JAY HILL
GREENSBORO, NC
Jay has been farming for 3 years and during that time she has incubated her own farm on the properties of people she has gardened and farmed for.
WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)
I’m a full-time social worker. I’m currently doing rehab counseling for patients who have been in traumatic incidents like accidents or strokes. Part time I’m starting my small farm called Earth Keepers. This is my third year with the farm and it’s my first year growing and selling at the market. I’ve been learning as much as I can and working on other people’s property to get my start. I’m trying to transition out of the social work career. My hope is that I can do the farming full-time and phase out of the social work path. It was my calling at one point, but it has become a profession that is doing more harm in our communities especially to communities of color. I am trying not to contribute to that harm, tying to follow what brings me joy and farming is that.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?
I’m going on 3 years roughly. The first two years I was mostly gardening at other people’s properties, helping them maintain what they had going on, trying to get a better understanding of how to farm and how to garden better. This is my first year doing actual market farming.
I would say a little bit yes and no about being self-taught. I’m learning as I go now, but I learned from a lot of farmers who let me use their space.
In graduate school, I worked on the community garden. The professor operating that space gave me my foundation in terms of germinating seeds, the best things to grow in this zone, and after that it was me experimenting and trying different things. I’ve learned from other people as well but it’s also intuitive.
There are 6 generations of farmers in my family, either homesteaders or farming tobacco or livestock, so some of it comes naturally to me, like I didn’t know I could that. It’s been carried down to me and I’m learning from others as I go, too.
WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?
It’s a long story. When I was an undergrad, I went to UNC, home to the Lumbee Nation. When I was at that campus, I got afforded the opportunity to be part of the on-campus food pantry serving the community of students and staff. That was my eye opener to food injustice to the area. It was shocking to see classmates and professors coming in because they didn’t know when their next meal was coming in. I learned about CSAs. We had the opportunity to start one on campus so people could have fresh food, and I wanted to be more involved in things like this. That kind of sparked it for me.
Fast forward to when I graduated with my bachelors of social work, I lived in this intentional community. It was one of the best and worst choices I made. Every time we came together to make food, it was a sacred practice. We were mindful of the food we were eating, we took time to cook together and prepare meals and we would pray over the meals and would always say thank you to farm workers who helped grow the food. It became more of a spiritual practice for me. It’s a much bigger thing than we realize.
Going back to my family lineage. My identity is part of it. For me I always wondered where our family came from, our African roots. I would always bug my grandmother. I was raised on a homestead and we had to pump our water and get eggs from the chicken coop. I am from a rural area, but it was pretty urban, too. I never had to grow up with that experience of getting eggs or picking vegetables for tonight’s dinner. I come from a line of farmers. That is something to be proud of; they knew how to grow their own food and take care of themselves.
My story is being awakened to our relationship to food and how we need to respect it more and it’s a part of my identity that I want to know more. It brings me closer to my ancestors.
WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)
When I first started this, I had a business partner, but she fell off. The goal of us was to start this farm that is geared toward people of color to teach others how to be farmers. She came from a family of migrant workers. We didn’t have the land right now but we figured we could make it work with the resources we had. We met with people in the community that had access to land already and would help garden and maintain their space while planting the seed of how they could support our goals while we supported their goals. It was an opportunity for us to make mistakes. How can we learn to do this better, while building connections in the community?
Currently I don’t own any land. Originally I had this partnership with a good friend of mine who was running a community garden and he let me use his space to plant some of my seedlings, and another friend who was running a farmers’ market and had a greenhouse out in the country (a30 minute commute). So I used that space to start my seedlings, it’s interesting though, building those connections but the mistakes I made in that. Currently I still have that space but the person who has that space isn’t in communication with me. She gave me the space in August of last year. The initial agreement we made was that she would let me use the space if I assisted her with her non-profit that she was managing at the time. She eventually wanted me to take on the non-profit, but I wasn’t in the place to do that, and she hasn’t responded to me. It’s going on two months now. There are several other greenhouses and other non-profits using the space and I'’m learning more about this individual and I don’t really want to be associated with her at this point. Our values aren’t in alignment. I’m learning how to build better relationships in terms of networking.
You can have a lot of the same ideals but we are going at them a different way in terms of values. It’s important to make sure that not only are your ideals in alignment, but the way you go about it is aligned too.
She hasn’t kicked me out. She let me use the space for free. She is leasing the greenhouse and was fine with me using it for free, but wanted me to help water, which I did. I just didn’t want to take ownership of the project. I don’t know what I’m going to do once the time comes. The land I was going to transfer my seedlings, he is now selling the property. He had forewarned me, but I didn’t know it was going to be so soon. It was interesting how I found out: he owns a store and I stopped by the store to check on him and he said, ‘By the way I put the land up for sale.” He said it should take a while, they aren’t going to buy it soon, but I want to be sure and I don’t want to be on someone else’s property. It puts me in a weird situation.
That was a rookie mistake on my part. That was the first time getting into a partnership like this. Next time I need to sit down and hash out those hard conversations at that first meeting, talk about those expectations and goals, write out a contract with the length of time you want to use the space, create the partnership agreement. Don’t just talk it out like we did. That was my mistake, not setting those expectations or writing it out.
WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?
