Rural Dreams

While Mister and I were driving through rural NY to get out to Camp, I feel like I saw nothing but farm stands. Left and right, farm stands. It might just be sweet corn, it might just be eggs. But I also feel like there are far more than I remember along those roads. That's not to say that there were none before, but there's merely more of them.

I don't know if this is because it's something I look for now, as opposed to merely noting, or if there are honestly more people gardening and selling their produce. If it's the latter, I say "brava!"

But driving through that beautiful farm country filled with cornfields and cows (gotta love NY), I had two recurring feelings. One was horror at the proudly labeled fields of GMO corn monocultures, and the other was just pure want. I really do want to farm in some way -- animals being the main sticking point for the city. I remember Sharon Astyk saying that her and her husband were living in the city, gardening, and it just wasn't enough. I thought (at the time) "well isn't that silly! You can get the same stuff done!" Well, I haven't fully given city farming the ol' college try, but I'm worried that it might not be enough. The lack of animals is what really bothers me.

Sure, I might be able to convince Mister that he'd be a happy man with dairy goats, but the lack of poultry for meat and eggs makes me nervous. And I know that he'd not be happy with chickens -- he made that particularly clear. He doesn't want to have to hear them. Nor tend them. Nor feed them. Nor see them. He just doesn't want them!

That and I feel like I wouldn't get done what I'd like to in a city plot. I could get a farm share or a CSA of some sort, but that wouldn't get me happy sustainability. I think the type of property that Kathy Harrison describes as her house is what I'd like to be looking towards. She has bees, birds, orchard, forest, and a full garden with hoophouse and other fun things. She also strives to feed her entire family on what she grows and works strongly in her community to build systems.

I just think that's wonderful. Perhaps, if we ever do have a crazy meltdown of society, Mister would be more interested in farming with me. At the moment? Not at all. As he put it recently "Farms are a lot of work. I don't want to have to put that much effort into where I live to keep it still liveable." And he thinks that is that. But is it?