profession: organic farmer

Here's who i am and how i got to be here:

25 year old, first-year organic farmer with an educational emphasis in anthropology. After multiple satisfying and eye-opening experiences on organic farms from Gardens of Eagan, to a surreal date ranch in southern Cali, and a biodynamic dairy farm in brazil, among others, somehow we decided that we should take the plunge.

"We" is myself and my partner (farming and otherwise), Adam Cullip. Adam is a handsome, boyish fellow also with farming roots and a love of the land and environment. We both relish the physical and intellectual challenges that organic farming brings. Our farm name is Loon Organics, named initially after the wonderful state bird of Minnesota, the Common Loon, although i believe the loon is far from common, being prehistoric and having one of the most sublime bird calls i have ever heard. It seems that the more nuanced connotation of our farm name, (which inspired my blog name _loonatics_) is that one must be somewhat of a loon, i.e. crazy, to dedicate his/her life to small-scale organic farming. It is not all peaches and cream, and I thought that I had a good idea of the sheer back-breaking work of it all and the measley pay, but I am slowly realizing that we got ourselves into a something a lot bigger than we imagined. Overall though, I think it is worth it.

To touch briefly on our unique relationship with the Diffley's, the people who made it possible for us to start an experiment such as this, because they are renting us two acres of their highly prized certified organic farmland. I think they are really wonderful, quality people. They have broken paths in midwestern organic farming, and i got my first introduction to organic farming through an internship there two years ago. I continued to work at their stand, Adam harvested for them briefly last season, and Atina and I had a few conversations about some possibilities for next year (being now). Atina was open to us renting some land from them. I think she may have even been the first to suggest it. We ultimately wanted to start a certified organic csa farm to serve the southern twin cities area (a subscription-like service where customers join a farm and receive a box of produce each week of whatever is in season at the moment. stay tuned for more info on this...)
Partnering with Gardens of Eagan on this would be a spectacular marketing point, and our presence on their farm for a few years would provide them with some benefits as well: experienced labor and fostering a sense of community. I hope that another benefit is that they just plain feel good about being able to be generous and mentors. It is such a gift, to us, and to their present and previous interns. There would not be any other way that we could start farming right now. Our dreams would be put on hold. Only time will tell if we really truly are loonatics to dedicate our whole professional, personal, and financial lives to organic farming.

For now, we've got the right people on our side, and that makes all the difference.