A Strange Transition
It’s been a strange transition for me these past couple years. One that left me questioning if I can still call myself a farmer.
When I opened Central Park Farms those 6+ years ago, I was a one woman show — I did it all from mucking stalls, to animal vet care, to administration, and more. If it happened at Central Park Farms, I was involved 100%.
But then as we grew, things shifted from me being THE farmer, to being the business owner and operator and suddenly I’ve been spending more time in meetings and on the computer than out hauling feed buckets. Here’s the thing about farming compared to other businesses, when it comes to other businesses there’s a level of respect that comes when you finally get to the point that you’re the leader of the company and you’re able to work on your business instead of inside it…
With farming it’s different, often times in this industry we stop thinking of folks as farmers when they no longer have boots on the ground. Heck, it’s why you often hear, ‘farmer’s wife’ instead of referring to the woman who’s keeping the business running in the background as a ‘farmer’ herself.
We’ve been lucky that as we’ve grown and through diversifying our business with projects like Marketing For Farmers, our raw dog food company, and now The Windsor Hotel that it’s given us the chance to bring in more help. My auntie joined my mom, my uncle has a delivery route, my nephew and his close friend joined our kids as farm hands, and Jay plays a much more active role in the day-to-day of the farm than he did when I first started the business.
PS I still can’t believe my tiny farm business has turned into something where I can have this many members of my family working even part time alongside me.
Now where does that leave this farmer? For a while it left me at my computer most of the day which I’ll be honest really started to drain me.
I missed getting out into the fresh air and spending time with our animals and getting exercise in our daily work so we’ve had to readjust once again so I can get back to spending at least part of my day doing what caused me to start this company in the first place — a love for farming!
I’m looking forward to completing our move (T minus one week) and getting settled into our new spaces so I can get back at it.
Thank you to each one of you for being here, we have lots to come for the farm and we’re so excited to have you along for the ride.