Finding Peace on the Farm: A HAFA Farmer’s Reflection on Growing Up Farming

It is hard to say exactly how many years I have been farming because farming isn’t measured in years but in memories. 

For as long as I can remember, my summers were spent pushing the seeding machine through rows of soil, planting trays and trays of transplants, weeding never-ending rows of seedlings, sitting on 5-gallon pail buckets picking cucumbers and beans, and selling vegetables at the farmers’ market. 

I was always jealous of my other friends, classmates, and cousins who spent their days at camps, fishing, traveling, and watching TV all summer. When I was young, farming was the last thing that I wanted to do. Now it’s 20+ years later, and I find it ironic that the farm has become my happy place.

My parents have been HAFA members since the organization’s founding. They grew a variety of vegetables such as potatoes, onions, cucumbers, and tomatoes—your typical Minnesota vegetables—and sold them at the St. Paul Farmers Market. In the beginning, I attended a few HAFA trainings with my mother, and I was really impressed by the organization. HAFA not only taught the farmer members how to use high tunnels and drip irrigation—new farming practices completely foreign to us at that time. The organization also guided my family in creating food safety plans and tracking our farming expenses—core business practices that were new to us. Within a few years of attending these trainings with my mother, I officially joined HAFA as a member as well.

I’m writing this on the first Saturday in May. The sky is a beautiful hue of deep blue. The ground at the farm is still brown and mostly bare. But you can see green sprout specks peeking through the dry, crunchy soil. I look at my to-do list, and I have a slight sense of accomplishment as I read:

• Plant potatoes – done; 
• Fertilize trees – done; 
• Mark rows for transplants – done; 
• Plant this week’s cilantro and dill – done; 
• Cut new asparagus spears – done. 

Regarding the list of remaining outstanding items (which is way too long to include here), I will accomplish them on another day.

For now, I look out over the farmland, and I am at peace. 

I am always in awe at how beautiful the HAFA farm is. I take a deep breath, and I breathe out slowly. This is the calm before the storm, as I know that in a few weeks, the days will start to get crazy. They will get fast. 

In the meantime, I am going to admire what Mother Nature has given us—the land, the sun, and the air. And I can see what the Minnesota seasons have reminded me of—it’s a new day and a new season.

– Lillian, HAFA Farmer