So You Want to be a Farmer? What I Learned My First Year of Running My Own Farm!

Tara harvesting haricots verts in September.

 BY: TARA TRANGUCH, CONTRIBUTOR

In March 2013, I wrote a post for Strictly Nutritious explaining why I had left my corporate job to pursue a career working in the dirt... with plants. The post was published on the eve of my first season of running my own farm, Serafina Says Farm - a vegetable, superfood and wellness farm in Canton, Connecticut. Today I'm back to share all the unexpected revelations I had during my first season!

I was prepared for the hard physical labor, the dirt and bugs, and even for the long days of monotonous labor that ended in happy exhaustion. I had adjusted to these aspects of farming during my apprenticeship. The demands on a worker bee, however, differ from those on the solo-preneur starting and running her own company. During my first season as a farmer, the physical labor became secondary to the transformation my thinking underwent. Physically, yes, I changed - I put on 7 lbs. of muscle this summer. But my greatest transformation has been in how I view myself and the work I do.

Napoli and Dragon carrots ready for CSA pick-up

Revelation #1: How do I define success?

The big question everyone asks me is this - "Was your first year of farming a success?". Answering this question, however, is not so simple. What does it mean for me to be "successful"?

In the past, I measured success based on the metrics provided to me by the institution I was a part of. In school, it was grades given to me by teachers. In the office, it was projects I was assigned to, the reviews and promotions I was given, and the way my financial compensation grew over time (with a big emphasis on financial compensation). In life, success and progress are usually measured via a comparison to others. Suddenly, as a start-up farmer, I had no metrics by which to measure success. I had to really ask the question - "What does success mean to me?".

Tara washing parsnips, October 2013.

Answering this question led me to yet another question - "What do I value?". Do I value money? Time spent with family and friends? Time spent with plants? Do I value helping others achieve greater health? Do I value growing and offering beautiful, nutritious, delicious produce? I had never asked myself these questions. Someone else had always told me how to define success. The realization that I have the ability to shape my own metrics for what a fulfilling life looks like was a completely new concept.

Yes, my first year was a success based on the metrics that I lived each day full of joy, that I continually learned about plants, food, business and health, that my farm customers ate very well, and that both my health coaching clients and farm clients experienced improved health and lived more authentic lives with greater vitality. But... this is still a work in progress. For my second growing year, I am learning to set concrete metrics to lead to a clear vision of what personal and business success means to me.


Revelation #2: Forget the To-Do List!

What does it mean to be productive? Is productivity working 60 hours a week? Is it being connected 24/7? As an entrepreneur, it is too easy to think that one is never working enough, as there is always more work to do. Halfway through the summer, I had an epiphany - I am a farmer... I don't have a To-Do List. I have a This-Is-All-Happening-In-Warp-Speed-Right-Now-So-Just-Try-To-Hold-On-The-Best-You-Can List. Life happens without me. Plants grow without me (and can I just add an aside here?: Hallelujah! Thank you for this miracle!). So even though I have a long list of tasks as a result of my business plan, life is still happening, pointing me towards the most important task - making sure the vegetables on my farm grow into a delicious harvest.

Which task do you think takes priority?

The potato field on July 4, 2013.

After one season, my business is no longer run on a static business plan-generated to-do list, because following a to-do list does not ensure that the required end result will occur (I suspect this was always the case, but I never realized it before being 100% responsible for the end result). Now my weekly activities are directed by the following dynamic considerations - the weather, bugs, weeds, plants, the external aspect of the business, the internal maintenance work and then the annual business plan.

The result of following a more dynamic list dictated by external circumstances versus my own internal plans has changed the way I work. First, I am more aware of what is happening around me, and I react more quickly to situations and make decisions immediately. Second, I procrastinate less. I have witnessed firsthand the destruction that not making quick decisions has on a farm. For example, in June I noticed squash bug eggs on my summer squash. I started to pick them off, but they kept appearing and I realized I needed to take more drastic actions. I researched the various options available to me, but I was unsure as to which approach to choose and therefore, did nothing. By the end of July, my summer squash were gone, and I had lost the winter squash crop too. I learned then that it is better to make the wrong decision than to make no decision at all.

