CIARA PRENCIPE
Ciara has been farming on the same farm in northern Virginia since 2013. They started working there seasonally while still in college, and has been working there full-time year round for 5 years now.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
I have kind of been farming with the same farm in Virginia for years now, since I started in 2013 working there seasonally while I was still in college. I’ve been full time year-round for 4 years. I don’t really have a title, but I am definitely like crew leader. I help with my bosses. There are three owners on the farm. One of them is the woman who started the farm who is now is her 80s, Hannah, and Hannah’s right hand woman Carey.
The farm has two pieces of land, one closer to Washington,DC is 6 acres, and I live out on the Loudon property, which is about 100 acres, but we farm 20 acres - half in cover crop, half in crop.
My job is to run morning meetings with the crew, train new people, train people on new tasks as they come up, managing harvest, organize food distribution, set up CSA members from our location, everything and anything… prepping for market. I’m not the primary person who does tractor work - that’s Hannah. Everything else I can do.
Day to day I am here - it’s been different every year. I’ve been here through several changes. We brought this other farmer on for a while and it didn’t work out personality wise, so I was here through that. My leadership in this organization has been building over the years, so nowadays I am the go-to person for the crew. I run the morning the meetings and I delegate all the tasks, with guidance from Hannah. She is the main conductor of this circus.
She comes out 2 or 3 days in the main season, more in the spring for ground prep. During the main season, she comes out on a schedule. She will come out Tuesday afternoon to bring back food for the Wednesday CSA. Thursday and Friday morning to bring back market loads for the weekend.
We go to 7 different farmers’ markets. We have 500 member CSA. The property I’m on grows a lot of the food, we have so much more acerage than the other property - we grow the crops that require more ground. Sweet potatoes, tomatoes, egpplant, winter squash. We are constantly moving food between the two farms depending on who is growing what and what day of the week it is. It’s a very dynamic system.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
I discovered I loved farming when I started WWOOFing.
I WWOOFed in Israel and Portugal in 2012. And I took a permaculture design course when I was abroad. I came back and this farm was my first paid farm gig in the fall of 2013. I went back to school in 2014 for sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson college and worked on the farm with cows and sheep. By senior year, I was the student sheep manager. Professionally and as a career I’ve been doing this since 2013.
After I graduated from college, I took a year off of farming to make sure I wasn’t going to burn out really quickly. After that year I came back to this farm and have been here ever since.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
I did the first year of college studying music and engineering. The music part I loved. I’d done music since I was a little kid. The engineering part I thought could get me into renewable energy. I have always been interested in environmental science and the climate, but i found it to be so dull and I just didn’t feel connected to my peers. We had different values. So I dropped out. I had no idea what to do, so I asked other people about a gap year. I had a friend of a friend who had WWOOFed in Portugal and said it was awesome.
I totally fell into it. I didn’t expect to fall in love with farming.
It’s so fun and cool and meaningful.
It was a big surprise to me.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
Well I’m 27 now and financially where I am at now, I don’t feel prepared to buy a piece of property and farm. At first when I started, I dreamt of having my own farm. As I’ve gotten deeper in my role here at the farm, I see value in coming into an established organization and growing here and finding a place here. It can be hard to find the right place. I feel really lucky that I found this place that fits me. It’s like getting married - it’s not something to take lightly to find a farm to stay at for a long time. I lucked my way onto this farm. It’s women run and I really like the ethos of the farm and the people are just incredible. I grew up in Virginia so I’m near my family so in a lot of ways this checks all the boxes without having to undergo the stress and hardship even though I’m sure it would amazing, but it would really hard to start something from scratch.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
Because I’m not in control of the space, I don’t always decide who is hired, who lives here, etc. The owners get to decide and have more of a say here. I have to go with the flow. There have been people who have worked for the farm who I really don’t get along with, but I have to learn to work with. Ultimately it’s been good because I’ve learned to work with people that aren’t my first choice. By and large this place fits me so well that the growing pains along the way are me growing as a farmer and wanting to make more decisions and Hannah and Carey seeing that and giving me more room to grow over time.
Yeah I think I have to work within the structure that is already here - big CSA and 7 farmers’ markets. If I was making a farm from scratch, i would not decide to go to 7 farmers’ markets but that is the game that we are playing here.
The lack of control is a challenge, even though overall I feel like I get a ton of say in the process.
Now I have a say in who is here. We get a lot of incredible people applying for the farm. We get a lot of incredible applicants. We tend to have an incredible crew every single year.
We hire some incredible people. I’m there for interviews with people who are gonna be out here. She (the farm owner) forwards me people who she is thinking about.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
The thing that keeps me coming back here is the leadership of this farm. Both Hannah and Carey are incredible farmers. I’ve learned so much from them. There is a robust community around the farm, budding intentional community starting at the farm out here. Halfway I’m a part of and halfway not. I’m friends with all of those people. Having a community on the farm is really important for my happiness and we have potlucks. We don’t know what we are going to do about potlucks in the current climate (with COVID-19).
We have potlucks once a week, community lunches, different events or parties - we have a lot of fun in the community. It could sound frivolous, but I think it’s really important.
Every year we do the racial justice/racial equity challenge, so we’re like grappling with these larger issues of racism and sexism and you know transphobia in the larger society and trying to create a space that is inclusive. It has been easier for us to trans inclusive. It’s a majority white space and has been for a really long time. That is something that we are working on that we know won’t be immediately solved. That is really important to me. There is a market we go to that serves low income and immigrant communities where people pay with their WIC money and their WIC money is doubled. Having a market that isn’t just selling to mostly white rich folks is important.
