Reflecting

A lot of you know Lindsey as the amazing lady that mans our Mobile Farm Store at Social Q Smokehouse every Thursday in Morehead City.  What some of you may not realize is that her and her husband also help us butcher and package chickens for you and your families! They've toured the farm and learned all the ins and outs of what we do and why we do it. Lindsey is a very reflective and thoughtful person so when she sent me her most recent reflections, I knew I had to share!

She reminded me that one of the most rewarding and fulfilling parts of farming for Joe & I is the fact that the food we produce goes directly to you and other families in our community. We get to play a part in feeding your family, giving you delicious nourishing food to prepare and enjoy around the table. Lindsey has been very involved in the educational world in the past so as graduations and end of year celebrations happen, she shared her thoughts in regards to farming. 

Summer is in full swing, farm friends!

Lindsey here, and as we find ourselves wrapping up the season of graduations and end of school year celebrations, memories from my career as an educator have been resurfacing. Before Shenk Family Farm, I spent nearly a decade serving high school and college students in one capacity or another. Many of our farm family subscribers are current or former educators, so I know you will understand the collective energy felt by staff around this time every year. The only thing between teacher and vacation is the “end of the year” appreciation celebration. Awards are given, retirements announced, and everyone shares in one final, collective exhale (and some pizza) before locking the classroom door for the summer.

When I started working in higher education, attendance at graduation was mandatory for all staff. To take the sting out of that last, long final day we were encouraged by a “staff only” spread of fruits, cheeses, crackers, chips, little meats on toothpicks and no shortage of mayonnaise based dips. Nothing says “thank you, congratulations, now get out of here!” like some salty snacks and a plastic cup full of mini candy bars. In education particularly, there’s a timeline to follow, a countdown, and a reprieve always on the horizon. Anyone who’s ever “held on till Spring Break” knows what I mean! In most all careers though, there’s a leadership team of some version, exhibiting a similar show of employee appreciation. In recent years there’s been quite an increase in cards and cakes proclaiming “Happy Boss’s Day” or “Administrative Assistants Day!” Society does love to celebrate!

What struck me recently as I’ve felt the muscle memory of my former career acknowledge the passing of the seasons… is that for small business owners like the Shenks, there is no one above THEM coordinating, planning, carving out or executing such fanfare. No board of education is leaving room in the budget to order 15 pizzas and 95 mugs for the farm (although I imagine the pigs would gift ones proclaiming “I love my farmer” to Joe and Rachel if they could). So then, what refills a farmer’s cup? What marks the passing increments on a timeline, and how does one acknowledge a job completed before pushing onward to the one that’s inevitably always waiting?

As a pack, farm friends, YOU are a huge motivator and community of encouragers. You love Shenk Family Farm so well, and are not stingy in your affection. Society can make friendly exchanges feel mechanical and in a strange paradox it’s easy to discount a simple acknowledgment as sheer politeness while waiting for a public prize. Farm work is teaching me to be humble but not flippant towards compliments from customers. If the next time you say “Thank you,” I respond “you know what, Thank YOU” in return, what I’m really saying is “I accept your appreciation! I hear it, I receive it, and I am renewed by it.”

Farm life reminds me often of the verse Matthew 6:34 “So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble.” When there’s no vacation on the calendar to “hang on” for, I’ve noticed the mind isn’t geared towards dissociation from the stress of work until that stress takes a hiatus. The mindset adapts to more fully absorb the present.

So I feel the sunshine burn my forearms a little, scents of wet earth from the water hose waft upward and completely fill my nose, and I notice the lines in the face of who’s chatting while they buy meat for the week. The lack of a calendar actually means I notice the details of every minute more. The celebration of what happens on the farm doesn’t exactly come at the end of the year. (Heck, there’s not even an “end”!) God bless them, Joe and Rachel will never have a guaranteed week of vacation unless they carve it out for themselves. While we definitely all still eat well and enjoy the stillness together after a long processing day, or the caffeinated treat on a busy subscription week, there’s a palpable difference to the management of farm life. Farming is relentless in what it takes, day in and day out. But for the willing participant, it GIVES so much back. Maybe not in the way we’re used to receiving gifts. But make no mistake; I’ve never felt so rewarded.