When I was first starting off with my business partner, we ended up working with these two other individuals that had been afforded this space, which was over 150 acres. They were just there to be land stewards and help the owners of the space. They wanted to combine forces and use the space they had there. Along the way I noticed power dynamics and I think again it goes back to aligning those goals and values because at the end of it we realized that it wasn’t going to work. People like the idea of community and they say let’s work together, let’s put in our efforts, but when we start doing the work of what community means, folks, Caucasian folks, are having a hard time understanding what community is. It became very individualistic. We are doing this garden project together, and it would be them doing one thing and telling us to do something else. It was frustrating because I want us to be able to work together but I felt like I was being put in a situation where I was fighting to be in community. I made a suggestion about doing watering days to spread time out and so everyone could get a chance to assist. We started doing that and it became ‘We are just going to water in the morning, you don’t have to worry about it.’
In 2020 we had a huge frost and I made a suggestion of putting sheets over the garden, and they asked, ‘Are you expecting us to do it or are you going to do it?” and I said, ‘Of course that’s what we are here for - we are all doing this together.’ It was this feeling of, we want your help but not really, but when you want to step in, we got this. It was very weird.
It’s important to be very mindful of the power dynamics and understanding when it’s not going to work. Recognizing when it’s not working otherwise we are going to keep butting heads and we aren’t going to get anywhere.
I’m learning so much of myself in terms of what is Earth Keepers going to look like? In my mind I think community, but the more I work with community, it doesn’t seem to be working out. I’m at a standstill right now. How does this look going forward? I don’t want to do it alone. It’s unsafe to farm alone, one because it’s unstable. Who are the right folks that I need to be getting into alignment with?
When I think of farming, I think of farming as a relationship to the land, but also to the people that surround that land. I feel like farming is a community type of a venture. I’ve seen people do it by themselves but I’ve seen them burn out or age out and there is nobody to take over the farm. I think with our climate, it’s not safe to be farming alone, and knowing you would have access to space and food, it’s not responsible to withhold that from community. It’s a community practice where we help each other out. I could do it alone if I had to but I don’t see the joy in that. The joy comes from witnessing where your food comes from and getting the youth involved to teach the importance of farming. It’s a generational thing, not a self-led project.
We have the same interests, but do we have similar values? You are meeting cool people who have these cool ideas too, but you need to dig a little bit deeper to see how it really looks going forward.
CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?
Us attuning to each other’s strengths and weaknesses, what areas we could do best in. What I saw for Earth Keepers is a coop model, a people-led type of farm. It’s more so us understanding our daily roles and making sure we are upholding the mission of Earth Keepers. I see it as a space where we can lean on one another, but also empower one another. A space for people to grow and make mistakes. I think it really comes down to trusting one another to do our roles, that’s what I see for Earth Keepers.
The mission of Earth Keepers is for us to be good stewards to mother earth. The overall arching goal of Earth Keepers is to really to educate my people, the people my community, Black people, where their food comes from and help them to understand how to harvest and prep their food. A lot of us don’t know where our food comes from. It gives us a lot of power to grow our own food especially in our climate where shelves are empty and it’s scaring a lot of people. You don’t have to be afraid. We can take that power back.
“I’ve learned from other people as well, but it’s also intuitive. There are about 6 generations of farmers in my family, they were either homesteaders, farming tobacco or livestock, so some of it comes naturally to me. It’s been carried down to me. Learning more about my identity is part of what brought me to farming.”
WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?
When I garden it’s like my refuge to be part of nature. I come alive when I come to gardening. I feel my most zen and at peace. I feel like I have a purpose when I’m gardening. I feel so connected to earth and source when I’m in nature and gardening. My overall thing is really about community and bringing us together. That is what is keeping us here. That is a normal thing. You are going to have differences when it comes to community and you’re going to have challenges. I haven’t found my community yet, and that’s okay.
DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.
I would call myself a farmer, but maybe others wouldn’t.
I consider anybody a farmer who is growing their own food or is interested growing their own food, there is a connection to land, you understand the relationship, the ecosystems that grows our food. Someone who is tending to land in general, even if you don’t own that land and you are working the land, I definitely consider that person a farmer.
WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?
On a day to day, what would be helpful is just transportation. If someone is having to commute, if you’re in a partnership, some kind of funding reimbursement would be helpful.
My ultimate goal is that I’m going to have to get my own land at some point. Access to land right now is kind of difficult. I’m trying different opportunities like grants or fellowships. It’s so expensive. Initially when I had a business partner, it made it easier because we could work together to get loans, but when you’re going about it by yourself it becomes a very daunting task, especially when you’re working full time and trying to survive.
I don’t want to be the main owner of the land, that doesn’t feel right to me, and that’s because of the history of the land that we are on. If I do get property, I was going to try to figure out how to give the deed to the rightful owners, the native nation of that particular area, letting them have some ownership of that land and the space can be open to them too. There should be several people maintaining it.
ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?
Farming has been a safe haven for me. When I started getting into gardening it was really a space for me recover from my own mental health situations I was going through. Nature is a refuge and it’s healing. To put your hands in the dirt and be in connection to plants has been a sacred experience. It has really saved my life. I try to incorporate it a lot in the practice that I do with my patients. We have a greenhouse at the hospital, getting our hands in some dirt is so calming for the nervous systems. It’s remarkable. I love it.