The mission aspects of the farm keep me feeling inspired and that our work is meaningful. The support I get at work for me growing as a farmer and for me personally - I am salaried, year round, work with really flexible vacation and sick leave. I never have to do anything but say I’m sick, I’m not coming in today or giving 2 weeks advance for being out of town, I just get that time off. I have health insurance. I have a decent salary - every single person on the farm from to the newest person to me is paid well - we are underpaid, of course, but I make a good living. I have subsidized housing here and as much food as I want. Where else could I find a farm job where I am fully supported as a learning farmer? Flexible time off, health insurance, salary.
This farm because it’s been around so long, it’s kind of a bigger farm - we employ a lot of people. If you are here for 3 years or more and if the farm makes a profit, you get a share of that profit, that goes into a retirement account.
I have a retirement account from farming! That’s crazy!
Why would I leave?
I do work 6 days a week. I’m trying for 5 days. I definitely get one full day off every week. I work Tuesday - Saturday most weeks.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 7:30am- 5pm
Friday 6am-5pm
Saturday 5am - 2pm
Maybe another half day here or there.
I am on call always during peak season. It does take up a huge amount of time.
“It’s like getting married - it’s not something to take lightly to find a farm to stay at for a long time.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I don’t know, I just love it so much. I love being outside. I love working with my body. I love the puzzle of farming, piecing everything together- how much ground you have, how much ground you need, the puzzle of crop rotation, the constant figuring stuff out, problem solving.
Also how useful it is to people. I don’t think I could do anything that is not immediately useful to other people. That is part of my spiritual being. I love growing food and I love feeding people. It’s so meaningful to me.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
I consider myself a farmer. I think farmworker would imply less decision making and overall maybe full picture of the farm and its operations. I think farm workers can be incredibly knowledgeable. When I think about the difference between me and a farmworker/new person, it’s that I would make decisions and explain things, and they would be following directions. There is no reason why a farmworker wouldn’t become a farmer - it’s about knowledge, not about ownership at all.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
Absolutely - I love being a woman and love being a farmer. Working for this woman run farm, I think it’s awesome. I want to shout it out whenever any asks me about it.
I’m not going to undersell myself. I have done it for years and years and years and I have a lot of knowledge and experience.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
I think the things that have made it doable for me are consistent days off, health insurance and decent pay and a say in decision making. Being a voice that is heard in the decision making process. If I didn’t have this it would be hard to continue doing this work.
The more the farm can provide housing and food, the easier it is to get by on farmer’s wages. I don’t know any farmers who are making a great living and there is a robust community of farmers around here, but being able to provide you with housing and food, it does make it better because society runs so much on money. If you’re here for the lifestyle, housing and food will help.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
If it wasn’t such meaningful work to me, I don’t know how it would be worth it to do what we do. For me it’s very purpose driven work.
The farm has a history of bringing people on to become owners. So Hannah and her mom, Huy, were owners and then they brought on Ellen. She was the farmer out here on the property where I am for a really long time, like 25 years - she was an owner. They brought her on and made her an owner. When she retired, they had to buy her out, and then Carey who lives on the other farm property had been there for 7-8 years and it was clear that she was going to be there for the rest of her life. It was a gift to her. She was gifted part ownership of the farm.
The farm has a good track record of taking care of people who take care of the farm.
I’m building a tiny house on the farm and I’m getting a lot of support. I can park it anywhere on the farm.
Getting health insurance was huge. I have depression and need to be on meds to be fully functional. The farm showed that they really value me and care about me. They meet my needs as a person and not just a worker. I feel valued and loved by my community .
I will say I don’t know how I will afford to have kids. My partner is in grad school. We are looking into how he can make much more money than me. It’s a tension between us - I’m going to live on the farm. How are we going to manage following my dreams and meeting his needs. He has so much student loan debt. I am dedicating my life to this work; it feels like a calling. It can sound crazy for people who aren’t farmers.
We are actually in the middle of this painful long complicated process of figuring out what this is going to look like when he gets out of school. For a long time I thought I would just leave the farm. The other day he said, “you can’t leave here” and I agreed. It is a dream scenario, it’s an impossible situation. We want to live our lives together and have kids and all of that stuff, but I have found a fit that is so perfect at this farm that it would be crazy for me to leave. I feel hopeful - I’m very passion driven and he is very practical - that we can somehow figure out a way to make things work. It’s throwing a wrench in our situation.
I’m being honest that i don't want to leave. It’s a much easier place to come from than not really realizing how deeply committed I am to this farm.
WHAT IS YOUR OPINION/TAKE ON THE FARMER LUNCH? (DO YOU TAKE LUNCH, DO YOU SKIP LUNCH, DO YOU ENJOY TAKING LUNCH WITH YOUR CREW - FOR COMMUNITY BUILDING, IS THERE PRESSURE TO BE SOCIAL....)
When I was commuting to the farm, we got 30 minute paid lunch and that was fine because I was working a shorter day anyway. Now that I live on the farm, I really like having an hour lunch. We do an hour lunch every day pretty much no matter what. Sometimes I will come back from lunch early to prep something because I’m trying to squeeze the most out of my day. I think it’s important to have a consistent ending time for the day (which is 5 o’clock). The only day we go over that is Fridays because we are prepping for market, but we still try our darndest to be done by 5 and have an hour lunch.
Last year on Tuesdays we had community lunch. Two people from the crew would go an hour before and cook for every one. Wednesday people are on their own and we sit at picnic tables. Thursdays we have potlucks with four farms within walking distance, some of them would come and have a potluck with us from 12:30 - 1:30. Then Friday we experimented with having a shorter lunch where someone would cook for everyone. We would eat and get back to work to have a shorter day. It came out that people would rather have a longer lunch than rush through and get back to work.