injured his arm a few years ago. It’s tough to be so tied down. Bruce and I have spent one night off the farm in the last 10 years. We don’t get vacations together, but I am able to get away for a few days a couple times a year while Bruce and Hugh hold down the fort. What are the biggest rewards of farming? The customers who appreciate what we do, working close to the land and with my family and doing work that feels important to me. It’s impossible for me to do a job I don’t believe in. I’ve tried it, and although I’m sure I could make more money doing something besides farming, I want my work to matter. What’s your best advice for other women considering a career in farming? Know what your priorities are, be willing to make a lot of sacrifices and be ready to wear many hats!
Maureen Knapp, Cobblestone Valley Farm (left), Meg Schader, Wake Robin Farm (Right).
I also love growing things. It doesn’t matter if it’s the pasture grasses, the livestock, the flowers, the veggies, I just get so much from that bit of nurturing. Some days, I have to stop and remember that. I have to sit down and breathe it in, listen to the land, listen to the wildlife, the wind, the water and calm my mind down before moving onto the next thing. What’s your best advice for other women considering a career in farming? I was chatting with a fellow woman farmer I helped train in holistic management what her advice was and we both agreed: It’s why do you want to do this? Seriously, what makes you want to face mental and physical stresses where you are the decision maker all the time, where you are working with or against Mother Nature (she’s pretty cranky lately), where the failure rate is higher than just about every other start-up business, where the suicide rate is so high, where profit margins are so crazy slim, where customers love you, adore you, and really appreciate what you do but then there are some that just bash what you do. It’s a field where things live and die sometimes in seconds, where, in our case, we are responsible for hundreds of lives at any time on our land. It’s tough but it’s something that we love. Love isn’t going to get you through it all. Dig deep and figure out what drives you to live your life they way you do, what your core values are, what you want your life to be like now and in the future, how you want to manage your responsibilities and how you are doing to do all of it. Meg Schader, co-owner, Wake Robin Farm, Jordan Meg Schader, 41, grew up in Elbridge and says she was “bit by the farming bug” at Cornell University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in agriculture. She met her husband, Bruce, in 1997, when she volunteered on a farm he was operating with a friend in New Hope. She moved to the farm in the spring of 1998 and grew cut flowers there that season. A year later, Meg and Bruce married on the farm, but departed after a falling out with Bruce’s business partner. Bruce Schader
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“plowed up some land his parents own in Jordan,’’ Meg Schader recalls, and that is how Wake Robin Farm got its start. The Schaders grew organic vegetables from 1999 to 2006, increasing their business to a 160-member CSA (community supported agriculture) in the process. In 2006, they purchased four cows, built their creamery and transitioned to dairy processing. The Schaders, with their teenage son, Hugh, are a fixture every Saturday at the Central New York Regional Market in Syracuse, where they sell their yogurts, farmstead cheeses, milk, homemade artisan breads and other baked goods. Every day on the farm is different, but the Schaders have come up with a system that works well for them. “Bruce and I milk our cows together and share the field work,” Meg Schader says. “He takes care of all the processing and mechanical work and I am in charge of packaging, marketing and bookkeeping.” What inspired you to become a farmer? I was very interested in the concept of sustainable agriculture, so I came to farming as an environmentalist. I remember sending Bruce a letter from college, telling him I wanted to convert all the farms in the area to organic. He set me straight pretty quickly and I’ve learned that it’s much more complicated than I originally thought. Are people surprised to learn you’re a farmer? Yes, people who meet me for the first time are often surprised and interested in what I do. When I did yoga teacher training at Kripalu a few years ago, there weren’t any other dairy farmers in my class. I think what surprises people most is that I’m a vegetarian dairy farmer. I’m kind of a rare bird in that way. What are the biggest challenges, physical and otherwise, of the job? The biggest challenges are the physical risks, the financial unpredictability and being here twice a day to do chores. Our business depends on our health, so we try to eat really well and take care of our bodies. But things happen, like when Bruce
Lacey Scriven Cashman, co-owner, Mountain Grown Farm, Jamesville Mountain Grown Farm is a small, noncertified organic family farm and vineyard with a focus on heirloom vegetables and hybrid vegetables not normally found in grocery stores. Co-owners Lacey and Kevin Cashman moved to Central New York in 2009 and brought their first produce to the Cazenovia Farmers Market in 2010. They met at Colorado State University, where they both studied science, and they have a deep appreciation for plants and the science of growing things. This year, they added their first high tunnel for yearround growing and are also adding a barn and wash building. Lacey is the face of Mountain Grown Farm. She sets up shop each week at the Cazenovia market and at the Fayetteville Farmers Market, where she serves as market manager. On the farm, she starts the seeds each season, plants, transplants and irrigates. Kevin is the heavy machinery operator, mechanic, builder, bed preparer, cultivator and weeder. The harvest is a shared labor. “The best results are when we can do things together,” she says. “Other times, it’s divide and conquer.”’ What inspired you to become a farmer? We both have a passion for plants and growing them, foraging wild plants as well. We both hate the produce in the supermarket, so old with no flavor. We know that food that’s eaten right out of the garden is so much better. (We had a) desire to be entrepreneurs and start a winery. Are people surprised to learn you’re a farmer? I guess we don’t get out much! People mostly know us as farmers.