A Conversation with Michael

On a chilly January morning, I sat down with long time neighbor, friend, and farm volunteer Michael to learn more about his involvement with the farm. The following conversation is transcribed from an audio recording of our conversation. A few sections have been edited for clarity.

Molly: How long have you been involved with Tir Na Nog Farm?

Michael: 
My first wife we moved here in 2005 and got to know all the neighbors, so that's been 20 years now, but um we we came from a Boston suburb and my understanding of farm life was enough for me to know that milk did not come from the supermarket shelves, but from a cow, but that was pretty much it. So also at that time I was very busy with work. I was very involved. 
I traveled the world and so I was not that much present here. Yes, I did some with the house but I was not really engaged much with our neighbors around here. And that changed bit by bit.

I think the one key element that changed it was when I got a tractor.

I got it really primarily for our own property here to help with the land to help with, of course, mowing and landscaping and and those things, but our neighbors Sue and Holly heard about that and so occasionally Sue would ask me if I could help with some little jobs that meant the lot to them and did not really meant much to the tractor because mowing half an acre of land with the tractor is is easy and a joy and mowing it with a scythe is a lot of work. And so at first when I got to know them, I thought, why are they making their lives so hard? 
Why are they trying to do all that with as little machinery as possible and I would help them off and on occasionally when they asked, but the big change, the second change really came when Annette appeared on the scene. 

We got married almost five years ago and she is a city mouse. She feels so comfortable with people with the culture scene in Berlin, she is highly educated, knows a lot and is a voracious reader. And so you might say, how does she fit into this rural setting here? 
Well, the interesting thing is about a couple of years before we got married, she was widowed and a was kind of thinking about a way forward for herself and she said, what I'm really missing in my life is nature because I have so much about the urban cultural scene, and that's why this is my my sense of home. But she said, I really long for knowing different species of trees and birds and all that, so when we came together the first thing I did not knowing all that, the first thing I showed her was a bird's eye view of our property with my drone that I have flew over over the property that showed her that this is where I live.

And she said, oh wow, yeah he lives in the woods.

So at first we thought you know should I move to Berlin and we sell this place here? Should she move here and we sell the place in Berlin? But over the years, as you know by now both of those places grew on us respectively and I love Berlin by now, and she loves this place here by now. So we decided to keep both and we hopped back and forth a couple of times a year. And she really helped me see this whole area through her eyes. I have definitely grown a lot closer to Sue and Holly. 

Because that life on the farm was something completely new for Annette, and she really wanted to understand what does that farm take? And so that got me closer to them and I've begun to understand a little bit what it means to run a farm. I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for that simple selfless life that they lead I've gained a tremendous amount of respect for the care with which they go about running the farm that they  have a very much a down to earth relationship to the animals and to the to the plants it's not that kind of a lovey dovey, approach that many young people have when they say they don't want to eat meat or something out of respect and love for the animals but I see that with my daughter that her attitude is slowly changing. I think she considers herself, you know, Zoe. She still considers herself a vegan, even though that is kind of softening a little bit. and she realizes that there might be a place for agriculture and farming animals and vegetables.  And  in a way that they love and respect their animals, but they see that in a very down to earth and natural way, so I love that Sue and Holly taught me that their animals have only one bad day in their lives, and the rest of their lives they are very, very happy. The chickens run their own free, the pigs do the same, sometimes too free, and they have to chase them and catch them again.

But that's kind of the second question: what  has it done for me or what surprises have there been?  It's understanding what goes into farming. It's the combination of a naturalness and a respect for nature at the same time, but at the same time, yeah running a farm means you kill animals when the time is right, and that is when you do it right, it's a natural thing. Would these pigs be happier would the chickens be happier if they were out in the wild? 
I don't think so because they're not made to fend for themselves. They're meant to live in a farm environment. The cows are the same but they treat them really well, and the interesting thing is what surprised me is that the quality of food that they produce is so much better than what you get in a grocery store where the food is industrially produced and the eggs taste different. 


