By Andrew Amelinckx
on January 6, 2016
Rachel Getsinger may have been raised in suburbia, but her heart has always been on the farm.
“We saw a disconnect between industrialized agriculture, our food, the earth, and our community,” says Rachel, 27. “We became enthralled with locally raised meat and produce and knew in our hearts that we wanted to be a part of it. We wanted to farm.”
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Nearly four years ago the couple got the chance. They started The North Field, a 25-acre farm in Newberg, Oregon, and began raising milking goats before adding lamb and seasonal poultry to the mix. Located in the heart of Oregon wine country, the farm’s organic pasture and woodland support their 25 Katahdin Dorper hair sheep and young, and six Oberhasli dairy goats. Seasonally, the couple also produce pasture-raised turkey and chicken for meat.
Modern Farmer: Why do you consider yourself a modern farmer?
Rachel Getsinger: As we farm we farm with a creative sensitivity. We do our best to waste nothing, and to honor the lives of the creatures on the farm. We also seek to find sound systems that set up our animals and land for lasting improvement and not just a successful season.
MF: Why is it important to you to support local agriculture?
RG: In the last year we would not have made it without the support of our community loving and needing and wanting our products. Farming is hard and it doesn’t always pay, but there is something about it that keeps us coming back. The support and appreciation we feel from our community makes us feel like we are on the right track. We have come to see that one cannot solely consume nor can one soley produce. We need an active community of people who care about good food, just as much as those who long for good food need good modern farmers.
MF: If you could grow or raise any food or animal, what would it be and why?
RG: Ok, if all bets were off I would raise reindeer because they are wondrous to me. However, my heart delights so deeply in our flocks. We go on walks amongst them and watch them graze for hours. It is amazing the lessons that they have taught us.
MF: What’s your favorite vegetable?
RG: Easy. My husband’s garden-grown carrots – slow roasted ’til they are coated in their own glaze of sugary earthy sweetness.
[mf_pullquote layout=”right”]Farm hard, but be sensitive and brave enough to cut something out that is not life-giving to you and your farm.[/mf_pullquote]
MF: If you could give other modern farmers any advice, what would it be?
RG: Our advice would be to not lose heart in the longest of hours. That you are not alone even though you may be in a barn milking at dawn or in the woods fencing, wrestling the brambles, and chasing coyotes in the dead of night. That the work we do, we do together for a good outside of ourselves. That together we have a grit that makes us tough and sensitive enough to care for the goodness of food and community. And lastly, farm hard, but be sensitive and brave enough to cut something out that is not life-giving to you and your farm.
MF:Do you have a farming/agricultural hero? Why do you admire them?
RG: Yes! My farm heroine is Crissie Zaerpoor from Kookoolan Farms. We were at a food meet in town where a number of farms came together with local chefs and the community to celebrate, collaborate, and meet other local farmers and local food lovers. I had been up since 4 a.m. for milking and had come to the event straight from my day job and knew we still had fencing ahead of us that night after the event. I was exhausted. Crissie and her husband have been farming for years. She had a light about her. After her presentation I went up to meet her. She saw my exhaustion in my eyes. It felt like she stared into my soul and knew me. I could hardly mumble a greeting before I began to weep. She held me, a stranger, but a farmer, like her. It was the first time I had felt so fully understood outside of my own experience in farming. I looked at her and saw that it was possible to farm for a living at a level that still honored the animals, earth, community, and each other. She urged me to stay strong and to not be afraid to cull out the activities that were not breathing life into our farming, and that it is good to explore but that you need not be a master at everything simultaneously.
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