Having never lived on a farm, I always thought of myself as a “city girl” while living in neighborhoods close to the mall or a major grocery store. Having easy access to what I needed, I have never experienced living away from the main roads the way some people do who have farms or live in the country. I always wanted to, but when I thought about actually doing it, it made me nervous to think of myself so far away from “all that is going on.”
As I have gotten older, I think I long for the simple life more and more and that green acres is the life for me (and now you will have that song stuck in your head all day). Oh, I have seen how much work goes into a farm.
I don’t plan on taking THAT on… but I guess I wouldn’t mind living in a more rural area if that is ever an opportunity.
As I visit farms to interview farmers and write about them, I get a taste of what joy they experience keeping things simple. Farming and growing is hard work - and I don’t mean that it is a life of ease since there are many things to deal with and much labor in farming - but I like the nature part of it all. I used to think I was too much of a city girl to ever live out in the country until I moved to New York. Mama always said I would “fit in up there” because of my interest in the arts, Broadway and my modern approach to a few things. But when I lived on Long Island, worked in Garden City and visited New York City; I found that it was not me at all. I loved my time there and everyone I met, but I knew that I was not a city girl.
I enjoyed dressing up and seeing a show, I liked tasting great food and I liked meeting new people. But coming back to Tennessee there was just nothing like the smell of nature, the beauty of the mountains and that feeling of being around “country folk.”
Visiting Circle S farm I saw how much Curtis and Letty enjoy what they do. I have never grown a vegetable in my life and I’mnot sure I have a green thumb. I have never tried it. With my love for horses, I have always been around farms or the country life. I just never lived it myself. I would go riding with friends, or visit my sister when she lived on a farm. When I had Smokey for a time, he was boarded and it was a “get away” to go out and see him. I am not sure what it would be like to wake up on a farm every day, but how could anyone not enjoy being surrounded by the freshness of nature.
One farm that I went to a few weeks ago was quite different from all the ones that I have visited so far. In fact, as I pulled up to meet Ryan Welch the mushroom grower, I was in the middle of a busy week and did not even know what it was that he grew. I expected to meet a vegetable grower and to find out what “bio-dynamic farming practices” were as he advertised in Taste Buds Magazine. When I arrived on the Signal Mountain farm, I did not see a tractor. I did not see a plowed field. I saw a huge tent with smoke steaming above it. As I pulled up to the tent, a huge pit bull greeted me and jumped up on my car. I saw Ryan and I motioned to him that I was NOT getting out with the dog that was bigger than I was, latched onto my car. He retrieved his loving pet who just wanted to play and I got out of the car.
My mind was racing with thoughts, “Where the heck are the farming tools?” “Where is the barn?” “What is that tent all about?” …and then I freaked out inside of my head and overreacted with the thought, “Oh my gosh I’ve stumbled upon a meth-lab!” I started laughing at myself and felt that this was just one of the coolest things I had ever seen- taking me by complete surprise.
Ryan realized shortly that I had no idea what it was he that grew or how it was grown. mushrooms. No one around here grows mushrooms and they don’t grow in the garden. So what I saw nearly separated my head from my shoulders until Ryan gave me the tour explaining his operation. When his big dog kept nuzzling me and Ryan being one of the coolest kids I have ever met I became at ease and could listen and take in, what it was he did. I just couldn’t help but to laugh in my amazement as I saw the hanging bags in his tent. What Ryan was doing was “so far out there.” I loved it. I loved that he had a bizarre idea that actually makes sense; that he took the risk and that he is successful in his endeavor as he sells his mushrooms to some of Chattanooga’s finest restaurants. I was proud of this young man as he told about his vision and his passion in ecology.
This was certainly a different kind of farm and to witness “how to grow fungus” was quite an interesting experience. I have a new appreciation for our local growers who put so much labor and care into bringing Chattanooga the best of what nature offers. I doubt that there is a gardener hidden in my alter-ego somewhere, but I do love the farm. I love being a part of it whenever I am around farmers or around horses.
In my home that I had in Mountain Shadows some years ago, I decorated with an Italian motif. There were short rounded arches throughout the structure of the home, Euro-decor and I had my European art on the walls of my favorite artists Bouguereau, Renoir, Monet… but I still had my horse collectables in my bedroom and in the study. I had my cowgirl boots in my closet, my riding jackets and cowgirl hats. Starting over again, I still have a few things that bring nature inside my little apartment- my horse figurines that I painted and my bull and my painting of the Kentucky Derby that I attempted (which looks like a child painted because painting is not my talent - I just enjoy it).
Apartment living is far from the feeling I think people have living on a farm. I never thought I would mind living in an apartment again because I get along with people and I am not one that craves their privacy. Maybe the fact that I live underneath the family of Circus Soleil has made my venturing out on my own a bit disappointing, but through my “why not?” journey, I am learning that I don’t need to know the destination. Each new place that I come to in my journey may just be a stepping stone to something else. My goal was to be in my own place by Christmas. I did it.
It hasn’t been easy swimming upstream, but I have loosened the tight grip of expectations that I used to have. I relieved myself of that pressure, (I see an audience of readers over 40 nodding who have also crossed this threshold in life). I moved to an apartment with extremely noisy neighbors above me who find it necessary to begin their noisiest endeavors each day between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. I still am glad I did it. I still love opening up my windows to start my day and saying good morning to my mountain. It was a wonderful stepping stone and, when I am ready, I will find a house to rent where I do not have to share the ceiling with acrobats.
I am, however, uncertain as to what I want to do next. My idea of being close to downtown was to be able to try out the restaurants here, as I did on Long Island, to be close to hiking areas and to ‘be near the scene’ of what all is going on in Chattanooga. But as I visit the farms, I have to be honest I am kind of digging the idea of finding a place for rent with a lot of land and finally getting a horse. Can I do it? I was able to practice, for nearly a year, in taking care of Smokey. It was a good set up for me to find out for sure that it was not only a love that I had for horses but a passion and commitment to take it on.
If I do not decide to move in a rural area, I have the option of renting a house with a boarding place close by. Here in Lookout Valley, I am close to Reflection Riding and, if I head back to my old neighborhood, I would be close to Hidden Hills where Smokey is. I would love to be able to have Smokey again.
Last year, as I hiked in Harriman Park in New York and crossed a stream, I learned to step on securely placed stones, slowly and carefully. That is my approach in my “why not?” journey. I am not in a hurry and I don’t have to have all the answers right now. All I need right now is to enjoy visiting the farms for my interviews and… to have a broom handy to beat on the ceiling.
Jen Jeffrey
jen@jenjeffrey.com