The vegetables taste different. Another surprising thing to me is, I observed in myself that I use fewer condiments or no condiments at all, because the food in itself is so delicious that you don't need barbecue sauce or horseradish or mustard to kind of overpower the taste that is in the natural food. When you compare a burger or a chicken breast from their farm, and you compare that to what you get from a grocery store that has industrial need, that meat is bland, whereas the food that they produce is really tasty. You don't need to kill the taste with mustard or barbecue sauce so that was a surprise to me that the food, the way it's meant to be, but that is grown biologically tastes really good. 

Molly: It almost tastes like it's supposed to taste. 
 That's one of my favorite things to show people. I’ll crack an egg from the supermarket and then crack an egg from the farm. and the color difference of the yolk is just incredible. You realize this one looks so pale and unhealthy and then the farm one is just rich in color and you know that you're getting so much more from it. 

Michael:

That’s one aspect is that the food is so much better, but I don't think and you can ask yourself, but I don't think they run the farm for that purpose. I think they run it for the purpose of respecting nature.

Because they really love nature, they love animals, they love flora and fauna and they are so incredibly knowledgeable. That is another thing that surprised me how much Holly but Sue also, Sue is I see her a little bit more as the the business manager of the farm and Holly more as the visionary and of the philosopher, if you want, but Holly knows so much about the background in farming in what's the word for that? 
Indigenous is not the right word, but it's the cultural tradition in how to live with nature. So for example, she said to me, herbs are wonderful medicines. How do people know about that because they observe sick animals. 
What plants do they eat? They know about that, and so if you just follow a sick animal, it'll lead you to the cure. Being in sync with nature is so much more rewarding and fun and healthy. 
Now they understand full well, too, that this is that we are in a very privileged situation, because it just simply is not possible for people living in New York City or in Boston or any urban area, they are simply not able to do that all all the millions of them. So at the same time this farm or farms like that would not be able to supply the necessary food for the whole world or for this country. But I have since read articles where thoughtful people are realizing how to adopt certain ways that the little farms, the organically run farms, what they do, how to adopt that for the more mass produced farms. I've read articles, how big farms are adopting a more, could I say gentle, humane, loving, respectful approach towards treating nature, and they found out that their gain is actually increasing. So I think what Sue and Holly are doing is, I really see them as pioneers that will benefit and are benefiting the agriculture for the whole country. 

Molly: I guess that kind of ties into the question, too, of what do you hope for the future of farming in the US? 

Michael:
I really see that there needs to be a business model because farms have to survive. But if everything is dictated by money, you will find that it's ultimately sawing off the branch that you're sitting on. There have been so many documentaries. I'm thinking of  The Biggest Little Farm in California and they were able to purchase land that was basically dust desert that had been so exploited by monoculture and by forcing the ground to produce just one crops that it basically destroyed the soil and they needed to bring the nutrients back into the the ground through manure and otherwise, but not through chemicals.  But this capitalistic approach to agriculture is very shortsighted. 
It needs to be in balance with nature, and then it’s successful, and you see that with large farms and small farms, but the future, I think, needs to be in harmony with nature and I think Holly and Sue are proving that. And they are on a small scale, but you see it with other other farms also on a larger scale. That documentary I saw, that guy talked about his ranch and ten thousand cows. 
And he knows many of them by name and he he treats them well and he says I would be stupid if I approached my my business with a from a purely mechanical or purely capitalistic viewpoint, because he said a happy cow is much more valuable to me than one that is chained to her spot.  And so I think that kind of philosophy, implementing that on a larger scale,  that's what I see as a successful future for agriculture.

Molly: That's a great answer. I think we might have skipped one question by accident.

Michael: Sure. Oh my relationship to the farm and farming? I'm a civil engineer by trade, so I have no relationship by trade. 
And it's Sue and Holly that really got me into respecting what farmers do. For example, they are just simply not able to say tomorrow the weather is nice, let's go up to Bar Harbor and spend the day on the ocean.

They can't do that because the pigs say, hey, why, wait a moment. Are you bringing us along?

