January 29, 2021
As we close the books on 2020, I'm really glad money isn't our only impetus.
I often get asked if farming is profitable- and the quick answer is no, and in fact, if the only measure of profit is financial gain, it's a definite no. Having worked as a construction manager, a profession where the ethos is “time is money, and money is everything,” I'm acutely aware that I could be making more money doing just about anything else. There will always be more profitable ways for me to spend my time, but very few as soul soothing and rewarding...
So the more thoughtful answer to the profitability question is “well, that depends....”
I have friends that spend much of their free time running to keep fit, and to train for marathons and I'm tempted to ask them, “ Is that really profitable?”
And I have friends who go to church every week and I'd like to question them “what's your Return on Investment?
And to all the people I know who dutifully work out in our local gym I'd like to inquire “What's the financial gain in that?”
This year we paid the bills, and didn't have to lay each other off, and that in itself is a blessing.
I consider ourselves extraordinarily lucky that we get to spend our days doing what we really love. I wake up most days feeling like a kid on a snow day (don't worry, the feeling fades pretty quickly).
It's a quiet, gentle existence, physically challenging and energetically rewarding. We cherish the time we get to spend outside with our animals, in our pastures, in our woods. We thoroughly enjoy the partnerships we've forged with the farmers we've met and treasure the friendships we have discovered among our customers.
In 2020 We purchased over $80,000 worth of produce from local farms. That's money that otherwise would have been spent at Whole Foods, or other major supermarket chains that do very little for our local economy. I love New England and I know it wouldn't be New England but for our local farms. I am very happy to do what I can to support them.
So no, there's not a lot of money in farming, but there are plenty of other perks that are pretty hard to quantify....