If you’ve ever considered starting a farm…don’t read this post

Okay, I’m being dramatic - but this is an account of some of our hurdles over these past few months. Hurdles that I’m certain are not unique to us, but despite the fact, we are not giving up and have had lots of help and encouragement to keep moving forward.

I believe we need more people invested in small farms, more access to delicious, healthy, locally produced food. If you support a small farm, you are supporting people that are your neighbors, that contribute to the health and vitality of your community. You are supporting food that is grown just down the road that is (hopefully) not loaded with pesticides that are toxic to our bodies and landscape. It is my dream to be able to exist as one of those small farms, growing food, living well and making a positive impact in my little corner of the world.

But holy shit! Starting an unconventional farm as two farmers (/horseback outfitters/caffeine hustlers/insert whichever side gig here) we knew wasn’t going to be easy, who are we kidding. Land prices are skyrocketing and we don’t have huge savings accounts from some corporate job that we used to work in. Living by our values here means we live as low-income earners that work long days to keep the dream alive.

So - instead of buying land to farm (the eventual goal), we are leasing land. We were very lucky to find our landlords, a couple that value land conservation, small farms, locally produced goods, small business. They are leasing the ground to us for a great price, and are fully supportive of our endeavor. The caveat lies in what needs to happen on that ground in order to build and operate a small farm. We had to make the choice whether or not to invest in a well for the property - a price estimated to be upwards of $10,000. An investment that we can’t take with us should we ever move the farm. We chose to do it. Having potable water on the farm will make a huge difference in efficiency for us washing produce, watering greenhouses, and just having water for us to drink on site. We made our case to the landlords, and they agreed to front us the money to drill the well (like I said, they’re awesome) that we will pay back over 10 years.

Adam surveys the leased ground

Not including the well, our estimated needed start-up capital came to a total of about $40,000. This cost covers everything we felt was needed to get the business off to a strong beginning. Deer fence, plastic high tunnels, wind break, irrigation infrastructure, cultivation and harvest tools, pack shed equipment, propagation equipment, seed, compost and soil amendments. Small farms can start from a shoe-string budget all the way to million dollar enterprises. In forming our list of expenses, we strove to be conservative, but we have also learned from past experience as farmers: we understand the value of making the bigger investment upfront.

The plan was to apply for a USDA Microloan, that maxes out at $50,000 and locks in at a low interest rate. We spent over 2 months working on this application, and finally had to withdraw due to insufficient collateral to secure the loan. We have spent years investing in tools, livestock and equipment to get to the point we are at now. Without most of that stuff, we would be looking at spending many more thousands of dollars just to start this business. The trouble is, these sorts of assets are not what the fed can immediately seize and resell for a guaranteed price if we happened to default on our loan. This is not to gripe about a government program that is supposed to help folks that need help (heh, okay you got me) - but I can say that it was a major letdown after the expectations to fund our business were nearly destroyed.

Here’s the part where our privilege comes in: we are lucky to have friends and families with resources. From my observation, it seems like it is the only way to move up and forward in the world. So many farms, big and small, operate on the donations of people in their personal network. Farming is a gamble, it is not straightforward, there is rarely a guarantee involved. It is risky - which banks and the feds don’t like. But farming and farmers are one hundred percent essential to our survival. In a perfect world, we would be congratulated and celebrated at every financial institution we walked into, confetti in the air, just ready to hand us a pile of money for wanting to get into this great business. Most of the time people just give us that smile, like oh, you’re cute. And totally nuts.

Adam disking with Pete and Belle

Some of you readers might not know me well or even at all. Some of you know me very well. Despite the hurdles, despite what I perceive as our broken social system, and my verging-on-cynical worldview, I am still completely committed to starting this farm. Our people, the people in our corner, have granted us money to keep the forward momentum. We are also planning a crowdsourcing loan through a platform called Kiva (stay tuned), and another awesome local fundraiser (Wallowa County - stay tuned). We have friends that gifted us a draft horse. We have friends that are coming with their large equipment to do some much needed heavy lifting, earth moving and post pounding. We have yet more friends that come help shovel snow, plant garlic, pull weeds, and feed the horses. We are forever in amazement and gratitude!

Juniper poles delivered to the farm!

Watching our garlic sprout, working with the mule team to disc in our fields, giving out endless equine ear scratches, and feeling my pride for Adam swell as the juniper he logged with the team got delivered to the farm... it’s all so worth it. In between the hurdles are such sweet moments that I don’t want to give up. I want to share them! I want our farm to be an inspiration for others, to join in the joy of these small precious moments of life.

So, I’ll rephrase the title of the post: If you’ve ever thought about starting a farm by your own means - it won’t be easy, or straightforward - but you should do it! I am happy we did.