Introducing Myself: I'm Farmer Tracy

Who I am and what I do:  

• My name is Tracy L. Chapman (Farmer Tracy). 
• I am female.
• I will turn 60 years old in May 2025. 
• I started Sow Thankful Farm a little over 5 years ago. We have gone through many changes on the farm over the last 5 years. Originally, I thought I wanted to have a dairy goat farm and just grow our own veggies and raise our own laying hens. Then I discovered I'm terrible at selling baby goats which is essential if you have a dairy farm of any kind. So with great sadness I exited the goat side of farming. I did keep 3 Nigerian Dwarf Goats as fun, sweet pets & gentle manure makers.
  • Side note: for zoning, biosecurity and liability reasons, our farm is NOT open to the public -- that is why we do pop ups.
• I am the lead Farmer on our regenerative, no till micro farm/market garden/specialty nursery located in Edgewood, NM. We do not have a big tractor, we do not plow or till our soil. We only have a small riding mower that helps with a few chores like clearing snow from the driveway and pulling a cart when we need to move manure or clear garden debris.
  • My husband, Jeff, does a LOT to help me make all that we do on the farm happen. 
  • He is also in charge of our Microgreens and Winter to Spring Lettuce production.
  • We do not have employees and we don't want to have employees.
  • We do not utilize volunteers because we believe all labor should be compensated on farms that are selling their produce and products
  • We have no interest in becoming a big business or working beyond our limits.
  • We love our relatively simple, peaceful life on the farm and want to keep it that way as we age.
• Jeff and I both work a full time outside of the farm in order to pay the bills so we can have the farm because starting a farm and maintaining a farm is EXPENSIVE and risky on any scale unless the farm is part of commercial/industrial ag  (aka subsidized/corporate welfare) which we absolutely are not.

Why farming?

• I started growing my own food over 5 years ago because I really didn't trust the corporate food "system"; and, I wanted better quality than commercially organic foods with more diverse types of foods. The only way to do that was to begin growing my own.
• At first I thought I wanted to sell produce, but that's really not where my true passion lies; although we do sell some of our produce when we have an abundance beyond what I can preserve. It's definitely been a learning process since we moved to Edgewood, but I learned that I truly love plants, especially heirloom and specialty tomatoes. I discovered I'm pretty good at starting heirloom and specialty plants that you can't find in big box stores AND I insist on doing it without any synthetic chemicals. 
  
• I absolutely do enjoy making these plant starts available for sale to others in the community, as I am able and in the way I am able (period -- full stop -- I am not a machine). Jeff and I both understand we can not be all things to all people. We know not everyone is our customer because people want and value different things. We also know there are people in our community who also understand this and genuinely appreciate what we do and see that we are doing our best. We love our East Mountains Community.
• For me, there is no better, more honorable or more satisfying work than farming naturally: growing food, flowers, herbs, and caring for the soil and all the creatures by working with nature instead of trying to kill everything with synthetic chemicals, abusively controlling and extracting from it.
• Working WITH nature compassionately by pursuing understanding yields higher quality life on all counts.

For how long?
For as long as I am able. I hope to farm for many more years. There is nothing more magical in this world than observing life spring forth from a tiny seed which in time will produce food to eat, preserve, share and sell, AND potentially save the seed and repeat the process for years to come. A simple life, seeking peace.

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