Life On The Farm Attracts Green-Spirited Entrepreneurs
“We had no background in agriculture,” says King. “We were simply two kids who grew up in the suburbs and went to college. Farming seemed like the intersection of everything important to us — health, sustainability, financial independence, environmental responsibility, and community.”
After a season of farming in New York, the couple moved to Austin, Texas, where they can farm year-round. They live in an apartment in town and work on two farms 10 minutes away. They also farm their own land, a third of an acre they hope to expand next year.
“We’ve fallen in with a group of about a dozen folks who came into farming from college,” King says. “The niche we’ve found is direct wholesale to local restaurants. There’s a lot of demand for chard, carrots, spinach, squash and beets. We’re not making a living yet off of our land, but with our jobs as farm workers, we’re getting by.”
Like many beginning farmers, King had romantic ideas about getting in touch with nature.
“Mine were crushed immediately,” she says. “It’s a lot of organization, business sense and science. Getting stuff to grow - on a scale that’s economic - is hard work.”