Book Review: Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers, by Lisa Kivirist

image-front-cover_coverbookpageBook Review: Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers, by Lisa Kivirist

New Society Publishers, 2016, ISBN 978-0-86571-805-0. $24.95

Although women are not a minority, we are among the “traditionally under-served” as farmers by the colleges, universities and government agencies supporting farmers. Lisa Kivirist is a national advocate for women farmers and the co-author of several books on earning a living from rural enterprises. In this book, Lisa combines years of her own experience with gems from other women farmers she knows. Full disclosure – I am one of the women farmers she interviewed. She farms in Wisconsin and I farm in Virginia. We meet up from time to time at Mother Earth News Fairs, where we are sometimes speakers.

Soil Sisters is specifically about the experience of women in farming. Whenever Patricia Schroeder, Colorado’s first Congresswoman (1973-1996) was asked why she was “running as a woman”, she replied “What choice do I have?” Similarly, women farmers deal with all the issues of farming (hard physical and mental work, the weather, the need to earn a living) the same as male farmers do, along with the challenges of attitudes from some people about women doing what some see as “men’s work” and the cultural challenges of perhaps being raised with too many clean frilly dresses and not enough toy wheelbarrows and construction kits.

This book has four main sections: the history and reality of women in farming; how and where to gain farming information; running a farm, sustaining the soil and the bank balance; and cultivating balance for mind, soul and body. Because Soil Sisters gathers together a wide range of information relevant to women, I think all women farmers will find something uniquely valuable here, whether it’s information about ergonomic tools, insight into a different approach to a challenge or a pervading sense of support and encouragement.

This book is good to read cover-to-cover, and also to dip into when you have a spare five minutes. Throughout the book are four series of sidebars. The “How she sows it” icon highlights a series of real-life stories from successful women farmers. The “Tool Shed” sequence provides practical tips and links to resources. The “Idea Seeds” are inspirational quotes, and the “Tip Jar” series has the gems of advice. I typed out the Tip Jar contents to pin to my wall. In the Tool Shed I found www.farmtransitions.org a collaborative venture providing free tools and templates for farmers passing their farms from one generation to another, to construct management plans to fit their goals and needs. In the Idea Seeds rack I found quotes from Catherine Friend, author of 41dsduwconl-_sx322_bo1204203200_

51uel1m3jsl-_ac_ul160_Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet and  Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn. I’m adding those books to me Winter Reading List!

The gender inequity in farming arises from the long story of women being legally barred from owning property or voting. From the history section I learned that married women could not own the income they earned from farming in one third of the states as late as 1887. Legally, this changed for the better in the 1900’s, but custom prevented wide acceptance of the law. As often the case, situations were even worse for women of color.

"Pitch in and help" Women's Land Army Poster, USDA National Agricultural Library
“Pitch in and help”
Women’s Land Army Poster, USDA National Agricultural Library

During the First World War, 20,000 women joined the Women’s Land Army of America and, as Lisa puts it, “blend[ed] patriotism with planting parsnips.” The vote came for women in 1920. The WLAA revived during the Second World War with the Victory Garden program. The Census of Agriculture only started counting women farmers in 1978. Women farmers were outliers. One pioneer, Denise O’Brien, founded the Women, Food and Agriculture Network, to promote the voice of women in farming.

Lisa has grouped women farmers into four broad categories: those choosing agriculture as a second career, those going it alone, new young farmers, and those returning to farm the family land. Having farmed in intentional communities for over 40 years, I check “none of the above”, and yet I found writing that spoke to me. In the solo operator section, Katie College put it succinctly that while we influence our own relationship to our farm and our own relationship to those we live with, we have no influence over the relationship between those we live with and the farm. It’s impossible and unethical to manipulate your life partners’ enthusiasm for the farm. That relationship is entirely outside of our circle of influence. We can only improve the aspects we do have influence over. “We pretend that the problem . . .is the lack of support from our partner, when in fact it might be that we ourselves aren’t managing the farm well.”

In the chapter about complementary on-farm enterprises, you can read all about unusual crops and livestock, selling crafts and home-made foods (whether in a commercial kitchen or under the Cottage Food Laws), running a B&B, farm events for the public. To balance wild dreams, here is information about the cottage food laws, when you need a food service license, what you need to know to serve food on your farm. The Tool Shed icon brings info about affordable legal help from Nolo and Legalzoom as well as finding tax, financial and marketing info. Lisa recommends Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses, free online  or from SARE.

