Stories of Women Who Farm

Emily Yarra of Brightside Produce, Australia, "In this photograph I am 9 months pregnant and my body feels amazing. Farming is at once the most pleasurable and the most painful things I have ever done. Despite it's challenges, it makes me feel completely alive and is the most honest and real way I can be in the world. It is my creative outlet and my teacher. It has made my mind and body strong, and taught me to be brave, creative, resourceful and resilient. I am so excited to be waking up every day to do this."

We're twins (Melony Edwards is left, and Melissa Edwards is right) "Farming means being connected to your food and community; it's hands down the most hands-on way to give yourself and others a helping hand. It's also the dirtiest job physically that'll clean you internally."

Ellen Trimarco of Little Pond Farm "I love what I do. Our customers know that by eating food from our farm, they are getting better tasting produce that will last longer and that is more fun (yellow watermelon!?) We are so lucky to be farming organically in Florida where the local food movement is only just beginning. It is really exciting to see that market forming here, especially being a native Floridian myself. Farming as an occupation has offered me tremendous freedom and self-reliance, which I am thankful for. This year we are in our fourth season at Little Pond Farm and just this week I tasted the most delicious strawberry I have ever tasted in my life after years of trialing various varieties. What a joy to work with science and the environment together to be able to fail and succeed and taste it and feel it all along to way. Here’s to a fabulous 2017 for all the farmers out there and many more decades of Florida farming to come!"

"I farm because I want to protect healthy local food as a human right. Small farms are fighting to save agricultural biodiversity and stabilize our global food system. It's a lifestyle that can have it's challenges but I can say confidently that I was born to be a farmer." -Kelly Lee

Hang Le of Tropical Aroma and the Nui Tuong Education Project "We used to grow a lot of fruit here in Vietnam, but not now. It is hard to keep young people here--I want to train the new generation of farmers. People say it's impossible to grow organically, even my parents. They are not happy with the way I do things. It is hard to change, very hard. But I know we can build on our strengths and find an alternative." 📷credit: Eden Kolsen

Jamie Yurgartis of Middleton Place USDA Certified Organic Farm: "Farming to me is being outside in nature and understanding where our food comes from and how it is grown. At Middleton Place we're certified organic and take pride in knowing our produce is grown with organic methods and no chemicals."

Rosie Linford works as a Community Gardener with the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership in the U.K. She supports adults with mental health difficulties or those recovering from drug and alcohol addictions, to grow fruit and veg as a way to help improve their wellbeing. “The gardening sessions have amazing results, all the participants say working and spending time on the allotment really helps to improve their mental health."

Page Pardo: "As a kid in the suburbs, I was always convincing my parents to let me plant huge squash vines or sunflowers in their lovely landscaping. When I grew up and became a corporate lawyer, I'd get home from work long after dark, and go outside to tend to my patio container food garden. It was the best part of my day. It got ridiculously large. A container farm. Yet, it had never dawned on my to pursue farming as a career. It finally hit me in my 30s: farming is a career possibility for this girl. No, farming is not just a career possibility, it is THE career for this girl. It felt like a huge, risky leap, but I quit practicing law and took a farm apprenticeship. And now my relatively small property and hundred animals bring so much joy to me, and hopefully to many. As my farm is about to open to visitors, I can't wait to spread the word about how others can do it, too. Become #womenwhofarm. (Ok, and men, too, but farm girls are extra special.)"

Isis Velkova-Andrus of Tender Living Farm. "This photo so accurately captures the joy, satisfaction, and excitement that planting, growing, and harvesting your own food creates! Especially potatoes... which seriously feels like digging for treasure! Thank you @blackcaddis for capturing this moment. Crooked bangs, crows feet, and all."

"Farmer Sharon Mauney (affectionately known as "Organic Rose"), serving fried okra - family heritage okra from a seed about 150 years old. Fried okra (fried in organic peanut oil with sea salt, black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and real corn meal) and Whipporwill peas is a typical "dinner" in Southern Appalachia."

