Cultivating Life

"Don't you know how carrots grow?" the clerk asked.

"They just grow on a plant, then you pick them," replied the woman. "So these must have been dropped on the ground."

Doing her best to keep a straight face, the checker patiently explained that carrots grow in the ground with only the green leafy part being visible. To harvest carrots, she continued, one must either pull them out by the tops or loosen the soil with a digging fork first and then pull them out. The customer's face registered total disbelief.

When it was my turn to be checked out, the clerk was still chuckling to herself. I asked if she had had other experiences like the one she just had. Her response was a laugh that really answered my question without further explanation, but she went on to say that incidents like happened all the time. "You would never believe the ideas people have about how produce grows. If you put some in a garden full of vegetables, I think they would likely starve," she concluded.

Even though this incident seemed incredible to me at the time, it has come to mind numerous times while editing the book you hold in your hands. I have not asked her, but author Helen Coll could probably relate dozens of similar experiences with customers over the years.

But why should it be that people are so ignorant about the food they consume? I have asked myself. The answers were not too long in coming. First of all, the vast majority of people in the United States live in urban areas. They have never planted of even seen a productive garden. This country was an agrarian society from its beginnings in the 17th century. It remained an agrarian society well into the 19th century, when the Industrial Revolution began to draw people into the cities to work in the burgeoning factories and industries. Gradually, the small communities nearby began to disappear. Good, productive land began to fall into disuse because the "old folks" were unable to keep up with the work the land demanded. Here in New England evidence abounds that this was once a very different landscape and a different way of life. It is common for hikers in heavily wooded areas to come upon cellar holes of abandoned farms, sometimes even lilacs still growing by what was a doorstep. Taking a plane flight in winter, one can see an astounding number of stone walls that once marked the boundaries of land and fields earlier in the 20th century. As the call of the cities became more attractive, migration continues, until today a family farm is a rarity.

Another reason for the demise of the family farm was the increased demand for food in the more and more densely populated cities. The small farm could not produce the vast amount of food urban areas required, much less process and transport it to where it was needed and be assured of getting it to markets at its peak of freshness and flavor. Therefore, around 1950 a new word appeared in the American vocabulary that in 2001 does not seem new at all -- agribusiness. It is a far cry from the operation of the small family farm. Agribusiness deals with growing or producing food just as all farms have in centuries past. The differences are in size and scale. These farms, or in some cases co-ops, not only grow or produce food in huge amounts, but they also process, store, and distribute it to the nation's markets. Small farms are unable to compete with such highly organized and powerful operations.

Is it any wonder then that supermarket customers ask about dirt on their carrots? The food they buy is processed, packaged, and transported, sometimes thousands of miles, before consumers see it neatly displayed in attractive plastic packaging at the local supermarket. The result is that few people know how the food they buy got to the bins and shelves of their favorite store.

This book is about a family farm that survived when so many did not. It is in no small way a result of the commitment and dedication of its owners, Archie and Helen Coll, and their willingness to so the strenuous work and put in the long hours necessary to ensure its survival. Because both Archie and Helen had grown up on farms, they knew at the outset what their lives would be like. Nevertheless, they chose to undertake what would be pretty daunting endeavor for most people in order to live the kind of life they wanted and to provide the environment they wanted their children to grow up in. They were convinced that life on the farm would be the best teacher of the values and ideals they hold dear. They were correct. Those who know the now grown Coll children agree that all four have turned out to be the kind of citizens any community would be proud to count among their own.

Life for the Colls was not an idyllic one. As the reader will come to understand, the family faced many problems and crises over the years, including the near loss of the farm through eminent domain. Yet through the story are woven anecdotes about everyday life events and experiences. Often these will make you smile; occasionally they may make you sad. But taken all together, they reveal a cohesive, caring family that came to be through the persistence of parents who believed in what they were doing.

Hard work, long hours, and persistence aside, there is a further aspect to running a successful farm operation that is another strong thread running through this memoir -- education. Both Archie and Helen realized their farm could not succeed if they failed to keep up with the times. Therefore, they needed to learn what other farmers were doing to survive. They became members of several farm groups as active participants; Archie even became an officer in some of them while Helen was learning computer skills, budgeting, bookkeeping, and the financial strategies that would keep them afloat. In the process Helen realized her dream of earning a college degree. No mean feat for a woman with such a busy life.