MOLLY BULGER

VERMONT

Molly has been farming off and on for 8 years.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY DOING? (WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING, ETC)

  • I’ve worked on many different farms. It’s been a little bit of a ride. I was most recently working on a farm in Charlotte , Vermont, but we had massive layoff in the fall, more than half the business were laid off. That included me and my manager and a lot of our friends. I had been living on the property in my tiny house, so I also had to move off the property and figure out what was next. 

    I spent the winter nannying for my sister who lives in Boston. 

    I recently got a new job at a farm and plant nursery. They also have an herb farm and are developing some educational programing. I found my way back to the farm. It was a harrowing life change, with a lot of confusion in between. 

    I had been at the farm in Charlotte for 3 seasons plus one winter. I could’ve reapplied, but I didn’t want to. I felt like I had tried to demonstrate my commitment, but I don’t know. It was a Covid-related layoff, but it also didn’t feel great, so I felt like it was time for some fresh energy.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN FARMING?

  • I’ve been farming in some capacity for 8 years, but not always as my primary thing. I also went back to school during that time. Farming is my life pursuit. 

  • I worked in Freeport, Maine, did farm-based education in Shelbourne, Vermont, went to grad school in Norway, worked on a bunch of different farms and WWOOFed on a goat dairy, permaculture homesteads or small scale farms, worked on a sheep farm for lambing season in Vermont, landed up at the last farm for 3 seasons and am now at the nursery.

    The spirit keeps calling me back to working with the land, but hasn’t been straight forward. 

WHAT INITIALLY BROUGHT YOU TO THE FIELDS?

  • I think that I see farming as a way to work in environmental and social justice in a tangible way and I also enjoy using my body and not being totally sedentary during the work day. It’s a combination of things. Also to improve my own access to healthy organic food because it’s something that I prioritize and it’s not always a given you can get it at the grocery store. I don’t love spending tons of money on healthy, organic food so I always appreciate having alternative ways that I’m seeking healthy food. 
    I also have a desire to learn about how to grow food and how to be in closer relationship with the earth and be more involved in the food system.

WHY HAVE YOU CHOSEN TO FARM FOR SOMEONE ELSE (NOW OR IN THE PAST?)

  • I think about starting my own farm sometimes, but at this point I don’t know. I hope I’m not a strange respondent, but on one hand I do like the idea of starting my own farm and focusing on herbs and making herbal products, but on the other hand, I feel very reluctant to allow my life and my money to be contingent upon the capitalist food system. It makes me more interested in maybe part-time starting a farm while also having other bread winning work. If I had access to land that I wasn’t going to get kicked off of…I’ve moved so much and am kind of reluctant to tend soil that I know that I’m going to have to leave eventually, so that is part of the journey.  Even though I always do end up gardening where I’m living, but growing perennials is a whole different thing. 

WHAT ARE SOME ISSUES FOR FARMERS WORKING ON SOMEONE ELSE'S FARM - ISSUES THAT YOU'VE WITNESSED OR EXPERIENCED?

  • I lost my home and community when I lost my job. It’s been really unsettling. I think one thing I’m still grappling with is the kind of Buddhist idea of non-attachment and how I did feel like I was suffering and went through phases of grief of being told I wasn’t allowed to be on the property or land that I had developed and cared for and tried to improve the health of for 3 years. That felt like a very uncomfortable power dynamic and a reality check of who holds powers in this system that we’re operating in. It was hard too because I had built the tiny house in an effort to live closer to the property so I could be more available and not commute for all these reasons, but I felt like that plan had foiled, as well. With the tiny house and not being a land owner, you’re always reliant on some sort of arrangement with somebody else. It was hard. Even though I had a couple offers, it’s just taken a lot of time and energy to pick up the pieces of my life that changed so drastically by losing a job and thus a place a live. 

    I’m trying in my own life to focus on the positive. What is the positive? Sometimes it’s difficult to focus on the positive with the situation. 

CAN YOU TELL ME THE QUALITIES OF A DREAM FARM NOT LEADING TO OWNERSHIP - THAT YOU WOULD WANT TO WORK ON?

