International Year of the Woman Farmer

Why do you farm?

The United Nations declared 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer

What does it mean, to YOU, to be a farmer?

I read Erika’s recent blog ,new farmer at Oak Spring Farm, and got teary-eyed.

Not because it was sentimental.
Because it was true.

Her words carry the kind of truth you get to by doing hard, meaningful work with your hands…

She wrote about feeling “dirty, capable, useful,” I get it. And if you farm, you get it too.

The farm, in essence, asks one thing:
To show up.

And women have been showing up in farming for a very long time.

Quietly.
Powerfully.
Competently.

Not asking for applause. And often with a child slung on their back.

I remember travelling through rural southeast Africa in the 1990’s. Women would have a toddler by the hand, a baby strapped to their front or back and their free hand balancing a load of timber on their head. Incredible. 

My favorite sentence from Erika’s blog: ‘It felt good to stop waiting for help I didn’t really want in the first place.’

Just growing food, building businesses, raising families, fixing irrigation lines, carrying harvest bins, leading crews, balancing books, solving problems, nurturing communities, and doing what needs to be done.

For me, farming started with a dream and a deep longing to build something meaningful for my family and my community. Moving from California to Baltimore County with 2 young children and starting Oak Spring Farm was equal parts passion, courage, naïveté, and grit.

I didn’t know exactly what I was doing back then.
But I knew I loved growing food and I didn’t love grocery store produce.

I loved the early mornings.
The dirt under my fingernails.
The exhaustion that came with purpose.
The way some tiny seeds could become nourishment for hundreds of families.

Over time, Oak Spring became more than a farm.
It became a gathering place.
A community.
Proving ground.
Teacher.

And somewhere along the way, I became more than a farmer too.

I became an entrepreneur.
A CEO. Mentor. Coach.

And now, for the first time in many years, I am experiencing farming from a different vantage point.

This year, I am not running Oak Spring Farm.

Still feels strange to write.

And yet, deep in my heart, I know it is exactly where I am supposed to be.

Watching Erika and Adam steward Oak Spring Farm has brought me so much peace and joy. I coach them here and there, but truthfully, they are remarkably prepared, diligent, thoughtful, and on top of their game. They care deeply about the land, the food, and the people they serve.

As a CSA member now, I get to experience the farm differently too.

There is something incredibly humbling and beautiful about opening my CSA box each week and tasting food grown by the next generation of farmers. Food that tastes just as good — and maybe even better — than when I grew it myself.

That is not loss.
It is legacy.

And maybe that’s one of the greatest gifts:
learning when to hold on and when to let go.

For a while, I worried that stepping away from full-time farming meant I was leaving behind a part of myself.

But I see now that I’m still farming.
I’m just tending different ground.

Maybe you’re reading this while eating dinner at 9:00 pm after another long day.

And you’re wondering if you’re doing enough.

Maybe you’re carrying a thousand decisions in your head and feeling like everyone else has farming figured out while you’re barely keeping up.

Can I offer you something I’ve learned from coaching farmers?

Take a moment and look backward.

Not at what still needs fixing.
Or at the goals you haven’t reached.
Not at the mistakes you’ve made.

Look at how far you’ve come.

There was a time when you didn’t know how to seed a greenhouse, plan a CSA season, manage employees, price your products, or navigate crop failures.

Yet somehow, here you are.

You’ve learned.

You adapt.

And you keep showing up.

Celebrate your wins, today.

You became the person capable of solving problems that would have completely overwhelmed an earlier version of yourself.

That deserves your attention.

And your gratitude.

No farmer succeeds alone.

Not me.
Nor Erika.
Not the farmers I coach.

Every successful farmer is standing on the shoulders of mentors, neighbors, customers, friends, family members, books, podcasts, conferences, and fellow farmers who helped them take the next step.

The myth of the self-made farmer is just that—a myth.

We all need support…and a little help to lighten the load of stress.

We all need someone who can help us see the blind spots, challenge our assumptions, and remind us of our strengths when we’ve forgotten them ourselves.

These days, I spend much of my time coaching farmers — many of them women — who are building their own dreams while navigating uncertainty, overwhelm, fear, and growth.

I absolutely love it.

I love supporting and guiding newer, more tentative farmers, still learning to trust themselves. To see someone’s face change when the lightbulb goes on and they uncover wisdom that was inside them all along, that’s priceless.

That’s the crazy thing about coaching.

I don’t plant the seed.
Nor do I hand people answers.

I simply help them tend the garden of their own mind.

And that is where the magic happens.

There’s a quiet confidence that grows in women who farm.

Not the loud kind.

The earned kind.

The kind that comes from solving problems in real time.
From lifting heavy things.
And weathering uncertainty.
It’s the kind that comes from learning to trust your instincts.
From failing publicly and trying again anyway.
It’s the quiet confidence that comes from feeding people.

Women farmers understand resilience because we live it.

We know how to nurture without losing strength, how to lead without needing recognition.
Furthermore, we know how to keep going even when nobody sees the invisible labor involved.

And perhaps most importantly, we know how to create life-giving things in difficult conditions.

That matters.

Especially now.

This truly feels like the year of the woman farmer to me.

Not because women haven’t always been farming.
We have.

But because more women are finally stepping fully into their power as leaders, land stewards, business owners, educators, and visionaries.

I see it every single week in the women I coach.

Women building profitable CSAs.
The women learning to value their labor.
Women creating boundaries.
The woman ‘behind the man’ who is actually in front.  Finding her voice.
Women redefining success.

And I could not be more proud of them.

Or more grateful.

Grateful for the younger version of myself who took the leap into farming all those years ago.
And for the land that shaped me.
Grateful for Oak Spring Farm.
Appreciative for Erika’s words.
Grateful for the women carrying farming forward.
And grateful that I listened to the quiet inner voice that nudged me toward this next season of life.

Because sometimes growth looks like building something.

And sometimes growth looks like trusting someone else to carry it forward while you help others grow too.

Both are beautiful.

Both matter.

And both, I think, are deeply feminine acts.

We all need support. If you are ready to stop spinning your wheels and make some serious progress forward in your farm business get a coaching package today.

Your success is waiting inside of you. 

Want to learn more about who I am and what I do? Click Here

Happy June,

Yours in farming,

Lisa