Now, I'd like to tell you about why the book I've started writing is a story that needs telling and also may create an avenue within which to generate funds that will help renovate the barn.If you know me - if you've read old Barn Diva posts - you won't be at all surprise to find that for me, it all starts with my time as a dairy princess. Funny it was a job I didn't want, and turned out to be one of the singular most influential experiences of my life!
If you ask a princess, I think you will find similar stories. The program and the experiences it provides, shows you how important it is to share the real-life experiences of living and working on a farm. I remember talking with students in the city schools in our county and realizing how little they knew about farming; and how excited they were to learn about cows! I remember talking to them about the health benefits of dairy products and how engaged they got in learning about how milk would help them grow big and strong.
And those connections, friends?
As a farm kid, I was *never* the first one out to the barn. Seriously, never. I was not a morning person. Chores were not the highlight of my existence. But sometimes when I was out there, I'd think about the kids we were feeding. Sometimes I'd think about the funny stories they'd share ("My dad's a farmer! He milks chickens, dogs, bulls, and sheep!"). It was times like that when I finally understood being a princess was actually an important job.
And today?Today, being a princess is an even MORE important job.
Because people don't begin to understand what farmers are doing. They don't see that big farms are still family farms. People don't understand that farmers don't make enough on the products they produce to pay their bills. People think plant-based beverages are the same as milk!
Aside: Thank you to our past princesses for your time and efforts for the industry. To the princesses of today - keep up the good work and KNOW your mission is an important one!
And does anyone understand why farms took the path of growth? Does anyone know why small farms are dying?
Yeah. I'm sure I don't fully know it all either. And the funny thing about this whole princess thing is - at least for me and a few of my past-princess friends - the mission really never leaves you. As a nutrition educator today, I still find myself telling the story of farming. Those are truly gratifying moments - it really never gets old!
So the book (or series, because the history of farming is definitely more than one book) will look at the path of farming - as seen through the eyes of a really remarkable child. In telling her story, we'll see how generations of family farms came to be where they are - and why beautiful barns like ours have come to stand as agricultural dinosaurs in the museum of modern agriculture. My hope is to be able to monetize a website and release chapters that - for a donation of your choice - you will be able to purchase and read knowing that your donation is going to restore a part of agricultural history.
It will be vitally important to hear the stories of farms. People who know farming in the early 1900's. People who can speak to the economic eras that pushed farms to change. Those times when there were hard choices to make - what drove you to make the choice you did? Would you change that if you could go back?
I am thankful to be part of a fantastic farm community! People who have made growing my girl as much a part of their passions as it is mine. This mission is about telling a story that encompasses the stories of the families I love best. It's about making another avenue for people who aren't connected to agriculture to gain some understanding of the generations of love and care that have gone into where we are today.
This IS the story I was meant to write.
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