Hopefuls get All the Dirt on small- scale farming
New publication an instruction manual for organic growers considering turning pro
A new book by three Vancouver Island organic farmers is both an inspirational account of modern agricultural life and a cautionary tale of long hours and low pay.
All the Dirt: Reflections on Organic Farming is a memoir and an instruction manual written by a trio of young women who each started her own small- scale farm about 10 years ago. They soon joined forces to create a sales, distribution and marketing firm for their produce.
The three principals of Saanich Organics — Heather Stretch, Rachel Fisher and Robin Tunnicliffe — will be in Vancouver Friday at 7 p. m. to give a talk about organic farming at the People’s Co- op Bookstore at 1391 Commercial Dr.
“One of the ways we can begin to fix our food system and create more sustainably grown food is to encourage people to start farming in a smallscale sustainable way,” said Stretch. “We can’t keep preaching to people to buy locally grown, organic produce if that food isn’t available.”
The answer is more farmers, and each of the authors answered the call in her early 20s, just about the time their friends were starting urban careers and families. But each was energized by the good they felt they were doing for themselves, their customers and the Earth.
Even though each had her own farm, they often held work parties for the sense of community it gave them. Eventually they added children, spouses and apprentices to keep them company as more acreage came under crops.
The book is their way of helping prospective farmers understand what they are getting into, to provide a replicable model of sustainable farming and answer important questions: How do I choose land? What should I plant? What sells? How do I sell it? How much money will I make?
All the Dirt provides answers rooted in real- world experience, both successes and failures. Stretch knows firsthand how easy it is to get starryeyed about potential yields and tragically ambitious about how much land you can productively manage on your own.
Two important points common to the stories of all three authors: The yield of your farm is more closely related to the amount of labour applied than it is to the amount of land under crops, and it will take at least three to four years before you pay yourself a living wage.
You might also want to revise downward your idea of a living wage.
“If you are fired up and you want to start growing food or be more committed to eating sustainably and promoting food security, then our stories will be inspiring,” said Stretch.
The authors’ exuberance for their lifestyle choice — don’t kid yourself, it’s not a job — comes through clearly, as does the growth in material rewards they gleaned from gaining skill, knowledge and experience.
For those in love with the idea of sustainable farming, but who harbour doubts about the life it entails, All the Dirt just might tip you in the right direction.
“The people who will read it as a cautionary tale are as important an audience to me as those who will read it as an inspirational tale,” said Stretch.
“If [ small- scale farming] is not the right thing for you, the $ 30 price tag of the book is a bargain; it might save you tens of thousands of dollars and years of crushing disappointment.”
Worst- case scenario, All the Dirt will alert you to dozens of things about growing on a commercial scale that you have never considered and it offers a window into a kind of farming that is gaining traction as a viable career.
“People — even people who don’t want to be farmers but who are just interested in how we do things and why we do it — ask us a lot of questions,” said Stretch.
“We thought it would take a book to answer all those questions. We each have more than a decade of experience at this and are pretty confident of our opinions and so we wrote it down.”
“We are still close enough to that start- up experience to be of benefit to people who are thinking about starting a farm,” she said.
“We also have the experience to say what works and what doesn’t.”