Have there been challenges or issues that you have experienced or witnessed when you've worked on someone else's farm? 

I was really lucky to work at the farm I worked at. And, you know, it was a small team, and they did treat me really well. But it was just hard. I was new to farming, and some days, because we had such a small team, sometimes I would work, you know, 4, 5, 6 hours, maybe longer, by myself, totally on my own. And I felt like I sometimes had to prove, like, oh, like, I can work as hard as the person that's been doing it for five years. Or, I can work as hard or harder than the person that's, like, twice my size. And I don't want to say that they pushed me to do these things but boundaries were just not clear. There was no one to be like, hey, Richella, you've been working alone for 5 hours. Take a break, or take it easy. That was kind of me pushing myself too.

Sometimes the schedule was unclear and the farmer himself, the person who ran the farm, yeah he worked as hard as all of us, if not harder. But I would find myself, like, wanting to keep up with that. Like trying to prove to myself that I can do this. But I remember talking to my dad about it, and he said when you have your own farm one day, you can work from sunrise to sunset, but this is not your farm. And if the farmer himself doesn't set those boundaries, you need to set those yourself. And saying: I'm going to work from this time to this time. And, yeah, that was a learning lesson for me. And I want to say I'm still learning it. 

Yeah, that's real. It's a totally different emotional investment and literal investment, if you have your own farm or your own project, you might be willing to push your boundaries or work harder, but it feels different when it's for someone else that is employing you. 

I know, I know. Which, yeah, it's just hard. 

Do you feel that you received what you were looking for? In terms of wanting to work for someone else in order to learn about farming.

In ways for sure. I feel like what I want out of a farm is really ingrained and connected with my culture and identity. And  there are things that I really want to grow one day that we were not growing because it was a production farm and because it was still a business and they still had the market in mind of oh, we should really grow a lot of lettuce because people love buying lettuce instead of, oh, like, let's really invest in our, like, moringa or malunggay trees, or let's really invest in our fava beans. I feel like a diversity of crops was sometimes pushed to the side to focus on the crops that customers, which were mostly rich white people, would buy.

What are some qualities of a dream farm not leading to ownership that you would want to work on? 

Honestly, I'm really starry eyed with the new opportunities that I'm getting into, but what I'm getting involved with now, Unearthing Farm, is pretty freaking awesome. It's honestly a pretty good sized piece of land that is accessible by bus. People bike there. Some people even walk there. So it's still in the city accessible to people. And they let people steward the land for free. And they just, like, there's no expectations for people to pay. They just want help caring for this land and help, like, getting donations for the market to give away to people and hosting community events and, yeah, I really like how, like, kind and warm the space is at, like, centering community because I feel like after this year in, like, production farming, I have had, like, questions about, like, oh would I be able to work on a farm for a long time? Because I love being around people and I love working with people and, you know, working a long day by yourself, like, I don't know, it's kind of lonely sometimes. And I feel like my dream farm would definitely have a lot of moving parts and people involved to allow as many people as possible to follow their dreams with growing things, being in community, cooking. 

I feel that! I've been working a lot by myself too at an urban farm & community garden. Sometimes it’s nice and sometimes I need to work with people to feel motivated and feel reminded of why we're doing this. What keeps you coming back to farming? 

Honestly, I would question myself a lot in farming and ask do I belong in this work? Am I strong enough? But farming is so attached to my ancestry, like, my cultural identity, my identity work. And getting, like, connected to my Filipino heritage. But also it's just been really gender affirming. And I used to work in customer service for a long time where I felt like I had to present myself in this way to fit in and then getting to be in a space where I'm either by myself or with people I trust. And it was just really, really nice for all kinds of my identity work. 

Mmm. What is your take on the difference, if you feel that there's a difference between a farmer or a farm worker or a farm employee besides proprietorship? And then this goes into a question of nomenclature. Do you call yourself a farmer? Do you call yourself a farm worker? If you call yourself a farmer, why or why not? What do you think about the different terms? 

This question was so interesting to me. I was flipping through people's answers on the website.

This is my favorite question! 

Honestly, I feel like I didn't call myself a farmer, but my friends and loved ones around me started calling me a farmer. And at first I was like, no, no. Like, I haven't been farming for that long. I don't know. But now I realize, I'm absolutely a farmer. And it's an identity that I hold with a lot of pride. And it doesn't matter if I have a farm or doesn't even matter if I'm working on a plot of land or working on a production farm. My parents actually are getting into farming. Working on a farm and working with land are always really special moments of my identity. They have shaped my life in important and monumental ways that it's always going to be something I call myself. A lot of pride. And I remember, honestly, I was first introduced to the word farm worker through the fellowship, and I was like, why is it called farm workers, not just, farmers? I feel like my take on it is that there isn't a difference because it doesn't matter. Like, proprietorship. If the farmer is proprietorship and your farm worker means you don't have land. If you are the heart of the operation, if you have your hands in the dirt, you're doing all the harvesting, you're doing all the production, you're seeing the project and the vegetables through from seed to tray to transplanting to growth to harvest to cutting that shit out afterwards. Like, you're absolutely a farmer!! 

Yeah, thank you. Like I said, it’s the most interesting question to me. Everyone has such different things to say, and for me personally, it always depends on what context I'm in. If I want to make sure that people know I am not the owner of the farm, I work here, then I will emphasize that I'm a farm worker. I'm a farmer, but I'm also a worker and it’s a way to identify with other workers. I also wonder if you wanna talk more also about your parents getting into farming, because something else I think about in farmer vs farmworker is lineage and place. 

