A Farmer's Essay on Why Farmers Farm
Plus, free registration for Friday's webinar on one of Chicago's hottest startups
In This Issue
• For This Farmer, It’s Worth It No Matter What
• Reminder: Free Naturally Chicago Webinar
• Take a Quiz (about sofrito)
For This Farmer, It’s Worth It No Matter What
As we have been highlighting since Local Food Forum launched in April, farming is one challenging business. A farmer can do everything right, using his or her years of experience, but when your boss is Mother Nature, all of that work can be undone in an instant. Two weeks ago we sadly had to report about Cook Farm in downstate Illinois, which lost its entire 2021 planting to flooding following torrential rains.
Yet there is joy and beauty in farming, too, and many family farmers could not picture doing anything else. I have been a customer of Jake’s Country Meats at Chicago farmers markets for years, and their newsletter this week included an essay on why farmers farm by Renee Robinson-Seelye, who is in the 7th generation of farmers on their land in Cassopolis, Michigan.
Please read to the end, because it helps sum up why farmers farm in a single paragraph.
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My brother recently recommended my husband and I watch the show called “Clarkson’s Farm.” We enjoy a good show about farming, and rarely find one that isn’t a total bore or completely under-representative of actual farm life. His chuckle while recommending it was telling as well, and it didn’t take us long to push play on the first episode.
Within the very first few minutes we couldn’t help but laugh out loud, me especially. It is a story of a successful journalist/commentator who has decided to give farming a try for himself, with no experience beyond reading books about it and owning land he’s leased to a contract farmer for a few years.
The unique characters help with the humorous appeal, but what fueled my laughter was the obvious perplexity of the owner’s mind when it came to challenges he’s presented throughout his first days on the farm.
Repairs, constant rain, unproductive ewes, acres of crop dying from pests, losing money, the list continues throughout the first couple of episodes. I laugh because It makes me think about the outside perspective of what we do. How can people not think every farmer is a lunatic? Why would we attempt such a career, and live such a lifestyle?
I think of all the farmers I do know, past and present, and all the days they experience. Every day there is some sort of adaptation to what we are given, whether it be from our most important business partner named Nature; a partner that is silent by tongue, and only understood through observation and time. We adapt to market prices, droughts, storms, illnesses, technical updates, equipment advances, personnel and family dynamics. And sometimes all of those adaptations have to happen in a single day of caring for a farm.
Despite eruptions, even with farmers who have lost the battle financially or moved on to something different, farming is rarely viewed as a waste of time.
The value of farming exists beyond knowing what will come next, beyond profitability, and consistency.
It’s a value that is difficult to define. I can only gather that the beauty of seeing the ground transform overnight due to much prayed-over rainfall, the sight of twin calves being born, constant stretching of our minds to solve problems we did not foresee, the ability to clear all of your bills for the week, or that first bite of the delicious fruit of our labor for the season, has something to do with the why; something to do with the perseverance it takes to be a farmer, even for a day.
Reminder: Register For Tomorrow’s Webinar on One of Chicago’s Hottest Food Startups
There is a free webinar tomorrow (9-10 a.m.), from our friends at Naturally Chicago, that we commend to your attention. Learn about Fillo’s Americas Made, one of the rising stars on the local Good Food scene, from CEO Dan Caballero.
Since launching in 2016, the company has produced nutritious, clean-label bean recipes with a variety of Latin American flavors — and has grown from three varieties to 10 in just five years. The products are super-convenient, packed in microwaveable pouches that heat the food in just 60 seconds.
This has enabled Fillo’s to gain shelf space in more than 3,500 stores nationwide, including all Whole Foods Market, Sprouts and The Fresh Market locations (plus many Publix stores). Fillo’s also is mission-driven: Their products are vegan friendly, the company is minority-owned (Dan’s family is Cuban and Panamanian), and it sources its beans within the Chicago region (Michigan).
For you budding entrepreneurs out there, Dan will discuss How to Succeed at Capital Raising. A graduate of the Good Food Accelerator program, Dan knows this turf well: He closed a financing round in March with a combined $2 million in investments from Spiral Sun Ventures, Sustainable Local Food Investment Group (SLoFIG) and Clover Vitality.
Click below for free registration.
Take a Quiz
The business name of the company that produces Fillo’s bean products is Sofrito Foods, which refers to a key ingredient in their recipes. Sofrito is:
a) a spice blend
b) a base of sautéed vegetables
c) a variety of chili pepper
d) a type of bean
Answer: b) As Fillo’s homepage says, “At the heart of everything we do is SOFRITO - a rich flavor base of vegetables, spices and herbs cooked in extra virgin olive oil.”