Why I came back to the farm

By Drew Fry

I think everyone assumes their childhood is normal. In my case, growing up on the farm, I thought everyone had a creek to swim in, tractors and trucks to drive before feet could fully reach the pedals, and daily chances to tag along with their dad or grandpa to help that day’s tasks get done.

It wasn’t until I left for college in Texas and swapped stories with Dallas and Houston kids that I truly realized just how much of an outlier my experience had been. Time at the farm became more precious to me as my perspective shifted and matured.

As I finished an engineering degree in 2016 and took an aerospace job in Seattle, I had a vague and far-off hope to one day return to life on the farm. I wanted my future kids to experience some of the same joys (and hard work) that I had known.

At this point, Aubree and Kelton were beginning to work with my dad on finishing our first steers entirely on grass to sell through the farmers’ market. I watched from a distance, cheering them on as they built that enterprise together.

It took all of a year for me to realize that I wasn’t tough enough for a desk job. The days passed slowly while I sat and monitored the clock to see when it was time to go. More hands-on engineering roles were available closer to the manufacturing process, but I had seen what working life on the farm looked like, with both its pleasures and pains. I knew I would be leaving a solid career path for a job with more hours, less pay, and a much more wildly variable schedule. Sometimes the draw to family and home is stronger than what might seem logical to a neutral observer.

I wasn’t alone in that realization. Each of the last three generations before me had moved away from this area for a time, only to realize that a love for this patch of dirt is hard to shake. My great-grandpa had to relocate to find work to survive the Depression, my grandpa left an up-and-coming career as a naval officer, and my father had left behind a steady job with the Arkansas Forestry Commission.

It was because of their commitment to this place and to stewarding the farm well that I could entertain the thought of moving back and working on the farm full-time alongside my dad. In particular, my dad’s change in philosophy around the year 2000 toward regenerative farming practices helped bolster the health of our soil and increase the farm’s productivity without the need for pricey inputs like fertilizer or herbicides. I was also excited about our farm’s budding presence in the local food chain, made possible by Aubree and Kelton working hard on the customer-facing side of that enterprise.

After that first year in the white-collar world, I began working with my dad on a timeline for coming back to the farm. My wife and I moved back to the farm three years later in the summer of 2020 and haven’t looked back!