Celebrating Runamuk's 6th Farmiversary!

Looking at what we've accomplished on this small Maine farm, and how the reality is different from the expectation

“Hope you have a nice rest of your day,” the cashier said, handing back my change.

“I sure will,” I beamed. “It’s my Farmiversary today!”

“What the heck is a ‘farmiversary’?” they asked, looking at me as if I had a cupcake on my head.

“It’s the anniversary of the day I bought my farm,” I told them, as though the answer should be obvious.

The day that changed my life forever.

Welcome to the latest Updates From the Farm! If you are new here, I invite you to check out my About page to learn what this is, who I am and why I am doing this. Or just dive right in! At “Runamuk Acres” you’ll find the recantings of one lady-farmer and tree-hugging activist from the western mountains of Maine.
#foodieswanted #natureluvrswelcome

The other day, I interviewed with Mary Evelyn Lewis, for her podcast: “Mary and the Master Gardener”. Mary has been following my story since before I bought the farm. Her recollection of those heart-wrenching tales (of all the ups and downs that came with my particular journey to farm-ownership), brought that roller coaster ride flooding back. Though, in truth, I’ve been thinking about those days a lot lately, with the Farmiversary looming and my first book in production.

What Have I Accomplished?

Since closing on this property on June 27th, 2018, I’ve really “dug-in” here in New Portland (Maine). Building infrastructure in the form of gardens, an orchard, compost bins, livestock houses, fencing and irrigation. I’ve gotten to know this scrappy patch of Earth intimately. And she has come to know me, as well.

Runamuk’s reputation has grown within the community, first as a local farm and source of fresh food, consciously grown. And secondly, as an ecologic reserve working to promote the health and vitality of local wildlife habitats.

It’s farmer has grown, too. I’ve found new purpose in my existence here, an even greater sense of resolve and a deeper well that was there inside me all along.

How is the Reality Different From My Naive Expectations?

In most ways, owning my own farm has been everything I’d ever dreamed it would be: freedom, stability, purpose and meaning. It’s brought a sense of peace and contentment to my life I’d never known and I am blissfully happy to spend every day on this farm, doing the work I love to do. There are a few things, however, which have turned out differently from my naive expectations.

Change of Focus
Actually being here and doing the work has brought about a change of focus on multiple levels. Instead of raising bees and cultivating a pollinator garden, I’ve committed myself to insects as a whole, wrapping soil microbes and mycellium into the mix, too. I fell in love with the 10-acre field out back and I’d much rather keep it as it is than try to introduce myriad other species or break up the pasture.

I Have Limits
This was one of those lessons I had to learn over and over again before it would finally sink in, but my last relationship really drove it home. Since buying the farm, I’ve come to realize even I have limits, lol. There’s only so much one person can do, and when we take on too much the quality of our work fails. Better to do less and do it well, I’ve decided.

No Partner
When I bought the farm, I thought: “If you build it, He will come.” Like I was Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. I’m not a solo-farmer because I choose to be─I just haven’t found the right partner yet.

For a while, I saw a counselor and he told me that my “picker” was broken, lol. It’s natural for us to pick partners who exemplify those traits and living conditions to which we are accustomed, and I had lived in some pretty shitty situations for 40 years. Now that I’ve spent time healing and working on myself, I’ve gotten comfortable being alone and less willing to put myself or the farm in compromising positions. Which means most men can’t hope to reach me.

Book Launch!

I am stoked to be celebrating our 6th Farmiversary with a book launch! This is a resource I’d been meaning to put together 5 years ago, right after I bought the farm, but writing was less a priority back then.

I’d hoped to release the book on my Farmiversary, but it’s not quite ready yet, and I’d rather delay publication then send a rush manuscript out into the world.

What I thought would be a short, non-fiction ebook on “How to Buy a Farm With No Money” has become a hundred pages of tips, recommendations, and links to resources─all reinforced by stories from my own journey─to help other beginning farmers work with the USDA and the Farm Service Agency.

I’m sure any of you who are writers and have published your own books or e-books, know how painstaking the formatting process can be. Having never created anything of this magnitude before, I am now discovering this for myself.

It doesn’t help that I keep thinking of things to add, lol.

While it may not be released on the actual date, this book was absolutely inspired by Runamuk’s Farmiversary. It’s a gift. A gift to me as my first full-length manuscript, and, very soon, my first-ever published book.

This book is also a gift to other beginning farmers, packed with ideas and advice I hope will help them along their own journey to farm-ownership. It includes a chapter just for women, discussing the struggles women farmers face as primary care-givers and offering strategies for farming with kids in tow. Most of all I hope this book inspires women to stand up and take charge of their own destinies. We’re capable of so much more than society gives us credit for.

Celebrating Runamuk’s 6th Farmiversary

No one has to tell me how fortunate I am to be here. Somehow I managed to position myself so that when the stars aligned, I was able to make this wild fantasy of mine a reality.

It does not escape my notice that it’s only thanks to tax-payer funded government programs that I am able to be here at all. It’s also thanks to tax-payer funded programs that I was able to reduce my mortgage enough to allow me to farm full-time. Most farmers need supplemental income from off-farm sources.

This is a farm provided by the people, which is why I feel strongly that it should be a farm for the people, as well.

The work that I am doing—yes, it’s for me, in the sense that I get to live here and do this work which I love—but it’s also for the people. Not only am I doing my best to provide fresh food to my local community, I’ve taken it upon myself to cultivate this ecologic reserve that benefits both our human neighbors, and the wild ones.

What’s more, while it certainly wasn’t my intention going into this, I’ve become a role model to other wanna-be farmers—particularly the women. I know, because they email me sometimes, to tell me so.

There’s a responsibility in all of that, which I feel keenly. It drives me. Always compelling me to work hard and give it all I can so as not to disappoint Runamuk’s followers and supporters.

One of my biggest fears is that tax-payers (or anyone) would look at me and say: “She doesn’t deserve to be there.”

When you look around this farm, I think—I hope—it’s self-evident that I’ve been working hard since landing in 2018. It’s easy for me to overlook incremental progress, being here every day, but customers and visitors will remark upon it, calling it to attention. When I stop then, looking at all we’ve accomplished in these last 6 years, I can’t help but swell with pride, which is immediately followed by immense gratitude.

The Western Maine Mountains. My heart.

Of all the people in this world yearning for farm-life, the Universe chose me.

Don’t think for one second that I ever take my existence here for granted. Having clawed my way out of a severely dysfunctional childhood, inching my way ever closer to this bright light of hope and love that was farm-ownership, year after year. Oh, yes, I know exactly how fortunate I am.

Where Dreams Come True

There’s a scene at the end of Field of Dreams, where Ray asks Shoeless Joe Jackson, “Is there a heaven?”

Shoeless Joe responds heartily, “Oh yeah…it’s the place where dreams come true.”

Ray looks around his farm, at the baseball field he’d created, at his wife and child giggling nearby, and says, “Maybe this is heaven.”

That’s what I have here at Runamuk—the place where all of my dreams have come true. Every day on this property is a gift. A piece of heaven on Earth—and I won’t ever forget that or take it for granted.

Much love to you and yours, my friends.

Your friendly neighborhood farmer,

Sam

Tipping is not mandatory, but always appreciated!

Thank you for following along with the story of this lady-farmer! It is truly a privilege to live this life serving my family and community, and protecting wildlife through agricultural conservation. Check back soon for more updates from the farm, and be sure to follow @RunamukAcres on Instagram or Facebook!