A farm is a good place for a relationship to blossom. When we decided to buy our farm in 2007, Heather and I had not even been together for a year. It seems rather rushed and crazy looking back, and you would think we would’ve had lots of people telling us so, but the question we got was “what are you doing buying a farm?,” rather than “what are you doing buying a farm together”?
But the farm has proven to be as good of a place for growing a relationship as it has for growing organic vegetables. Part of what makes organic vegetables healthy is that they have to face adversity, from pests above and below ground to moulds and plant diseases that are constantly seeking to turn a plant back into soil. A healthy plant produces compounds that help it defend itself against these attacks. It is these compounds that, when eaten by humans, helps us fight off things that work to decay our own bodies.
We were married April 9, 2012.
And so it is with the organic farm family. Owning and operating a farm is very challenging, from the long, hard hours and limited ability to take holidays or even days off to spend with one another to the financial strain of building a business in an industry not known for its economic viability. But it is these things that can make a healthy relationship stronger. From getting creative to find ways to spend time with one another to ensuring good communication when the stress of paying the bills adds up, we have grown together in a way we wouldn’t have in our comfortable life in downtown Victoria.
After seven years together, our relationship is well rooted. This past September we welcomed our first child, Isaac, into our family. How fitting that he arrived during the hectic harvest season.