EMMA DOOLEY
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Emma is going into her third year farming on farms not her own. She currently works on a vegetable farm in southwestern New Hampshire, and has also farmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
I am currently a farm hand for a farm that is coming into birth right now. We kind of created our titles last season, as farm apprentices. Now I’m going to be farm hand. We just plowed up 2.5 acres and we’ll be growing all that in vegetables next season. We’ll have cows and chickens and berry bushes and vegetables.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
This is my third year. My first farm internship was in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
I was working as a mental health worker in downstate New York where I’m from, and I had been doing it for two years and could see how I was going to get worse at my job if I kept doing it. I kind of thought about other ways that I could help people in a diversified way and also take care of myself. Food came up as something I both love and that could contribute to people’s health and wellbeing.
I decided that I was going to farm. I was watching a lot of Chef’s Table. I was feeling burnt out on vacation from work and I started looking for internships. The farm in New Mexico hired me and I drove out there in late February.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
Initially it was my foot in the door. I didn’t know anyone in agriculture and I wanted to travel. And the reason that I don’t have a farm right now is because I don’t have enough money or anything close to it. The landowner that I work for has values that I agree with as does the farmer who has come on board now.
I don’t know about starting my own farm in the future. I’m totally open and I wouldn’t be surprised by anything happening in my life at this point and in human history. I just want to get better.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
I think coming here last season was extremely difficult because my boss/the land owner and the person who had been taking care of the land here before, neither of them really laid out a job title or role. There was no structure or shared expectations as to what we wanted to happen. And even though we were having conversations, it just always seemed unclear. And also the man who was taking over, who was taking care of the land, was very unsupportive and wanted us to fail. He saw us as young, lazy, city people, and tried to undermine us emotionally. The title of his job could have been groundskeeper, land manager would work, too. He hadn’t been growing veggies for years on this land, and then we got here, we grew some, but not a lot. He had the greenhouse filled, doing it conventionally with organic fungicides, stuff I wouldn't have chosen to use even though my experience was very little.
My experience was very little so my philosophies or values of what I’d learned were less than. The groundskeeper may may come back to do hay, but the new farmer came on who has been working with 20 years experience mostly as a cattleman, and also has a diversified farming experience. He is specifically biodynamic. The landowner, she was married to this big dude in biodynamics who started a CSA farm over here, it’s the oldest in the country.
The farmer and I see eye to eye. Our values are in line. It’s just more copacetic.
The roles are already identified. We have a stand-up meeting every morning, and a sit-down meeting once a week.
I didn’t have days off last season. You work all the time. Get off? You don’t get off! I felt like I had no days off and no time off, and like I got less work done because of it.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
I think a strong community where people communicate with each other, share their lives and food and work and play and responsibility. As far as a farm where I could live and put down roots and stay on for years, I would need flexibility to travel. That shared responsibility piece would be important.
“I didn’t have days off last season. You work all the time. Get off? You don’t get off! I felt like I had no days off and no time off, and like I got less work done because of it.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
I like the feeling of looking at a task that seems impossible and then hacking at it for a day and seeing what human hands can do.
WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?
When I was at the the farm in Albuquerque, I also worked at a restaurant as a prep cook - that was a stretch even with the title. I don’t say the word cook or chef or farmer or use those words lightly. If you are a chef, you can run a kitchen; if you are a farmer, you can run a farm.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
I call myself a farm hand because I can’t yet run a farm, but I’m working hard toward that capability whether that is my end goal or not.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
Honestly some sort of informal insurance plan would be good. That’s not the answer I expected to think of. I was driving t-posts into the ground last season and I hit my head and my head bled, and now I have a $1000 bill because I didn’t have health insurance at the time. I got 4 staples in my head. That’s a lot of money for me right now.
I only just got New Hampshire health insurance, which I still need to fill out some forms for. It’s not through the farm. That hasn’t been something that is talked about.
I also think support for having conversations that stresses some people out, like negotiating wages and benefits.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
I will tell you that I’ve connected farming and kitchen work for a while. That is what I was doing before Covid, working at a kitchen in West Chester county at a train station, then Covid hit and I was living with my parents at the time. It’s just funny how farm work and kitchen work go together so much. Both are so thankless and rough on your body and there are no benefits. I’m hopefully going to be able to find a way to figure out how to fund my nursing degree at some point.
I haven’t fully committed to farming. I still want something else to fall back on, even though I’m so educated about farmers and farming and what it can be, it’s just so difficult in realty for so many people. I don’t know if I should be trying to have hope or go along with my original plan.
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....)
I was thinking about your lunch question, and my answer, and about masochism. I feel like I have a masochistic tendency, so I like the feeling of lunch being a place where I can find shade and be like,"wow, this hurts, are you guys hurt? It's great, right?!", and then maybe eat a pear and nap under a tree for ten minutes. I think that's my youth talking, my inexperience. I know if I want to stay in the game that's a place where I'll have to grow: self-love, self-care, mindfulness.
I have really good memories of lunch in Albuquerque. I was a grazer and when lunchtime would come, I would have a late lunch, usually i would eat a fruit off of a tree. I never brought my own lunch. I could just not eat and then go home and eat a bunch and then take a nap.
I liked taking my treat for the day, and then I would slink off into the corner and take a nap for 10 minutes.
I like working through, too.
Last year was very unstructured and up to us. In the beginning of the season I was working 9am - 2pm, helping people build up a big garden at their house.
Now we have a scheduled day, milking by 7am, then 3 is technically when we are done. We have a half hour or hour lunch. It’ll be bumped up a little bit in the summer with two days off.