So Sue said to me the other day, she said, it was so cold, it was close to zero Fahrenheit, maybe five five above. 
But she said, the chickens need their water. And if you leave the water out, it's gonna freeze in a matter of, you know, an hour or so. And she really wants to go to a conference in Portland, which is just a half hour away. Would I mind coming over around noon time and giving the chicken some water which is, of course it's ridiculously simple but that shows you what goes into running a farm. 
You are tied to the farm on an hourly basis. And of course I was very happy to oblige, and she was so grateful that she was able to get away just for a few hours and shows you what dedication it takes. 

Molly: It's a lot different than other jobs where you just go home at night and you don't think about your other jobs necessarily. But you're at the farm and you always have a job.

Michael: Once you have animals, that's it. That's something that I really learned and highly respect. And I think that is something that the woofers also learn and it changes their lives or not, but they realize it. 
And if they're not willing to be changed by that kind of life, I've seen wwoofers leave within minutes or hours of starting there, and others, like  you, you are maybe a a rare exception, maybe not the only exception, but there there are some who to this day have stayed friends of the farm and come when there is a need. I'm thinking of Jason. I'm thinking of Oliver and the way you know the names, that have taken to the foreign life like a what is it a horse to water? 
But it certainly means a change in their lives and they leave after a few weeks they leave years older in terms of maturity. I think another wonderful effect that the farm has on people's lives, young people's lives, it allows them a window into a new section of the world, an important sector because food is something we all need. And it makes them leave more mature, more respectful, more grown up, more responsible. I think that's a terrific service that the farm offers to young people. 

Molly:
Yeah. Well, especially when you have something as consequential as people's health in your hands, you kind of realize quickly that I need to step up into this role I've been given because people do need to eat and they need to hopefully be eating good food.

Michael:
Talking about food, well, until a few years ago, I liked beef but that was pretty much it. I did not explicitly, did not like chicken. And then Sue and Holly invited me over for dinner, you know, to show their gratitude for what I had been doing for their farm, and they had one of their local chickens. And I kind of said, okay, well I do it out of love and respect for them.


I'll kind of follow Jesus advice, eat what is set before you and don't ask. 

Molly: That is solid advice.

Michael: And I took my first bite of that chicken and I could not believe it. 
I said, oh, that is what chicken tastes like.

I'm not sure I would say now that chicken is my favorite food, but it's certainly at the top. 
Oh, and the vegetables that they grow, they are so delicious. So my favorite food from the farm it basically whatever comes from the farm. 
It tastes so much better than anything else. 

Molly: Do you have one favorite memory or story you think that stands out of being on the farm?

Michael: I was thinking of some funny stories. Have you heard of Sepp Holzer? 
He is a guy that Sue actually introduced me to. He is Austrian and he is an expert. He owns a piece of land in the Austrian Alps that is basically one side of a valley. So there is not a level spot in his land, in his property, and he terraced his land to make the land farmable and he planted  apple trees and he has sheep he has cows a horse I'm not sure he has horses but he has cows and he has certainly as sheep, and he says when whenever the apples fall off the apple trees, they kind of fall down the slope and the next terrace kind of turns the into a, what do you call a well a jump, a ski jump. and and so it falls off to the next hours and the sheep already wait for that, and they gallop down and they they make they have fun, yeah, but anyway he he has turned that land into useful land by terracing, and so so introduced me to him, not personally, but and and said it would be so great to use our slopes and turn them into something useful. 
So we thought last year with three terraces that you undoubtedly saw and helped with and next year there's more to come. So I got a little digger to help with that and so she has increased my my equipment.

Molly:  I love how the tractor has become the community resource. and that you guys are so willing to share it with everyone as well. 

Michael: I think that using the tractor for us would be overkill. I had a little garden tractor before and that was underkill, the land kind of destroyed it. It was not able to handle the terrain. 
But now this tractor is more than we need. There is nothing in between but I'm so very happy to make it available and it's fun for me. I feel like a 12 year old on this thing.