7 Things I Learned Working on a Local Farm
Richard Ross, Board Member and Community Partner Coordinator
When I first started working at Paha, I thought I was signing up to help with a few chores, spend time outdoors, learn how cider is made, and see where local food comes from. What I didn’t expect was how much the farm would teach me about life. Here are seven lessons I took away from my time there.
1. Things Change
When I first arrived, the orchard was lush, bordering on overgrown. Fruit trees stretched into one another, brambles crowded the edges, and everything seemed full of possibility. By winter, the same landscape appeared empty and dormant. Leaves fall. Branches break. Working there taught me that change isn’t an interruption to the process. Change is the process.
2. Old Growth Must Be Shed Before New Growth Can Happen
Pruning always felt wrong at first. Why cut back healthy branches? But trees need light, airflow, and space to thrive. The healthiest thing for future growth is often removing what no longer serves a purpose. Renewal almost always begins with removal.
3. Death Is Part of Life
The first time I found a diseased chicken in the hen house, I panicked. After hours of Googling and phone calls, the owners got in touch and said, “Leave it be. It will either get better or it won’t.” Two days later, it hadn’t.
More Googling. How do you ethically dispose of a dead chicken?
The owners called again and said, “Pick it up with a shovel and throw it in the field.” They said nature would take care of the rest. And it did. It felt harsh, but it was honest. Growth, decay, and renewal are all part of the same cycle.
4. Hard Work Pays Off
There is no substitute for hard work. A good harvest starts months before the fruit is picked. The work done in spring and summer shows up in the fall, if you’re lucky. Sometimes frost, drought, or hungry deer undo your efforts.
What I learned is that hard work must become an end in itself. If you only work when success is guaranteed, you’ll never begin. The value comes from showing up consistently, even when the outcome is uncertain.
The habit of hard work changes you long before it changes your circumstances.
5. Stuff Breaks
A surprising amount of farming involves fixing things. Fences lean, water lines leak, tires go flat, and equipment breaks at the worst possible moment. Maintenance is never finished. The work taught me that success often comes from addressing small problems before they become big ones.
6. Solutions Don’t Have to Be Perfect, They Just Have to Work
Farms run on ingenuity. Broken gates get patched with baling twine. Missing parts are replaced with whatever is on hand. Perfect solutions are rare; workable solutions are everywhere. Progress usually comes from action, not perfection.
7. The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your Plans
You can do everything right and still lose a crop to a storm, a drought, or a pest outbreak. Nature follows its own rules. At first, that can feel frustrating. Eventually, it becomes liberating. You learn to focus on what you can control and let go of what you can’t. You do the work. You make the plan. Then you adapt.
Working on a local farm taught me practical skills, but the bigger lessons had little to do with growing food. Change is constant, hard work matters, nothing lasts forever, and nature always gets the final say.