We Grow

Drought maps. Brown corn. “Pray for Rain” all over the newsfeed. Wild fires.

It goes without saying that this year is a rough one. And I’ve done my best to find something to boost morale. I wanted a quote to give hope, to talk about resilience. But, everything I found had the overall message of “try harder, don’t give up”.

Since nothing about “trying harder” will make it rain, I don’t have a quote to boost morale. Nope, this one is coming straight from my heart.

We’re farmers. We’re all about hard work and making good business decisions. We make our living off of the land, which means sometimes all that hard work and good business pays off. That’s how it’s been the last couple of years around here. But, because we rely on the land (and rain), sometimes it doesn’t.

But that’s what it’s all about, right?

There’s pride in taking whatever nature gives us and making the best of it. We know the risk when we put in a crop. We know there are bad years. And when those bad years come, there’s a certain amount of pride in surviving them.

Farming is built on stories of “I’ll never forget the year of 19–, when…” I’d hate to know what the industry would be like without those stories, without the hard times. The hard times build character. When our crops aren’t growing, we are.

Where would we be if farming were always successful? Wouldn’t we lose our humility? Become less grounded? What kind of people would we be if we were never stretched?

It’s no secret that I’ve fallen in love with this way of life, and I think that’s largely because of the type of people in it. We have been shaped by our job. We know the good times don’t go on forever, and we get through the rough ones. It makes us people of character. It makes us people of faith. We have faith that next year will be better, that God will provide. And I really, really love that.