I was “good people,” with good intentions, we all became friends – and eventually, business partners.
As luck would have it, they needed a part-time farm manager, so I was hired, and moved my own farming operation to their location, in Kent, CT. When their full-time farm manager moved on, in December of 2013, I got hired for the position. It came with a steady salary and a house for rent right on the 52-acre property.
Those first couple of years as I was starting my farm were a whirlwind of big decisions and big moves. Hindsight is always 20/20, but looking back over that time, knowing what I know now, the choices I made then make no sense to me. In fact, I think that sometimes I went about things in the most difficult way possible. But, given the resources and knowledge I had at the time, all of the decisions I made seemed completely rational.
When you believe in something enough that you will do anything to make it happen, that passion is contagious. As long as I was willing to share my vision and at times make myself completely vulnerable, I found that support would materialize in one way or another. I am so thankful for all of the family and friends who bought into my dream and pitched in to help me along my journey. Kate was and always has been a wellspring of unconditional support. Without her, none of this would be possible. I was finally part of a like-minded community, succeeding (and sometimes failing) on my own terms as I fulfilled my dream.
But nothing worth having ever comes easy. Every year since that bike trip, I've come across obstacles that threatened to end my business entirely…
Read about the challenges I have faced while running a farm , and how I overcame them , in part 3.