Why farming??

I've been doing a lot of analysis on my WHY to farm lately.

Who am I to even call myself a farmer? What makes me a farmer? What do I get out of being a farmer? Why did I feel led to become a farmer? These and millions more questions pass through my mind daily.

You see I grew up in the city. I had no experience with farming other than with racehorses my Aunt and Uncle had. Sure my parents grew a garden when I was younger it was the 80's after all. But living and working on a farm... not on my radar. My food came from the local A&P store.

The mind shift came shortly after my son was born. I didn't want to buy all his food ready-made. I started to be more mindful of what we were eating. I had always loved to cook but now I wanted real food. I started to look at food as a way to heal and nourish our bodies.

11 years ago at the prompting of my late mother. My husband and I stepped out in faith and crammed as much as we could in a small U-Haul trailer and our minivan and moved west. Our first stop was Northern Alberta in a quaint area known as Dapp and Jarvie. We rented an old farmstead from a friend and after a year of living there, jumped in with both feet and got animals. To start it was just chickens. But then I was introduced to sheep while working for a greenhouse. That's when we first started our flock. There was a lot of trial and error with the sheep. We lost some to animal attacks and some just died because they thought it was a good idea.

There is a running joke in the sheep industry that sheep look for ways to die on you. It is true to some degree, from getting caught in fences to just being plain stupid: sheep do look for ways to die. But we were getting the hang of this farming thing and our last season in Alberta had a great lambing. We were looking to buy land to expand the farm but everything in Alberta was so expensive.

We moved to Northern BC in 2018. The year of the big wildfires that almost claimed the Southside. We knew we wanted to find a place that we could lease for a while and then buy. In November 2020 we moved into the farm that we are currently on. Bought 20 sheep that next May and haven't looked back. It is only onward from here.

What gives me the right to call myself a farmer? I am a farmer because I am doing it. Long nights, and early mornings, plus 35 Celsius to -40 Celsius I am out there looking after the animals.

Why was I led to farm? To know where our food is coming from. To be able to provide for others who are looking for reliable food sources. Also because farming and gardening are the best way I know how to be a steward of what Yah has given me. He gave my husband and I a dream to be a place where people come and learn about their food. Where people can come and see how their food is cared for and then processed. It may continue to be the property we are currently on or it may be at a different place. Either way, Yah gave us the vision to be a pivotal spot in the community and that my friends are what we are working so hard towards.

So when people ask us if we are still doing that hobby farm thing... I tend to correct them and say that we are sheep farming and homesteading. Being good stewards of what Yah has given us to be caretakers of for this time in our lives.