Raising Maine

For some moms, the 'office' is made up of acres of farmland.

By RAYE TIBBITTS, Raising Maine Contributor

Jenn Grant rolls out of bed at 5 a.m. Within minutes of pulling on some clothes she's out in the barn preparing to milk 40 cows.

While other residents of Gorham, where Grant lives with her husband, Jeff, and their three teenage children, may be showering and preparing for a long commute and a day at the office, Grant's work day is spread out across 150 acres of the family farm.

Vegetable fields that stock the commercial stand of Findview Farm on Mighty Street, corn fields that feed the milking cattle and a herd of 70 beef and heifer cows, and an Old McDonald assembly of pigs and chickens fill Grant's day book with appointments that rely less on the constant getting-ahead of 21st century life, and more on the rhythms of a lifestyle in tune with Maine's agricultural history.

It's a long way to the water cooler for Grant and those moms who have turned their life's work into the work of raising food for the rest of us. When she was still in college, Grant's father sold part of the family's dairy herd due to health issues, but when he asked her in the middle of her senior year if she wanted to come home and milk cows, her answer was a quick "yes."

Grant, who married between her junior and senior years at the University of Maine, talked it over with her husband. "We just felt that if my father sold the rest of the cows, there was a good chance that eventually there would be no more animals on the farm, and in time, the whole farm would be sold off for house lots."

At the age of 22, when many women are just learning how to take care of themselves, Grant and her husband took over as the fourth generation to run Findview Farm. Looking back 18 years later, she has no regrets. "At the end of the day, I can see my accomplishments. I know that I have done something good," she says.

Jeff works full-time outside the home as a road foreman for the town of Gorham. "His job supports the family," Jenn says. Her job supports the farm, and the money the farm makes goes right back into it. With dairy prices down to half of what they were just a year ago, that's not a lot. Findview Farm participates in a co-op called Agrimark that sells milk to H.P. Hood, but Jenn is looking to get out of the dairy market for good in the next few years. "The kids don't have an interest in dairy farming, and the barn is old and so is the milking equipment," she says. "I don't want to make an investment in keeping it going if it's not something the kids will take over one day." Instead, Jenn will focus on raising beef and continuing to grow vegetables for the farm stand.

For Maine mom Sarah Sparks, who works in the 4-H Youth Development Program of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, her home at Dragon Fly Farm in New Gloucester has always been more about growing all her own food just to support the family. Rather than pursue commercial ventures with her products, Sparks instead combines her work with the 4-H program and a farm-centered lifestyle. "It's important to us to know where our food comes from, and we like working with animals," she says.

Even though Dragon Fly Farm might be considered more of a hobby farm, since both Sparks and her husband, Josh, also work full-time outside the home, caring for their goats and poultry and gardens supports not just their family, but also Sparks commitment to the 4-H program. The mother of one 13-month-old, Sparks is quick to mention that there are "350 kids in Cumberland County 4-H." Her mothering is extended throughout the community as she promotes agriculture for the next generation.

And who knows where the next generation of Maine farmers will come from? Grant came home to milk cows when she was 22, but she doesn't expect her children to follow her path. When they were younger, they would complain that while their friends were headed to the beach at three in the afternoon, they were headed out to the barn to do chores.

"My oldest son used to say, 'when can we move?' But I don't hear that anymore. I think they have appreciated (growing up on a farm) more as they have gotten older."

Even if Grant is the last generation of her family to go to work on the farm every day, she says, "It's been good and a good life. I'm glad my children had a chance to grow up here."