Lisa takes us through the seven Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Partnerships and Purpose. She discusses the current options for online marketing, and stresses  the importance of being open to new technological developments with “continuing to grow that encyclopedia in your mind”.

The next section of the book was especially useful to me, a seasoned farmer

Green Heron Tools founders Ann Adams and Liz Brensinger
Green Heron Tools founders Ann Adams and Liz Brensinger

beginning to suffer the challenges of an aging body. Train year-round, balance physical activities on the farm with other sorts of workouts, yoga, stretches and strength-building routines. Buy tools designed for women’s bodies from Green Heron, use correct lifting techniques every time (see the Green Heron website).

The last section of the book includes four topics that need addressing but didn’t fit in earlier: Improve communication with men (at the feed store, government agency etc), Fit in, Find your tribe, Integrate your family into your lifestyle. On the topic of improving communication with men in the traditional male farmer domain, Lisa encourages us to use the Power Posing advocated by Amy Cuddy in her TED talk “Your Body Language Shapes who You Are”. In private, just before you’ll need to stand your ground, stand tall like Wonder Woman for two minutes, hands on hips. Weird as this may feel at first, over time, you notice it helping. Physiologically, doing this increases testosterone 20% and decreases cortisol  by 10%, leaving us more assertive and also calmer.

Fitting in is not caving in!  Lindsey Morris Carpenter advises doing these 11 things:

  1. find common ground with rural neighbors by giving everyone the same chance you would like them to give you,
  2. look out for your neighbors (tell them when their livestock escapes),
  3. know the lingo (don’t call hay straw!),
  4. start conversations on easy topics (the weather, wildlife sightings, country hobbies),
  5. practice tolerance and patience (choose your battles)
  6. join in local events
  7. engage in local trading
  8. give country music a chance (yes, really)
  9. be a good networker (pass on info on good local sources and opportunities)
  10. be proud of who you are (lead by example)
  11. make your own community (gather your tribe, don’t wait for them to seek you out!)

logoIntegrating family and kids into the farm is not one of my areas of expertise, but I recognize it’s of vital importance to many women farmers. I remember in the 70’s, as a WWOOFer in England, being asked wistfully by the woman of the farm whether housework and childcare were more equally shared in intentional communities and the women got more time to farm. Yes, indeedy!

The section on creating balance advises being efficient with your time by looking to other small-scale farmers for answers in solving challenges. Claire Hintz suggests an idea that hadn’t occurred to me; farmers in Eastern European countries or Mexico or Central America are particularly inventive as they have less cash and fewer purchase options and have to create many items themselves. Type your challenging situation into Google Translate and try Spanish, Ukrainian or Slovakian. Copy the key word in that language into YouTube, and watch carefully. Now then, when you read the phrase “farmers in Eastern European countries or Mexico or Central America” did you picture women or men?

There’s a good booklist of farm memoirs written by women. I’ve only read 5 of the 11 listed – more to add to my Winter Reading List! There’s an inspiring Working Manifesto that Maisie Ganz wrote for Soil Sisters Farm, that she and Willow Hein live by. There are tips from Kriss Marion, a “forty-something farmer” on staying fit and eating healthily. Don’t snack on lunchmeat sandwiches between tasks! Track your food input on WebMD – “You first, then the farm.” Kriss runs a “farm girl boot camp” Facebook page where she shares fitness and health tips.

Kriss Marion on her tractor. Photo Soil Sisters book
Kriss Marion on her tractor.
Photo Soil Sisters book

Cover Crops slideshow, speaking events, good reading, and spinach varieties

I’ve had a busy few weeks. On Thursday 9/29, I presented my new slideshow Cover Crops, to the Local Food Hub in Charlottesville. Here it is with a few bonus slides. Like most of my slideshows, you can find it on Slideshare. I’ll be presenting a shorter, more concise version at the Virginia Association for Biological Farming Conference January 9-11 (yes, midweek) at the Omni Homestead Resort, Hot Springs, VA.

On Saturday 10/1 I gave a shared presentation with Ira Wallace on the Seed Garden, at Lynchburg College. I’ll tell you more about that next week, once I’ve got the slideshow uploaded.

