We wrote this book because we want to encourage prospective farmers, because we love what we do, and because there is such a dire need for regenerative agriculture. We believe passionately in the need for sustainable, ethically produced food. At the same time, we don’t want to delude people and lead them into farming under false pretenses. We want to present a balanced perspective.
We are Robin Tunnicliffe of Feisty Field Organic Farm, Heather Stretch of Northbrook Farm, and Rachel Fisher of Three Oaks Farm. We are all in our thirties, have been farming for ten years or more and together we own Saanich Organics, the business that sells our produce along with the produce from several of our friends’ farms.
This book has been an ongoing project over the past several winters. One of the first questions we asked each other was, “Why are we writing this book?” We each had a different answer.
Rachel: When I started farming, I needed this book. I needed to know that other people were doing small-scale, sustainable agriculture, and making a living at it. I also needed to know the nuts and bolts of how they did it. How the heck do you choose a site, plan irrigation, and put up a greenhouse?
Robin: When I was gathering information to start farming, I wanted a slice of life—I wanted to see what the farming life was going to look like in the long term. I wanted numbers and I wanted facts.
Heather: I want to help people make informed choices. When I was starting out I read too many books on market gardening that promised huge yields and huge incomes with little work. I knew that if it were that easy, more people would be doing it.
There is a growing interest right now in how our food is produced, and we feel that underlying this curiosity is an unmet need for a connection to the land. People even take time off from their jobs and travel to visit our farms, volunteer to work with us, and learn what we do. People ask us all the time about our work, about what we do, and what the experience is like. “Gosh, it would take a book to answer that question,” we think. Well, here is that book.
We think the best way to learn about farming is to hear farmers’ stories. Each farm is unique, and each story is informative in its own practical context. We want to share with you the stories of three successful farms and to give you an honest, straight-up “this is how it is.” When visitors come to our farms, depending on the day, we may tell them it’s the best life in the world, or that it’s the worst life. This book is an opportunity for our sober reflection, to balance the good and the bad, and, we hope, to conclude that farming truly is a worthwhile endeavour.