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Some of you grew up on a farm, and some of you have never heard a live chicken cluck. By "working family farm", I mean as a guest or visitor of a family that lives and works full-time in agricultural labor. Not just a city worker who commutes from a rural house.
In which states have you been on farms?
Do you think you'd enjoy living on a farm?
My experience is very limited. But my parents closest friends were farmers, and when a day or more of baby-sitting was required, "put to the farm" was the go-to place. Since then, not so much, a few days here and there, a few friends where I was no stranger.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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As a kid I lover going to visit my maternal grandparents on there 40 acre farm. They had cattle, horses, pigs, chickens and rabbits. Later at age 19 on a cross country summer road trip, we visited friends that had moved to a farm in Mc Laughlin, South Dakota. There for the first time I drank milk that had come right out of the cow.
I lived next door to a dairy farm in WI until I was 10. The cow pasture was right behind our house. The farmhouse was a half-mile walk if you took the road, and 1/4 mi if you cut across the pasture. We'd go over there quite a bit - especially once the calves were a few weeks old.
My grandfather also had a cranberry marsh that we spent a fair amount of time on.
My dad grew up on a farm in Chatham County, NC. He raised chickens to pay for college. I used to go to visit my grandparents on weekends and for a week each summer. The family has lived on the land since the 1840s, but my grandfather was the last person who worked it full-time for a living. A city cousin retired there and has some cattle, and another cousin is growing hops.
I often used to ask my dad about it. He said the first 16 years of his life, he assumed he’d just follow his dad. But his dad encouraged him, so he went to college. He however graduated in the ‘70s and jobs were not plentiful. He gave himself a deadline of finding a job within 2 months or he was going back to the farm. I think he got hired a week before the arbitrary deadline hit.
I did enjoy my visits to the farm, it was fun for a kid. I had good memories of feeding the chicks with my mema. My farm cousin years later told me how she was responsible for picking up the dead chicks, eek. Needless to say, I’m unsure I have the temperament of a full-time farmer. Though if I grew up there rather than suburbia, maybe so. I could definitely enjoy the peace and tranquility of farm life. The internet is the great equalizer my dad never had lol.
My grandparents had a working farm when I was a kid, and as a city boy I got sent south a lot in summertime. The cash crop was tobacco, but the farm also had apple orchards, grew vegetables and some corn, and I was personal witness to a lot of the folks in that generation milking cows, slaughtering hogs, and wringing chickens' necks before dumping them into pots of boiling water. It's why I don't share the aversion to eating meat some of my contemporaries do: You don't kill the pig, you starve! In my youngest years there we had a well and used an outhouse. Running water didn't come along for years. I have very fond memories of those summers. Wouldn't trade them for anything, though as an adult I'd go crazy living a rural life. The land is no longer a working farm, but unlike too many black families in the south, the land is still in the family.
I have extended family that owns a modest working farm in Southern Indiana. They have an assortment of cows, goats, chickens, pigs, and around thanksgiving they have turkeys. They don't have a working furnace, they have a wood burning stove and heat their house with wood they cut up themselves. We don't have much in common with them, and we don't visit often. My kids think it is neat to visit the farm, but that is not a lifestyle I would want for myself or my kids.
For what it’s worth, Clarkson’s Farm was a great and hilarious show about Jeremy Clarkson’s family farm. You all might be interested in seeing it.
Both grandfathers were farmers (in Oklahoma and Missouri)
One had a dairy and also raised pigs. The other had beef cattle and hay meadows. Both had large gardens.
In the summer time us boys would go live with one or the other for a few weeks. We had to milk cows, slop the hogs, hoe, water, pick strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.
It was a lot more fun than work and we looked forward to it every summer.
Now one of my sons has a farm and raises chickens, pigs and goats.
I too visited my grandparents farm as a child. When they passed I inherited the farm ( in France). I’ve been living here for about 3-1/2 years. ( dual citizen). Love it! There’s work from dawn to dusk, but when you’re doing it as a lifestyle….I wouldn’t trade it.
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