I found out that the Mother Earth News Fair in Pennsylvania where I gave two workshops and some tomato string-weaving demos, had 19,000 attendees! Quite the crowd! I’m hoping to get to the 2017 Fair in Asheville, NC and at least one other next year.


October 2016 cover 300

The October issue of Growing for Market magazine is out. There’s an article by Karin Tifft on Getting Started with Biological Pest Control. She writes in a very straightforward style, pointing out many mistakes to avoid, and navigating the route into a complex subject. Phil Norris writes from experience about growing in clay, covering water management, aeration, soil amendments and erecting a movable high tunnel (hoophouse) on clay. They hadn’t sufficiently anchored the structure, which was on a windy site. It blew a foot and a half to the south, and the clay held 3 of the 4 corner posts, saving the structure! Bret Grohsgal writes about introducing unusual crops to your customers successfully – free samples, higher prices, and follow-through, not discounts! the GfM editor, Andrew Mefford, reviews Shawn Jadrnicek’s new book, The Bio-Integrated Farm and Miraculous Abundance by Perrine and Charles Herve-Gruyer. Jane Tanner writes  about building a local flower movement.FarmersOfficeCoverjpg-250x300 The cover article is by Julia Shanks, author of the new book, The Farmer’s Office which I wrote about previously. I’m looking forward to reviewing a copy. In this article, Putting the Right Price on your Product, Julia covers all the aspects of price-setting: costs of production (direct costs, labor and overheads), analyzing what others are charging, and communicating value to your customers.


Photo courtesy of Organic Broadcaster and MOSES
Photo courtesy of Organic Broadcaster and MOSES

The September/October Organic Broadcaster has also arrived. The lead article shocked me by revealing that the increased demand for organic corn and soy in the US has lead to an increase in imports. The “organic” labeling of some is in question, as imports are required to meet he standards of the exporting country, not the US. Are we being chauvinist to expect these standards to be looser than USDA certification, or gullible to assume they are at least as stringent? Either way, cheaper imports are leading to lower prices, and difficulties for US Organic farmers. If you can, buy local. Another topic covered in this issue include the law requiring GMO (bioengineered) packaged food to be labeled (good!) but the information that the labeling is in those cryptic QR codes that need a smartphone to read them. There are also articles advising on precautions when putting organic grain into a grain bin previously used for non-organic crops; informing on how the National Organic Program protects organic integrity through oversight and regulation; advising on how to use fishmeal to improve poultry performance, how to create enterprise budgets to see what’s financially worthwhile, how to access farm-to-school programs,how to farm safely with children. Lisa Kivirist writes about the Rural Women’s Project in the Midwest. They have a summer workshop series, farm tours, conference, and lots of networking with over 5000 women farmers involved. An article on farmer-veterans in the Midwest speaks about the solidarity and practical help available.


Fall spinach Photo Wren Vile
Fall spinach
Photo Wren Vile

This week in the Twin Oaks garden we have been using the “ideal transplanting weather” (that means rain!) to move spinach and kale plants from clumps that came up well and survived the grasshoppers to bare patches.  Transplants survive so much better if planted late in the day during overcast weather or light rain.

Tyee spinach. Photo Johnnys Selected Seeds
Tyee spinach.
Photo Johnnys Selected Seeds

This fall we sowed three spinach varieties: our long-time favorite Tyee spinach which has been discontinued by the seed trade. We’re trying a couple of other savoyed or semi-savoyed varieties.

Avon spinach and purple-handed gardener. Photo Fedco Seeds
Avon spinach Fedco Seeds

Avon spinach from Fedco Seeds is a promising alternative (I just hope it doesn’t turn everyone’s hands purple as this photo suggests! ) 42 days to mature spinach. This variety starred in Fedco’s 2015 spinach trial A vigorous semi-savoy variety with large broad dark green leaves and a sweet mild ‘sprightly’ flavor. Tender leaf and stem, an upright spreading habit. Tyee had great bolt resistance but tended to yellow, slightly tough, leaves in the fall. Avon promises to hold well in heat and keep its good texture and appearance in the fall, while offering high yields early and late.

Chevelle spinach. Photo Enza Zaden
Chevelle spinach.
Photo Enza Zaden

We are also trying Chevelle spinach, which we bought from Osborne Seeds. Their website is out today, here’s their Phone: (360) 424-7333.

