Full-time country woman profile: Joan Richmond

I met Joan Richmond a few weeks ago when I interviewed her for my story about women in agriculture for Acres of North Central Ohio. I love Joan's place because the land gently rolls; each vista is a treat for the eyes. Here is Joan's part of "Outstanding in Her Field".


BTW... I have no idea why the second part of the story is in bold, or why the text displays as double spaced. It is not how I have it here on my workspace.  I have done everything I can think of to format the story in regular type. Apparently Blogger and MS Word aren't always in agreement :)

Marcheta *baffled

Joan, Home Again

 

Joan Richmond works double-duty as a professor of English at The Ohio State University at Mansfield and owner/operator of Meadow Rise Farm.  Joan was raised on 80 acres near Bellville, Ohio.  Careers took Joan and her husband, Reed, to Texas. Twenty years later, inspired by Gene Logsdon’s book,

 “You Can Go Home Again: Adventures of a Contrary Life”, the couple decided to

make a lifestyle change. In 2000, with their then teenaged daughter, Catherine, in

 tow, they moved back to the rolling land in Richland County that Joan had called “home” to be nearer Joan’s aging father.   After building a new house and settling into new jobs, Joan planted a huge vegetable garden.  The garden produced more than the family needed. Not wanting the vegetables to go to waste, Joan joined the Bellville Farmers Market, and a new enterprise was born.

 

In 2003, Joan stared Meadow Rise Farm with several quarter acre plots of land in production of intensive growing and crop rotation. Mentored by her father, Joan describes his teaching method as “learn by doing”, which has made for some interesting moments. Her scariest moment, so far, was when she was headed downhill on a run-away tractor. Her heart was thumping until she was finally able to engage the brake. With that learning curve behind her and knowing that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, Joan feels confident that she can handle any situation that may arise.

Joan attributes the increase of women in agriculture to the rise of people wanting to escape a wage/slave way of life. “My farm is ‘my’ work. I am my own boss. I’m free to be innovative and to create something meaningful by growing food for people who rely on me to produce healthy food.”  For Joan, business is personal. The “eye-to-eye” contact and interaction that she has with her customers has built trust and loyalty.  Joan says, “Growing food for Emma, an eight year old cancer patient, and the trust that her family has placed in me to be a part of Emma’s battle, is what I am most proud of.”

Joan already grows a huge variety of fruits and vegetables that give market consumers opportunities to try new and different foods. She is working on expanding the operation at Meadow Rise with plans that include new fruit orchards, blackberry patches and asparagus. But she does not want her business to become too huge. Joan says that she is satisfied with a “different kind of wealth. Of being ecologically and economically sustainable and learning that true wealth is finding out what you can live without.”