What’s the number one challenge every farmer faces? Ask this question of a group of farmers, and a few nominees will likely rise to the top: weather, regulations and everyone’s favorite, money – particularly the lack of it. So which of these do I think is number one? None of them. I won’t deny that ...

Earlier this week, I spent an entire day clearing off my kitchen table. No, I wasn’t cleaning up from a gourmet seven-course dinner. I was reclaiming it from a mass of paperwork. My kitchen table is my favorite all-purpose multi-tool. I occasionally serve meals on it, of course, but that isn’t its m...

“Enough is enough!” When I was young, those three little words – usually bellowed by one of the Dame patriarchs – always made me freeze. Nothing else needed to be said. The message came through loud and clear: No more talking. No more jumping. No more running. Close your mouth. Sit still. Stop. Who ...

Hello, farm family! Yesterday, an old memory resurfaced from some dusty corner of my mind. It was of my great-grandfather sharpening a hoe on our old foot-powered wheel grinder. Hoes We used hoes a lot on our farm back then. Naturally, we employed them for transplanting seedlings and weeding vegetab...

Hello, farm family! Have you ever walked by a weedy bench and thought, “I’ll just pull a few weeds,” only to realize you then worked for over an hour? Me too. The positive side of that is that I got lots of weeds pulled rather than just a few. The drawback is I now have less time to do the other thi...

Happy International Year of the Woman Farmer, farm family! If someone had told me a decade ago that there would be an International Year of the Woman Farmer, I likely would have said something to the effect of, “Well, that’s the most unnecessary, gender-discriminatory thing I’ve ever heard of.” Some...

Happy New Year, farm family! As I type these words, I find myself straddling the space-time continuum in a way that I don’t often do. The change from one year to another has heightened my awareness of both the nature and passage of time. What is the nature of time? In my writing present, it is still...

Hello, farm family! Are you farming out of scarcity or abundance? I’m not talking about the balance in your bank account, the number of people on your payroll or even the pounds of product you sold this week. I’m talking about your mindset. The Scarcity Mindset A scarcity mindset starts from the pre...

Hello, farm family! When did you last experience conflict in your farm life? Most of us experience some form of conflict every day, though we might not immediately recognize it. Types of Farm Conflict Some of us only equate “conflict” with yelling, screaming, throwing things and other forms of viole...

Hello, farm family! Since you’re reading this, you already know that “farmer” is really a hyphenated word. It stands for farmer-carpenter, farmer-mechanic, farmer-veterinarian, farmer-sales manager, farmer-marketing director – you get the idea! Farmers take great pride in that hyphenated identity, a...

Hello, farm family! I’ve been thinking about the concept of “resistance” lately. Often, resistance has a negative connotation, such as when adolescents resist parental authority. Although resistance is inherently difficult, it can be one of your most powerful tools. Think about the plants you grow. ...

Hello, farm family! When I was a kid, we had a couple of old beam balance scales in our barn. A single scale could weigh large pumpkins during our annual Pumpkin Festival and farm kids the rest of the year. When we started growing cabbage and butternut for processing, we would place the two scales f...

Hello, farm family! I know you’ve been there. You run into a fellow farmer at the hardware store or the local diner. You exchange comments about the weather, tariffs and the family. Then, you notice that something is off. It might be something explicit. A catch in his voice. A tear in her eye. A sta...

Hello, farm family! Last week, a couple farmers were sharing their feelings about spraying chemicals on their apples when one exclaimed, “It doesn’t matter! It has to be done.” That broke my heart. Behind that statement I heard “I’ll do whatever is best for the crop, because that’s what good farmers...

Hello, farm family! Welcome to “Farmers First,” a new column devoted to your farm’s most important asset: You! Let me introduce myself. I am a fifth-generation farm kid from Rhode Island who provides remote and in-person consulting to farmers who want more satisfying, efficient and peaceful farm liv...