Lived Engagement
Words can be tricky. They can easily typecast. Maybe that’s why in grade school I had such a hard time answering the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” While my friends wanted to be doctors, archaeologists, marine biologists, and such, I didn’t really have a word for what I wanted to do and be.
“Renaissance Woman” would be close, but that isn’t the easiest thing to explain when you’re in 5th grade! And it’s fraught with the usual retorts of “You can’t make a living doing that” or “Jack of all trades, master of none.” In a culture of specialization, it’s not an easy road to hold on to interdisciplinary interests, but it’s worth it for those who’ve chosen the road less traveled by.
Another word fraught with booby-traps is “farmer.” Especially in an agricultural state like Wisconsin, everyone has their own opinion of what or who a farmer is. Here’s a common checklist:
• A farmer’s focus is on growing food (crops, animals) to sell.
• Farmers have been doing this all their lives and it’s been passed down from their parents and grandparents.
And then there are the second-level assumptions about farmers that I run into all the time at Farmstead Creamery, such as:
• Farmers only have a basic level of formal education.
• Farmers lack good people skills and would rather be with animals.
• You’re not a real farmer if you don’t have cows.
• Anyone farming fulltime must be Amish or Mennonite.
• Ok, if you’re not that, then someone in the family must have an off-farm job.
• Farmers are crafty and good with their hands, but not artistic.
It’s especially interesting when these assumptions (and many more) get imposed on me and my family as people walk into the door at Farmstead Creamery & Café. Folks think they know what farmers are like. The trouble is that we’re really not farmers—not in the way that most folks know them. We’re multi-disciplinary Renaissance people engaged in farming.
My mom Ann is a retired family physician—bringing years of honed chemistry, biology, sociology, and leadership skills. Steve has lived all over the world, with unique experience in engineering, robotics, nanotechnology, and information technology. Kara not only focused her studies on animal husbandry and land stewardship, but also the culinary arts, confectionary, and the science and art of value-added dairying.
My unique piece of the puzzle is in the arts. I was finishing my MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College in Vermont when we dreamed up the idea of Farmstead Creamery & Café. Integration of and opportunity creation for the local creative community has always been an important facet of what we do here.
That mission of engagement with the arts has really matured this year to include the 4th season in our Locally Grown Summer Music Series on Saturday nights (18 shows this year, featuring all local and regional artists in a wide variety of musical genres), the one-day Artist Showcase (featuring 11 local artists, including tours of my studio yurt), and our Spoken Word and Poetry events on Thursday nights (through the end of this month, with host and guest writers as well as open mic and three-word challenge audience participation segments).
Yes, we’re certainly farming. Yes, we’re certainly growing food. It’s more than a full-time deal. But we’ve also got our eye on something bigger—a full, lived engagement with a vision towards sustainable living and community impact. The arts play a huge role in human expression and healthy mind-body connectedness. So I’ll stick with Renaissance woman for now…and go feed some chickens. See you down on the farm sometime.