Cherry Tomato harvest, September 2013

Revelation #3: Perfection does not exist.

I recognized one reason that was holding me back from making quick decisions - I was worried about not making the right decision. I didn't want to do things the wrong way. Well, perfection does not exist in nature, and certainly not in human beings. The realization that I will never be a perfect farmer translated to me realizing I will never be perfect in anything I do. What a liberating realization! Releasing myself from the expectation of perfection has freed me to take more risks, to create more, and most importantly, to have more fun with work! After all, if I am not having fun, then what is the point?

By mid-August, I was exhausted from the long weeks. And I realized that my mindset was similar to what it had been while I was in my corporate job - I was thinking and reacting the same way I had while going to work in an office every day. I asked myself: what was the point of changing careers, countries and leaving my comfy, cushy life if my own mindset didn't change?. From that point forward, I started working out of joy rather than out of obligation.

I realized that changing circumstances does not necessarily change a person. We have to be ready to change ourselves.

Tara selling microgreens, sprouts, wheatgrass and artisanal raw food at the winter Coventry Regional Farmers' Market, November 2013

Revelation #4: Transformation is liberating.

As 2013 wraps up and I start my planning for 2014, I see the steps I took this past year as an integral step along the path towards living my own authentic life as a steward of the land. To live authentically means to live liberated from conceptions, judgments and the expectations of who you should be. It means to be present in each moment, embodying courage and joy, and living in peaceful harmony with one's environment. Leaving my corporate job to follow my dreams was one step towards living authentically, but the plants and the world still have much to teach me, and I still have much to experience and realize about myself.

A few months ago in an interview, I was asked at what point during my first season did I feel like I had arrived? As a farmer, I do not feel that I have arrived, yet that is OK with me because the realizations and tranformation I have undergone this year have made the journey much more fun!

Tara Tranguch is the owner, farmer and health coach behind Serafina Says Farm - a vegetable, superfood and wellness farm in Canton, Connecticut. If you would like to join the farm's Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Farm Share for the 2014 season, or you would like to learn about her Wellness Workshops, sign up for the farm's newsletter at www.taratranguch.com or contact Tara at serafinasays@yahoo.com.

The Experts Weigh In: How I Became A Farmer

Tara at Ferme de Gally in France.

BY: TARA TRANGUCH, GUEST CONTRIBUTOR

On my 35th birthday, I was living in Paris, France, working at the headquarters of a telecoms manufacturing company. I spent my birthday tied to my desk on back-to-back global conference calls for 7 straight hours. When I went to sleep that night, I pledged that on my 36th birthday, I would not be doing the same type of work. 

Don't get me wrong - I loved living in Paris, and I honestly enjoyed working with my colleagues. I was blessed with a wonderful boss who mentored me and put me on interesting projects. Sure, there were the usual bureaucratic headaches that most employees of multi-national companies face today, but overall, my life was nothing to complain about! 

But... something was missing.

Tara in Champ de Mars, Paris.

I had started to realize that, upon waking, I was already looking forward to the end of the workday. On Mondays, I was already looking forward to the upcoming weekend, and I was starting to live for the next holiday. That was not the kind of life I wanted to continue living. So I asked myself "what do you want to do?".

My inner voice answered that question with the same response it had repeated for the past few years. To be honest, I think it was pretty tired of answering that question, as each time it voiced the answer, I brushed it off with an emphatic "Well that's just not possible! Be reasonable, Tara!". But nevertheless, that inner voice responded yet again "You want to be a farmer. You want to grow vegetables and work in the dirt".

