From Cubicle to Cultivar: How to Leave the Office and Become a Farmer

Hands-on apprenticeships cultivate opportunities to leave the city and lead an agrarian lifestyle.

article image
by Jonathan Olivier

Lately, my life has been consumed by farming. I’ve been obsessively poring over seed catalogs to ensure I choose plant cultivars suited to my climate in southwest Louisiana; I need to spread my compost and build a processing shed; and I’m still trying to decide exactly how many hens I want.

My farm, Le Potager d’Acadiana (The Acadiana Kitchen Garden), sits on an acre of land that hugs Bayou Bourbeaux near Arnaudville, Louisiana, about an hour from where I grew up. It’s my first season, and, after two years of planning, it’s hard to believe the moment is finally here. Although both of my grandfathers were raised on farms, college was presented as my only option growing up. So even as my interest in sustainable food grew, my burgeoning career as a journalist kept me in an office.

Through my education, I discovered authors who revealed to me the flaws of America’s food systems: Wendell Berry, Michael Pollan, and Mark Sundeen. Their work introduced me to radically different ideas and helped shape what I wanted out of life. My aspirations included living a more sustainable life focused on local, homegrown food, but my career and location limited my ability to achieve this. At the time, I was living in an apartment outside Nashville, Tennessee, with only a balcony on which to grow a handful of plants. Most of my days were spent indoors, tied to a desk and a computer, supporting a system I increasingly didn’t align with.

Call to Action

  • Published on Jul 5, 2019
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368