I was a fourth generation to grow up on a dairy farm in upstate New York. We had a 100 head of cattle that supplied us with milk that was our main income source. We raised pigs, chickens, ducks, and rabbits, and also did hunting and fishing all for food. In addition we had a massive family garden that sustained us for the entire year. In the late 80s we sold our family farm due to high trucking costs, low milk prices, ever rising overhead and taxes to run that farm.

As I move on through life, I brought with me the practices that I learned on the farm. To this day I have a huge garden in our back yard to sustain my family. I will be adding chickens next Spring. I miss being on the farm, the life was hard and it was working 7 days a week yet it was rewarding. I get all of our meat and eggs and milk from locals in support of them.

Society is so far removed from agriculture and horticulture and we need to bring that back into the foreground of life.