I believe that inner voice is the innate truth within each of us that knows who we are and want we truly want. It is not governed by reason, and in fact, reason is its greatest opponent. In the world of scientific, rational thought in which we live, reason usually wins. But not this time.

As I fell asleep on my 35th birthday, I replied, "Ok. I'm going to be a farmer".

Kale microgreens

Many people ask me where this desire came from. No one in my family works in agriculture, I majored in English and Chinese, and my career up until last year was in telecoms. There is no logical explanation, but there is a story - my story about my journey towards greater health and wellness.

I lived in China for most of my 20's. One Chinese New Year, I went with my girlfriends to Thailand for my first fast/cleanse/detox experience. It was only 3 days without food, but this cleanse sparked a change in the direction of my life. The next year I went on a 5 day cleanse, the following year a 7 day and by the next year, I was going on an annual detox. When I moved to Paris, making a ticket to Thailand less convenient and economical, I started doing 10 day juice cleanses at home. With each fast, I shed addictions - smoking being the biggest one. Sugar cravings and yeast addictions were another. One year during the standard post-fast 7-day raw food diet, I decided to keep going and to earnestly explore the vegan raw food diet. During the two years that I was high raw, I met David Wolfe and George Lamoureux and began integrating superfoods and superherbs into my diet. In fact, it was the winter right before I turned 35 that I met George Lamoureux of Jing Herbs. I told him what herbs and medicinal mushrooms I had been taking and in what quantities (roughly 1/2 tsp./day each of reishi mushrooms, eucommia and astragalus, for those who are curious), and he said to me "Time to increase the dosage. You are ready for a transformation". So I did, and within three months of our encounter, I had taken the leap of faith to change careers and try farming.

There is no logic to this story. How can a fast from food, a raw vegan diet and medicinal mushrooms lead to such a drastic change in lifestyle? Is there a logical explanation? Or is there perhaps a more - what we could consider - magical explanation? 

I believe that the plants themselves called me to a different kind of life.

Mung bean sprouts

Now before you mutter 'hippie chick' and exit the page, I'd like to state my case. Since making the shift to being a farmer, I have come across various webinars and essays about the communicative relationship between humans and plants. Stephen Harrod Buhner in The Lost Language of Plants describes how we are trained in reductionism, to look at the earth as a series of isolated units that function as a machine to support the human race. He says that our current cultural epistemology has us viewing ourselves as isolated from other life forms. Prior to this universe-as-machine mode of thinking brought about by the Industrial Revolution, people perceived nature as alive with intelligence and soul. They saw "Earth as a living being, not a ball of resources inhabited by human beings hurtling through space". He goes on to write: "We have always lived, surrounded by original language".

Part of that original language is generated by plants. Plants communicate through our nose, our skin, our eyes and our tongue. Buhner provides countless examples of cultures who listen to plants. For example, the Iroquois believe that if a person becomes ill, the plant that can heal that particular illness will stand up and begin calling to the ill person. Buhner writes, "To a Heliconius butterfly, a honeybee, or a moth this would not be strange; they would understand". I believe that my ingestion of plants and my openness to their nutritional and health-building properties resulted in them taking a leading role in my life's journey. 

They have called me to work with them.

Tara at Devon Point Farm in Woodstock, CT.

So how has this leap of faith panned out? Last year, I started farming as an apprentice at Devon Point Farm in Woodstock, Connecticut. Following the apprenticeship, I started my own farm, Serafina Says Farm. I currently grow sprouts and microgreens and make artisanal raw living foods for sale at farmers' markets, a local co-op, an organic delivery service and a few local restaurants. This coming season, I will grow organic vegetables for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) on 2 1/2 acres of leased farmland plots in Canton and Simsbury, Connecticut. In parallel, I am training to become a Certified Health Coach via the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (IIN). This is where I met Lauren!

