Not everyone including myself finds farm work glamorous.
It can be hard and backbreaking.
Nevertheless, some young women (and men too) are going back to the land.
Their life is on display in The Greenhorns, "a documentary film that explores the lives of America's young farming community -- its spirit, practices, and needs. As the nation experiences a groundswell of interest in sustainable lifestyles, we see the promising beginnings of an agricultural revival. Young farmers' efforts feed us safe food, conserve valuable land, and reconstitute communities split apart by strip malls."
You can also read about them and their traveling companions on The Irresistible Fleet of Bicycles and some of them can be found in Ireland as the two examples below show:
"Lydia and Rupert Allen
Lydia and Rupert are new parents and new owners of their very own farm in the south of Ireland. Windswept and perfect for barley. Rupert runs the farmers’ markets in Cork City and hopes to become an organic brewer. Lydia is an artist and a cook–she is also the daughter of a sustainable rural dynesty in Cork County.
Fingal Ferguson
sausage maker, Ireland
Fingal makes sausages from the pigs fattened on his mother’s whey. Well, the whey from her cheesemaking, the milk of which come from the herd of Kerry, Simmenthal, Friesen and Jersey cows that his father milks, manages and wrangles. Also just on the ocean- this family run a tight ship, and Giana helps develop programs for youth with Slow Food. The family sells their wares primarily through farmers’ markets, a growing and blooming trade in Ireland."
Mind you, they are disconnected Luddites, they use modern tech tools to share knowledge and their experiences with the community at large.
John Brenner and Stacey Bliss of Broadturn Farm in Maine (picture above) call themselves suburban refugees.
Traveling up and down the dirt roads for another form of Alt Country on Green Day # 102
Previously: Rambling, Hiking, Rambler's Countryside Companion, Green Travel
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