  • I really think that I’m still struggling to find a place where health and sanity, and the mental and physical health of the staff is a priority and a place that executes that effectively. Somehow a farm arrangement where mental and physical health are a priority and where I enjoy living. I think it makes sense to live close or on the farm property, so available housing too, but it’s hard to imagine a system where anything would be guaranteed, so just putting that out there. 

    I imagine a community of people that support each other and it’s not competitive, but rather collaborative. And, honestly when it comes to wages, I wish that farm labor would magically catapult and it could be a viable middle class option. I haven't figured that out myself. There is a farm down the road that is operating in the gift economy. I really like the idea of aspects of society operating in gift economy, but I’m not sold on voluntary impoverishment yet. Maybe someday I will. But maybe it’s because I’m a woman and I want to be self sufficient. I do idealize that on my dream farm, that I would be able to make a normal living alongside all the other people living there. 

    I just imagine health. I want health to be an aspect. There are so many people involved in farming to improve public health and improve quantity and quality of food in their region, but it seems as if so many people sacrifice their own health in that pursuit. I do not wish for that to be an aspect on my dream farm. 

“I lost my home and community when I lost my job. It’s been really unsettling. I think one thing I’m still grappling with is the kind of Buddhist idea of non-attachment and how I did feel like I was suffering and went through phases of grief of being told I wasn’t allowed to be on the property or land that I had developed and cared for and tried to improve the health of for 3 years.”

WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK?

  • It feels right to work connected to the earth, soil, plants, animals, life. It feels right for me to spend a part of my life working with life and the forces of nature. 

    Maybe when I’ve been more computer-oriented, I’ve felt much more disconnected just from the earth.

    I also feel pretty uncomfortable participating in the food system where the closest grocery store to me offers carrots from California. I feel uncomfortable passively participating in that system. It feels more soul fulfilling or more socially and environmentally just to create a new system. 

    I admit I have plenty of tail wind behind me that is enabling me to make these decisions, but especially after this latest situation, I’m carrying a bit of self doubt in regards to my pursuits. Sometimes I feel sure about what I’m doing and sometimes I feel exhausted. It feels right to be engaging in this work, but I’m still working for the way to do it that feels healthy and sustainable.

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE DIFFERENCE (IF ANY) BETWEEN A FARMER AND A "FARM WORKER"/"FARM EMPLOYEE" BESIDES PROPRIETORSHIP?

  • Over time I have become more accustomed to the title of farmer. I think when I was more of a fledgling I was more uncomfortable owning that term. I feel a little more comfortable owning it, but I still sort of don’t. Even though I’ve dedicated a lot of my life to this pursuit, I don’t feel like i have a complete grasp of what it takes, for instance, to manage a market garden or raise animals, so in that way I feel disconnected from the term farmer. 

    A hard part about that is that it hasn’t been my choice. If I had the opportunity to own that term, maybe I would.

DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A FARMER? WHY OR WHY NOT.

  • No I don’t. I say I work on a farm.

WHAT KIND OF SUPPORT WOULD BE HELPFUL FOR PEOPLE WORKING ON FARMS NOT THEIR OWN?

  • Economics comes up again. If we all felt a bit more cared for by the government, or if we felt like our basic needs were met, people would be less afraid of engaging in this labor that is low paying or would be less concerned about what happens when I lose my job at the end of the farm season. It all feels heavy and I didn’t expect to be back in the swing of it, but here I am. 

    We need more support so we don’t feel so alone.

ANYTHING ELSE YOU'D LIKE TO SHARE ABOUT YOURSELF & YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FARMING? WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?

  • It feels right to be engaging in this work but I’m still working for the way to do it that feels healthy and sustainable so I hope that Not Our Farm can contribute to that dialogue. 

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....)

  • The best situation was at one farm that had a cafe/restaurant attached. We got team lunch and it was an amazing blessing. It feels like a weird disconnection if you aren’t getting the food from the place you’re working. If you’re raising lambs and don’t have access to vegetables, you have to buy them at the grocery store and provide for yourself. 

    The farms I’ve worked on, I haven’t always had the opportunity to take lunch, it was more a standing and working situation. I think it’s really important to take lunch. I wish that it were mandated to make sure that everybody did take lunch and take care of themselves in that way and take a brief respite. 

    It’s nice to share the fruits of the labor and celebrate them.