That's real, that's real. Context is a really great point. To my friends, yeah I'm a farmer. And I would love to talk about my parents getting the land. They just got it actually last month. 

Okay, wow! Congratulations.

Thank you. And it's in Ridgefield, South Carolina. Part of me moving to Georgia was because I wanted to stay in the Southeast, but I also wanted to continue learning agriculture, but didn't see a place where I could continue that agriculture learning that was sustainable. So I'm really hoping to learn a lot of agricultural things in the next 10, 20 years and then go and help my parents with this land. I wanna big picture frame this, but really quickly. There's still time. Farming has healed my relationships in a lot of ways, has healed myself in a lot of ways and has healed my relationship with my parents in a lot of ways. And honestly to come from a couple years ago, maybe a decade ago when my relationship with my parents was really rocky to now, 7, 8 years later. And they've seen how important cooking and farming and growing things has been to me. My parents have straight up told me, Richella you've worked really hard and you've inspired us to, through your work, you've inspired us to start looking for land. And they told me this shortly after I pursued farming as a full time job. And my dad started asking questions about how people can do this as a full time job. How do the markets work, the farm? 

And a reason my parents moved to South Carolina is because the climate really reminds them of the Philippines, especially where my dad is from in Baguio. And for a while, he really wanted to move back. Especially when he retired, he really wanted to move back. But they were just looking at land and found a really beautiful place near where his friend has a farm. My dad wants to grow stuff and sell it. He said he'll probably just sell to our friends and family, but I think them really missing the Philippines and  it being unclear if they would ever move back, instead they’re making a little Philippines here. 

That's so cool. Okay, let’s see. I have a few more questions. What kind of support do you imagine would be helpful or what would be helpful for you, and for people working on farms? 

Resources. Lots of resources. And learning about Not Our Farm was so fucking helpful for me because I remember just having all these questions and flipping through the Instagram and being so affirmed as  a queer BIPOC farmer and being like, okay, like, there's a space here for me. And resources for what to do when it's hot outside, what to eat when it's hot outside. What to wear at a farm when it's really hot outside. You know, I don't feel comfortable in certain kinds of clothing. It gets really hot in the summertime in South Carolina and I remember asking other farmers that were femme presenting to help me out. I didn’t know what to wear. And then they all said, oh we wear sports bras and yoga booty shorts. And I'm like, do you, but I can’t, I don't want to do that. But my friend let me borrow their Duluth overalls, and they're game changing. I wear Duluth overalls and an oversized cotton button up shirt, and then this big hat, and I'm like, don't perceive me.

 And obviously just more support for health insurance would be awesome and overtime. Especially when you're working for such a small crew. And you accidentally work 11 or 12 hours in a day, and you're like, oh, shit, I worked over 40 hours again. And I was compensated for that, but the farm I worked on didn't have the resources to pay me overtime. It feels so different from other more conventional jobs when it shouldn't be that way. It's most definitely a job and it's most definitely hard work. We should also get paid over time. 

Yeah, absolutely. Okay, what is your opinion on the farmer lunch? Do you take lunch? Do you skip lunch? Do you enjoy eating lunch with the rest of the crew? Is there pressure to eat lunch with the crew? If you do take lunch, what do you eat?

Lunch is one of my favorite parts of the day. I love packing my lunch. I have always loved packing my lunch. I remember in middle school being really into bento boxes. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to cut little faces out of everything and put on my lunch. And I remember I had this three tiered lunchbox. And I don't know, I have learned to pack an abundance of food because now I'm just, like, consuming way more than I usually do or I think I'm going to do. So I just fill those things and usually pack, like, a thing of greens, a lot of, like, rice and carb. Usually rice. And a protein, like tofu or tempeh or some beans and, oh, or something like cold noodles. Cold noodles, yeah. And, like, dipping them in a soba sauce or something. 

But I think you should definitely get a 30 minute lunch break. And do it in the shade, do it out of the heat. There isn't any pressure to take lunch with my coworkers. Sometimes there's only one coworker and sometimes we'll take it together or we'll eat in silence. But I think, yeah I think lunch and making sure you have a meal to sustain yourself for the long day is, like, one of the most important things. And honestly, if I don't have, a proper lunch for myself because, like, x, y or z happened and, you know, I wasn't able to be prepared,, I'm fortunate enough to work at a place where if that happens, I would be like, hey, like, I didn't have a proper lunch today. I need to leave early. It's essential. It's essential. No, totally. I would take a 30 minute lunch, and then, because I was lucky to kind of decide what my day would look like, I'd be like, okay, maybe I'll broad fork after lunch. 

And would your 30 minute lunch be paid or was it unpaid? 

It was paid. 

Is there anything else you'd like to share about yourself and your relationship with farming? Is there anything that you obsess over or return to over your time farming?

I just feel so lucky being in farming and to have found this path that I didn't think I would go down. I feel my ancestors and my family, and every year, whenever I'm working outside with plants, I feel like my spirituality grows and I really get more grounded in this path that I'm on. I recognize that I'm really lucky in it. At this time that we're living in, agriculture jobs, especially safe ones and decent paying ones, and the opportunities to do that are slim and few. And while I recognize how happy and lucky I am in this work, it is definitely a privilege to be in this work and have to have found it in this way. And I just really want to work for a future where people like me, other people living in the diaspora or children of immigrants can find their way to farming and more opportunities. And if it's not farming, it's in different ways where they are connected with their ancestry or their spirituality, and just more opportunities to do that.