Being a new farmer and an entrepreneur has its own challenges, but every day I wake up living for each moment. I love what I do all the time! Weekdays are just as enjoyable as weekends. Mondays are great because they signal the start of new projects, and I have an inner peace that was previously missing because I know that I'm doing what I'm meant to do. As I'm still a new farmer, I don't have more to share with you yet on what it's like to run my own farm, but I would love to come back at the end of the growing season and let you know how this first year goes. Wish me luck!

My concluding words to those of you who have made it this far: In my experience, the path to health and wellness if a step-by-step process. It's a lifelong journey that will change not only your physical well-being but also your mental well-being. Changing your diet and flushing out toxins will enable you to listen to your inner voice, to have the courage to live the life you dream about and to be who you are meant to be. It is not an overnight journey and you can never be sure of where the journey will take you. So take that first step, because the world is full of magic and mystery.

If I wasn't experiencing it firsthand, I'm not sure I would believe it either!

Devon Point Farm in Woodstock, CT

Tara Tranguch is a former corporate world maven turned farmer. Last year, she left her life in Paris and moved to her home state of Connecticut to pursue her inner passion. Tara now runs her own farm, Serafina Says Farm, where she grows sprouts and microgreens and makes artisanal raw living foods. She confesses to being really in love with plants - so much so that she's  currently dreaming up a way to make her living room rug into a patch of living grass. In her own words, "Wouldn't it be great to sit on the grass while watching a movie, or walk on grass while inside?". If Tara were stranded on a deserted island, she'd be just fine eating coconuts and seaweed for the rest of her life, and when it comes to guilty pleasures, Tara admits to loving the new TV show The Carrie Diaries because it allows her to relive her childhood in the 80's. If you ever find yourself at a farmer's market in Connecticut, look for Tara's goods!

The Experts Weigh In: Cooking Up Jungle Gourmet

BY: SARAH KAGAN, CONTRIBUTOR

Every cook has a story of his or her ‘journey’ into the world of food. It often starts at a grandmother’s kitchen table, with memories of floured hands rolling fresh dough or the smell of a ‘signature’ dish in the oven. Similarly, I grew up in a house where family dinner was a nightly commitment, and I logged some serious hours with my mom in the kitchen. So while my culinary journey started at a very young age, it wasn’t until this last year that I really started to make it my own.

It was exactly this time last year that my boat pulled up on Padi’s beach. I had ventured to Costa Rica to work as a chef at Punta Mona, a center for sustainable living and education a mere two hour hike through the jungle from Puerto Viejo, the last town north of Panama on the Caribbean coast. And while I undoubtedly learned to cook at the hem of my mother’s apron [poetic license – my mom doesn’t actually wear an apron], it wasn’t until I went to Costa Rica that I learned to really love food; to move beyond the stove [although I certainly spent a lot of time behind it] and start to really see the full picture.

Have you ever come up with a menu plan and then grabbed your boots and machete to go gather your ingredients? I have.

Have you ever gathered coconuts, shucked them, scraped out the insides, and processed the meat to make your own coconut milk? I have.

Have you ever peeled rotting bananas, let them ferment for three weeks, and then squeeze out the juice to make vinegar for salad dressing? I have.

Have you ever planted hot peppers and then turned them into your own hot sauce? Watched a single fruit ripen on a tree for days until it’s just right? Gone to the greenhouse at 2 a.m. just to encourage the plants to grow? Eaten a meal made entirely of things planted, harvested, and prepared by your own hands, all within 100 yards of your bedroom? I have.

I learned to identify at least three different kinds of limes, as well as fruits with foreign names and exotic flavors. I learned to cook vegetables that were considered poisonous if not prepared properly [talk about stressful!], and I can confidently build and cook over a fire with the best of them. And yes, I learned that it is possible to eat too much raw cacao [It’s bad, trust me].

At Punta Mona, food wasn’t just about sustenance. Food was everything. An excerpt from my journal at the time:

‘The cries and moans of excitement and joy heard at least once a day over a piece of exceptionally delicious, fresh fruit never fails to make me laugh. You would think it was 

some sort of a ‘fantasy island’, and I guess in a way it is.  

