Day 19: Girls Are Farmers, Too

There's farmer in the kids' genes. Dirk's paternal grandparents farmed in Illinois for decades. While Dirk's father was a professional man, he never shirked his ancestry and he always had something growing. When I asked Dirk what food most evoked his childhood, he didn't hesitate and answered, "Strawberries."

Dirk's grandmother, Ella, was a major part of the farm, as most women are. She kept chickens, cows and the gardens going. But often we forget the women in agriculture. She was a farmer, too.

Today, the kids prepped the yard with Dirk for the garden and our seed shipment scheduled for delivery tomorrow. They rode their mini-John Deere, grated the dirt and ran around in delirous, giggly circles. I wanted to test their sense of gender equity and said, "You're farmers just like your great grandmother Ella."

Aidan answered instantly, "She wasn't a farmer."

"Yes, she was," Dirk said.

"Girls aren't farmers," Patrick chimed in, almost on cue.

Dirk and I launched into a back-and-forth volley explaining how, of course, women are farmers. The kids were interested for a while, and then they went back to moving dirt piles.

It's amazing how gender stereotyping perpetuates itself even among kids who live in a house where gender equity and division of labor cross old conventional stereotypes. Just tonight Patrick also said, "I can fold laundry just like Daddy." And then he went on to folding cloth napkins and underwear. After we talked, I looked at his Fisher Price and Little Tikes farm sets ... all the farmer dolls are male. I think we need a line of girl famer toys.

When I worked at Heifer, I interviewed Mary Jane Butters, an incarnation of a traditional farm girl mixed with modern mogul. She presides over a farm and organic enterprise in Moscow, Idaho. Her farm is beautiful. She's been compared to Martha Stewart for her prowess and perfectionism, but she's also down-to-earth and down-home with her organic recipes and lifestyle. Her popularity stems from a rising tide of new farm girls. She's been inundated with questions and interest and assembled a host of Farm Girl Resources for other "farm girls" looking for advice and guidance.

I think she taps a modern need. She reminds all of us - women and men - that organic farming is neither women's or men's work. It's work that we need to keep alive for our collective health and well-being. And it never hurts to remind ourselves and our kids that "Girlz Farm." I can see the T-shirts now.

Menu
Breakfast: Toast, strawberries, almond butter, bananas, yogurt and coffee.

Lunch: Pita pizzas with fontina, grapes, craisins and milk. Aidan had pita and hummus, grapes, craisins and pretzels for a snack and milk.

Dinner: Mexican salads - a salad bar of ground beef with cumin and chili powder, lettuce, monterey jack, tomatoes, onions, peppers and Green Mountain Tortilla Strips, and we had toasted pitas too. Apples and cinnamon for dessert.

Nugget o' the Day: "Girls aren't farmers." - Patrick.