Hey Community! Let's help some sisters out and grow some food while doing it! Join us in helping The Edible Apartment TEA grow four small urban farms on empty apartment lawns. 100% of your donations go directly to this volunteer and women run project. "Our mission also includes using our resources for rehabilitation. That includes partnering with prisons, addiction recovery facilities and Veterans to share the healing benefits of gardening, cooking and community. We are a 100% volunteer organization that was founded by Executive Director, Jill Volat, and is run (almost entirely) by fellow women visionaries." https://www.gofundme.com/4-new-edible-apartment-gardens-la

Hey Community! Let's help some sisters out and grow some food while doing it! Join us in helping The Edible Apartment TEA grow four small urban farms on empty apartment lawns. 100% of your donations go directly to this volunteer and women run project. "Our mission also includes using our resources for rehabilitation. That includes partnering with prisons, addiction recovery facilities and Veterans to share the healing benefits of gardening, cooking and community. We are a 100% volunteer organization that was founded by Executive Director, Jill Volat, and is run (almost entirely) by fellow women visionaries." https://www.gofundme.com/4-new-edible-apartment-gardens-la

Maggie Harrsen (left) in The Sacred Valley, Peru. "Farming presents a way for me to connect with Pachamama and the Cosmos, to live in harmony between Earth and Sky. The beauty of the practice is in the balance of giving and receiving. The Andean people here call it 'Ayni' in Quechua, and it means to live in right relationship with the Mother Earth and all living beings. Through farming in the Sacred Valley I am opening into my feminine essence and the quality of receptivity. The Spirit of the land, elementals, plants and flowers are teaching me how to receive their life force into my energy body. It inspires the inner forces within me to awaken and supports the unfolding of my spiritual being."

My name is Raya (on the left). I am so honored to spread the message of my students here with this amazing group of women! I am a teacher. I teach Culinary and Pastry Arts in San Bernardino, CA. I have been given an amazing opportunity to help end child hood hunger and fight child hood preventable diseases that run ramped in the community that I teach. The children in my school are located in a food desert. A place where there are no fresh produce grocery stores or farmers markers near but instead a filthy liquor store on the corner. My school is Title 1, meaning most are on the free lunch program due to low income. I am responsible for teaching these children the importance of their lives and their paths but I also feel called to teach them the importance of their health. My school has allowed me acess to what I believe could save the children in this community; a garden. Now an empty lot, it is my hope to grow fresh, organic fruits and vegetables for these children and change their lives and relationship to food. I am not asking for any monetary donation of any kind; I am simply asking for any seeds you may be willing to part with to provide meals for these children, yes ANY! Any unopened, packaged and labeled seeds. Every seed counts and no seed donation too small. I believe gardening and learning to provide food for yourself and family to be just as important as learning to read and right. My students have big dreams and even bigger hearts and deserve the same opportunities to have fresh food as any one else. We can change and save our children, one seed at at a time. For more information on how you can help, please email: raya.allen4@gmail.com Thank you! Chef Raya Allen

Allie Hymas: "While I was studying to go into ministry, I connected deeply with the idea of a relational lifestyle - one that prioritized serving people and connecting with community over the conventional values of wealth acquisition. I was nervous about farming because it seemed like a financially precarious profession, but as my husband and I learned about permaculture we discovered that having a relational approach to our resources actually helps those plants and animals perform better and produce more food for everyone. Much of conventional culture says that you have to set aside your values and put yourself first with a certain survivalist pragmatism. In many ways farming shows us just how short-sighted this view of life is, and through raising plants, animals (and my two toddlers!) I’m learning to be less selfish and more considerate of the needs of others. I believe that we were created to share our talents and resources with others in community, and that everyone thrives when we’re focused on nurturing each other well."

Katie Ovechkin of Pavels Garden: "In light of our current state of affairs, farming is not only a way of life but also a political act. The farm has given me the opportunity to teach my daughter about the nature of the world. The most important thing for us to learn is respect; respect for oneself, respect for others and respect for our planet. All of these lessons can be found in the garden."

Emma Arnold: "Farming is a reset of our environmental clock. It shapes the way we see food and what's really in season. It's helps us appreciate every morsel we plop in our mouths. It makes us thankful for all the farm workers that have come before us and are to come after us, when we no longer can. Farming is gratitude in its purest state. There is nothing I want more in this world then to be a woman who farms. It's simply the best."