It’s that kind of simple pleasure that governs life here in the jungle.’

The meals prepared in our open, outdoor kitchen, which produced three meals a day for up to forty-five people on two gas burners, an open fire, and no refrigeration, were a direct reflection of the love put into the land.

Every meal was a small miracle, and my holistic understanding and appreciation for food is firmly rooted [pun intended] in my time spent at the farm.

A few nights ago, I played 'personal chef' in Lauren's kitchen. My Rondon-Caribbean Coconut Stew is classic Caribbean fare, and was a staple at Punta Mona. Rondon can be loosely translated to ‘run down’, and is typically made with whatever leftover meat or fish you’ve ‘run down to’ at the end of the week. We never had any meat at the farm, but we always had a plethora of vegetables to use and it never came out the same way twice. This dish always took a while to prepare, as it required cleaning and slicing some pretty substantial root vegetables and grinding a ton of coconuts for milk. But it was worth the work - the result is a thick, flavorful, slightly spicy, super satisfying stew packed with farm fresh produce. Served with plantain chips and toasted coconut [sauté pan + coconut + soy sauce … I die], you can practically feel the Caribbean sun beating down.

Rondon – Caribbean Coconut Stew

If you can’t find the Caribbean vegetables, any root vegetable combination would be good. Try to find yucca if you can… it adds a lot of thickness to the broth and is also just delicious.

1 medium yucca, peeled, washed, and cubed

1 medium yellow yam, peeled, washed, and chunked

2 large carrots, peeled and sliced

2 small / medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 onion, diced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 Tbs. fresh minced ginger

1 small hot pepper, seeded and minced

1 can of coconut milk

1 Tbs. curry powder [or more]

S&P

In a large pot, sauté the onions in oil [coconut oil if you have it] until tender. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds to a minute.

Add the coconut milk and all your vegetables to the pot. Add about ½ - 1 cup or so of water, or enough that your vegetables are mostly covered but not totally. [You can also add more coconut milk if you have a lot of vegetables].

Reduce the heat to medium-low, and let the vegetables simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the minced hot pepper, curry powder, and salt and pepper. Continue to simmer the vegetables until everything is tender.

While the vegetables are simmering, prepare your plantain chips...

Plantain Chips

A classic Caribbean side dish. Although typically fried, I started mine in a pan and then moved them to the oven in an effort to make them a little healthier. Delicious.

2 green plantains

2 T. EVOO [or coconut oil]

Salt

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tin foil.

Peel and slice the plantains into ¼ inch thick disks.

Heat the oil in a sauté pan over medium – medium / high heat. Add the plantains in a single layer [I did two batches] and cook until the outside is slightly browned [about 1-2 minutes per side]. Transfer to a foil lined baking sheet, spray with a little cooking spray and add salt. Mix all the chips together.

Bake for 10-ish minutes. Try not to eat all of them before dinner is ready.

Buen Provecho!

Sarah Kagan landed in Brooklyn this Fall, and man, I'm glad she did! We discovered we were neighbors after crossing paths at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Our friendship has been fast and furious. I mean, hello! She cooks for me! Who wouldn't adopt her? We also share a love for all things Costa Rica, having both lived there previously. Sarah is also a certified yoga teacher, having received her certification in India, where she lived in an ashram for 6 weeks and practiced yoga for 5-6 hours a day. In her free time, you can find her running in the park (she just completed her first half-marathon!) or cruising through the farmer's market for fresh goods. Sarah also teaches cooking classes in the city and is the new Director of Health and Wellness for Butter Beans Kitchen. You just might find her teaming up with me very soon to run nutrition and cooking workshops... so stay tuned! Sarah is a mover and a shaker! Who knows where she'll be next!

Check out Sarah's blog Beyond the Batter for more great recipes!