“The jobs that I worked were a pickle factory and a spinnery and an apple orchard, All of those were learning how to operate in a system watching how other people create systems and deal with the logistics of production. I t…
“So I went around on the farm tour and I went to check out all their barns and I spent like eight weeks almost every day going to visit somebody, talking about their sheep. Going from barn to barn I realized, ‘Oh, everybody …
“I think for me, my pre-farming life had little experience in farming, but I think the way my parents raised me, it’s just being honest. It’s working hard and trying to build something bigger than you.”—Austin Troyer Austin …
“Problem solvers make the best farmers. If you’re not a problem solver, it makes your farming life so much harder.” I’ve known Jinny Cleland of Four Springs Farm in Royalton, Vermont for more than 20 years, which is about ha…
On first thinking about ranching bison, Matt said he thought “I’m a kid from suburban Chicago, I could never do that.” And then he went on with his day. As he describes it, “I didn’t entertain the thought of it, really. But …
“Yeah, neither Lisa or I grew up on a farm. So this is all new. This was not in our plans. I was chasing the corporate ladder. She was a public-school teacher. Then we started to look into food, which is a spiral. A downward…
“I would say the overarching of all of this is actually understanding that this is a business. Right? It’s great, it’s farming, it’s pastoral. It’s all these things., but at the end of the day, this is a business and a busin…