My first contribution to the Farm Side newspaper column in the Amsterdam Recorder was published on March 20th 1998.(Coincidentally this March 20th will be National Ag Day.) That first Farm Side was entitled, "Raising the most important crop," and was about bringing up farm kids to be productive citizens. At the time one of our dear friends was the main author of the column, which he started and his wife named.
He asked me to take over one column per month as their farm was demanding too much of his time to keep up with all the columns. Later he bowed out completely and left me doing it alone.
Twelve years worth of thousand-word-a week rants, tirades, and spring, fall, summer and winter poems to farm life have taken print and flown..... or failed. I have made friends and ticked folks off. I have been lectured and I have been thanked. Incidentally I have also been paid....I will never get rich writing but the Farm Side used to pay for my vacation back before times got bad and nowadays it makes a meaningful contribution to the grocery situation.
It has been fun.
It has been miserable.
Some Wednesday deadlines have been a cinch to meet.
Others have been pure Hell (I am always really tired after I finish the final putting together of the thing. I am generally not worth much on Wednesday afternoons).
One of the best aspects of researching for the column is how much I have learned about American farming and farm folks. There are so many kinds of farms; each is different in some way from others of its kind, each industry within the industry has bazillions of fascinating aspects to be learned about and new ideas pop up every day. I have surely loved the learning. My mind after all those years is like a farming trivia fun house. From popcorn to potatoes to how many miles a bee flies for honey...there is a lot to learn about agriculture.
Here are a couple (or so) websites I used for this week's column on National Agriculture Week, which just happens to be going on right now.
Ag Day Food Fun Facts
Ag Day Fun Facts, flora ad fauna
And a letter to our President from Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe
It amazes me that, after so many years and so many columns, there is still so much to be learned about agriculture.
Happy Ag Week to all my friends here at Northview Diary.
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12 comments:
GO GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!###################@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Congrats on that! Happy Ag week to you!
Congrats ThreeC!
Happy Ag Week and St. Patrick's Day to you!
Happy Ag week. The Michigan (an agricultural state)legislatures have declared Saturday a day not to eat meat or dairy products.
Clueless.
I've always enjoyed your writing. I can't imagine having to meet your deadline though. Congrats!!!
Waaaaiiittt a minute. How might I avail myself of those columns and your poetry?
And yes congratulations :0)
Happy Ag week!
Okay. Now I see the link to the "Recorder" . . I'll give it a try. But I still want your poetry.
I'd love to read your articles!
Happy Ag Week to you too. Thats what I love about agriculture--even though it can be endlessly frustrating--there is always something new to be learned.
Anne, thanks!
FC, thank you, hope yours was wonderful as well
Dani, thanks!
Marti, thank you
Jan, I read that and am thinking of writing the Farm Side about it. What an idiot that governor is. Ag is the second biggest industry in her state, so why not bash them on ag day....it boggles the mind!
Linda, thanks, some days it is a real pain in the butt, but I am such a big mouth, i just have to keep doing it. lol
Cathy, well, my poetry is really mostly prose not unlike what I write here on Northview...a couple real genuine poems over the years, but mostly a bit of my fun with description and alliteration. The only way you can read the Farm Side (alas) unless you are a subscriber, is using the paper's pay site www.recordernews.com and....sadly...paying. They used to run it on the free site and I used to link, but they took it off
Jessika, thanks, it is certainly never a boring business. Amazing miracles and despairing disaster run hand in hand through every life. You either love it or hate it I guess
Happy AG Week to you too!!!!
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
Honey. For this I would pay.
Don't suppose you could be encouraged to post those couple poems?
I understand your reluctance. I've dabbled and there's nothing worse than drawing blank stares from a captive audience ;-D
Linda, thanks, hope yours goes better than the stuck tractor would indicate. Take care!
Cathy, I think if you pay for a day's use of the newspaper pay site you can peruse the archives at will. The Farm Side runs pretty much every Friday on the opinion page, including today. I think you can check back for previous Fridays going back quite a way. I haven't actually paid to use it in quite a while as we subscribe to the print version. I don't know if I can find any poetry stuff...we have been through several computers since I started and although we still have the old ones they are unplugged and hiding in upstairs rooms. lol I know I have a print copy of one I wrote using the 12 days of Christmas for a basis for the 12 Days of construction. It is one of my all time favorites...I sent it to my former editor for his personal entertainment and he printed it. I will see if I can find it and type it out.
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