During this season of outdoor farmers’ markets, county fairs
and trade shows, I meet a lot of people. Some of them are readers of the column
who want to meet me in person because they have been reading my life for the
past ten years in my Farmwife blog and columns. Others are accidental farmwives
themselves and they stop by to compare notes and meet one of their tribe.
Accidental farmwives, or women not born into the farming
life, tend to be very interesting people. Some of us (myself included) come
into the world of farming through marriage. Perhaps one of the best-known
accidental farmwives is Ree Drummond, aka The
Pioneer Woman. She lets readers into her life through her television show
on The Food Network, her books, a blog, gorgeous photography and hilarious
recipes that involve step-by-step commentary from the funniest farmwife I know.
She has also homeschooled her children and she is a caregiver of wild mustangs
on her Oklahoma ranch.
Others, like Kate Humble in the UK, feel compelled to enter
the farming life for other reasons. Kate rescued a plot of municipal land
before it was sold off to a condo corporation. Next she began rescuing animals
(including “the world’s ugliest pigs”) and learning more about the various
agricultural uses of her property. Now she has a teaching farm, a boutique, a
café and she produces pear cider that is sold at the neighbourhood pub. You can
read more about her and order a copy of her book, at Humble by Nature.
Another UK farmwife, Bobbi Mothersdale, has published a
daily journal of a year in her farming life. It’s a great introduction to the trials,
triumphs and seasonal routine on an East Yorkshire farm. Her book Hens, Hooves, Woollies and Wellies is
available for purchase online.
If you do a quick search on the Internet you are bound to
find some accidental farmwives in your area. Now, the “real” farmwives (who know what they
are doing because they have been doing it since they were kids and are multi-generation
farmers) have a wealth of information to share, but the accidental ones tend to
share it in a more honest, blow-by-blow kind of way because every day, every
week, every season brings a new experience. I highly recommend you check out
some of their blogs, columns and books if you are considering becoming a
farmwife yourself.
Nurse loves
Farmer is a blog set in the Canadian Prairies. Sarah Schultz is also an
avid photographer and cook (skills many farmwives seem to have, excepting yours
truly. I can cook, but it usually involves grilling lean meat or fish and
tossing a salad. Done. As for photography, my photos usually turn out blurry or
with headless subjects). Schultz is a self-proclaimed “agvocate”, voicing her
perspective on genetically modified foods, herbicides, and raising healthy kids
on the farm.
Farmer Elaine
Froese uses her background in conflict resolution to assist Canadian
farmwives in their growth as “farminists.”
Canadian freelance writer and photographer Billi J. Miller has met a
few female farmers who are opposed to being called “farmwives”. The term doesn’t
bother me in the slightest, as in my mind it has always meant being married to
the farm, as well as to the Farmer. I don’t split hairs over titles.
I am inspired by the farmwives (real or accidental) who have
managed to produce something unique and special from their property’s bounty.
Sheepskin rugs, alpaca wool socks, sweaters and mittens, goat milk soaps and essential oils, fermented
tea kombucha, raw honey and jam are just a few of the highly-prized items I
have seen farmwives produce. I would like to think I would be inspired to
create something from the land too, if I worked from home fulltime. We have
plenty of mature nut trees on our property. Maybe I could make some sort of
low-sugar, preservative-free nut butter to sell. If I were handy and crafty at
all. Keep in mind I can barely manage a minimal vegetable garden. Then again
there is that time the Farmer tried to identify the strange nut tree growing
next to the barn by licking the sap coming from its casing. He couldn’t feel
his tongue for the next twenty-four hours. I suspect it has medicinal
properties, as many of the native plants do here on the farm. Maybe someday I
will take the time to research them.
For now I will continue to write stories of life on the
farm, with our beef cattle, our chickens, cats, and one loyal pup named Fergus.
Thanks for reading.
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email: dianafisher1@gmail.com
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