Do you ever see or hear something that just stop you in your tracks? I recently checked my Facebook memories, which I do often because I just love seeing what we were up to over the years. It reminds me of how little the girls once were. Anyways, I had a Facebook memory pop up from 6 years ago and it was one that just stopped me in my tracks. It was just a post that I had re-shared, nothing original. The post had a picture with this quote....
“If you stopped spending money at the grocery store next week they would never know you were gone. If you took a small fraction of that money and spent it at the farmers market you would help a local farmer pay the rent. You may even save his farm.”
You're probably thinking "well that definitely sounds like something you would say/share, so why is this something that would stop you in your tracks?" The thing is, I shared this 6 years ago.
Our family photo from the Fall 2014
You see, 6 years ago we were still living in Ohio and had not even thought about moving out of state. I was still working full time as a Nursing Home Administrator and was currently on maternity leave, not knowing soon after I would return to work I would be informed my job would be downsized. Kenny was still working full time for Ohio State University and didn’t know yet he was ready for a change. Our youngest Farmer girl was only 1 month old and our oldest hadn't even started preschool yet. We had quite a few cows but hadn't yet started raising them for beef, we would have calves in the spring and sell them in the fall.
This was definitely before we owned a farm or started our direct marketing beef business This was all before we became vendors at farmers markets or before being elected to serve for our fellow farmers on the farmers market advisory committee. It was before we fully grasped the impact that buying local foods (or anything for that matter) can have on family. It was before we were that family farm, the family farm that was able to pay our mortgage because you chose to buy and eat local.
On our own farm in Rio, Wisconsin
Every year when I see this memory pop up I am stopped in my tracks. I feel a great sense of gratitude and responsibility to our friends, family, neighbors, and community all at the sometime because I think that maybe, just maybe we didn’t choose this life, it chose us. And we couldn’t be happier that it did!