Our variety trials have not got off to a good start, because we are moving plants around so much to fill gaps. But we have got reliably labeled plants in our cold frames, where they will grow overwinter until we need the space for seed flats in spring.

 

 


Growing for Market May issue; this week in the garden

GFM_May2015_cover_600pxThe May issue of Growing for Market magazine is out, along with my article about hot weather salad crops. This follows my article last month about hot weather cooking greens.

My salad greens ideas include quick-growing Tokyo Bekana, Maruba Santoh and mizuna; purslanes; baby salad mixes including komatsuna, Yukina Savoy and Jewels of Opar; and garnishes like Spilanthes cress, red shiso, saltwort and microgreens. For years I have been perfecting the techniques needed to grow year round lettuce in Virginia (you can read about that in my book Sustainable Market Farming). It’s good to have more strings to our bows so we can be resilient in the face of unpredictable weather and changing climate.

The crop I am most excited about this summer is Jewels of Opar, also known as Fame flower. Southern Exposure Seed Exchange sells the seed, and have an interesting blogpost about this crop by Irena Hollowell. She heads her post “A Heat-Tolerant Leafy Green Vegetable Disguised as a Flower”. As you see in the July photo below, the plants continue to produce fresh leaves even as they make light sprigs of pretty little flowers and attractive fruits.

Jewels of Opar Photo by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
Jewels of Opar
Photo by Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

The cover article of this Growing for Market issue is Know Your Knots by Joanna and Eric Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm who I have mentioned before (Eric commented about frosted strawberry flowers on my previous post.) This is an example of the hands-on useful articles in Growing for Market – written by farmers for other farmers, with information that is sure to save time, and even materials. I’m looking at the square-lashed storage rack for keeping rottable things off the ground. I damaged our cold frame lids last year by leaving them stacked on edge on the ground all summer. We used to store them in the shed, but an increase in the other stuff stored in the shed meant no room left for seasonal storage of bulky coldframe lids. Now I know how to store them outside without damage. One of our mantras is “Never make the same mistake two years running!”

In this same GfM issue, Patty Wright has an article about Community Supported Agriculture Farms (CSAs), encouraging us farmers to look at our aspirations and celebrate the diversity of CSAs. The two principles of shared risk and community support are at the heart of the CSA movement, and there are different ways that these are put into practice. The more common aspirations we can share, the stronger the movement will be.

Gretel Adams has an article about attractive foliage for cut flower arrangements in spring, summer and autumn.

Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko, who I meet periodically as fellow presenters at the Mother Earth News Fairs have a new book Homemade for Sale: How to Set Up
and Market a Food Business From Your Home Kitchen, published by New Society Publishers. An excerpt from the book is in this issue. It covers how Cottage Food Laws apply to people making food products and selling them to neighbors and community. Many growers would like to process some of their crops for sale in the quieter parts of the season. This book will give inspiring examples and help you stay on the right side of the law.


Working in the greenhouse. Photo by Ira Wallace
Working in the greenhouse.
Photo by Ira Wallace
Early tomato plant in the hoophouse in late March. Photo Kathryn Simmons
Early tomato plant in the hoophouse in late March.
Photo Kathryn Simmons

The season of tending millions of seedlings is winding down. We are planting out more every day. yesterday we planted our maincrop slicing and cherry tomatoes. (The early crop is in the hoophouse).

We’re continuing our relentless schedule of planting out 120 lettuces each week. It’s time for us to set out celery, Malabar spinach and okra. And we’re about to launch out into the row-crop area of the garden again. First the big planting of 540 Roma paste tomatoes.

Re-using drip tape, unreeling it using our shuttle and garden cart system. Photo credit Luke Stovall
Re-using drip tape, unreeling it using our shuttle and garden cart system.
Photo credit Luke Stovall

We have measured and flagged the six 180′ rows. We need to run the drip tape, test it, fix problems, then unroll the biodegradable plastic mulch, then stake and rope where we want the rows to be, so we plant in straight rows. Then we’ll install the metal T-posts without spearing the hidden driptape (easiest if we run the irrigation while we do that, so the drip tape is fat and easier to locate.)

We’ll be transplanting for two hours a day for the next 4 weeks.