International Year of the Woman Farmer: Sally

Sally Shearman

Farmer/Owner/Operator

Sharon Creek Farm

Sally has a deep and abiding passion for learning about and protecting the natural environment. She is deeply concerned about the future of planet earth and the loss of biodiversity. Her small farm is an expression of her concern and desire to do something to work in harmony with the natural environment to grow chemical free food, and to build and maintain living soil. She believes that a sustainable future depends on harmonizing human needs with the natural environment.

Sally basking in the wonder of her sheep

Sally brings a lot of skills and expertise to her farm, including but not limited to: plant knowledge (propagation, pruning, selection), animal husbandry, rudimentary carpentry, practical, and mechanical skills and so much more. In her "downtime", she enjoys working with the wool from her sheep, hiking, reading, cooking and more.

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What Does Your Identity as a Woman Farmer Mean to You?

As a farmer, I see my primary roles as caretaker (nurturer) and observer. I prefer the term nurturer to caretaker. It is my job to care for, protect, and encourage the growth of the livestock, the trees, shrubs and plants, as well as the wild environment. It has taken me many years to understand how the role of nurturer has been the driving force in my life.

The observer role is equally important. There is a constant feedback loop from observing weather patterns, wildlife, insects and plant health to diagnosing potential threats or benefits and understanding the next steps to take. From early childhood on my family’s farm in England, I spent countless hours observing life and change in tidal pools, in hedgerows and in the salt marshes.

I found it interesting that you said just in the last couple of decades that you've started to understand it as you've started to see the value of nurturing as a farmer. What was it before that? That you identified and what led you to understanding nurturing as part of farming.

OK, well, I have to digress a little bit here. I've only been farming actively on this property since 2010. I have a little bit of backstory. I mean, I've had a very peripatetic life. I've had multiple careers, and I have lived in many places. Throughout that, well, I was a financial analyst, I was a translator, I was in advertising production, I was a potter, I was a special education teacher, a dyslexia specialist…so I did lots of different things. I always wanted to work in horticulture. That was my passion. I wanted to go to horticultural college. I was dissuaded from that, but I kept studying horticulture. I kept taking courses through Guelph by correspondence and online, wherever I lived, I created gardens. I grew food. I did it for other people, and for myself.

I bought this property in 2010 with the intention of establishing a landscape design business. However, I quickly came to the conclusion that what I actually wanted to do was to grow food. I've always been concerned about the environment and I became very frustrated and anxious, overwhelmed by what was happening to our planet. Because I have lived on farms in different rural places throughout my life, I noticed what happened: as developments spread, hedgerows were cut down, and it affected me deeply. I felt helpless to do anything to help the environment. David Suzuki and Jane Goodall showed me the importance of doing something in your own small local place to feel like you were taking some action. That's really the impetus behind creating this farm. It was, I'm going to do something. I'm going to protect this land that was established as a homestead 200 years ago. I'm going to care for this land and I'm going to cultivate it with respect for the natural ecosystem. I want to grow food that nurtures people,

food that is nutrient dense, and chemical-free. That's really important to me. I'm nurturing people and the earth and the wildlife and plants that are here, all at the same time. So, after many years, I finally understood how the drive to nurture was essential to my sense of purpose in life. Knowing that there are plants and animals that depend on me to care for them gives me a reason to get up every day, regardless of the weather or my mood.

Do You Think That the Farming or Agricultural Industry Is Designed to Favour Men? and Yes, and Why or Why Not?

Yes and I think that's complicated. In Canada, I think, women are about 30% of farm operators. In a wider global context, there are significantly more women represented in agriculture, responsible for food production, but not necessarily land owners. Traditionally, there are many barriers to land ownership for women, as well as access to financial resources.

I think if you look at who is in positions of leadership in the agricultural industry, you will see that it is male dominated. Machinery and equipment are primarily designed for the physique of a male operator. Historically, land was usually passed onto the males in the family. This is definitely gradually changing, but the historical precedent is still the dominant one.

When I am approached by a salesperson, either on the phone or in person, I am often asked if they may talk to my husband, the farmer. If there is a man working somewhere on the farm, that is the person they will assume is the ‘actual farmer’.

My gosh, yes, the assumptions we make.

I don't think it's deliberate. I just think that because men traditionally have had the land, access to the land, ownership of the land, and women on farms have been seen in a supporting role. I saw this with my parents and my grandparents. My grandmother was really the farmer. But my grandfather was the one who was referred to as the farmer. I mean, he likes smoking a pipe and driving a tractor, but my grandmother was the brains and the energy behind the farm.

So it really has been designed to favour men.

I think so. Historically, in a lot of industries that involve farming, you have to have a lot of technical skills. I deliberately designed this farm to be capable of being operated by a single woman, which means you adjust your tools, your machinery, and your equipment so that you can handle them by yourself.

Can you elaborate on that? How have you adjusted your equipment and your processes so that they're more woman friendly.

The piece of land that I farm on is small. It would be referred to as a smallholding in Europe or in the UK. I have 6 acres and it's all very hilly. It's on the river valley, very steep and hilly. I decided to plant mainly orchards. I have fruit orchards, so I knew that it wouldn't be accessible to heavy or large equipment. I made the decision to plant in such a way that I could use a gator to do most of my maintenance. That's something I can maintain myself, unless something major happens to it. I have a tractor, but it's a small tractor. It's an ancient Massey Ferguson, and I use that for clearing snow or moving gravel or things like that. I can't use it for doing any of my livestock cleaning of the barns. 

I also learned a lot from one of my daughters who has a large food business in the city. It's all women owned and operated. She has done a lot of renovation and construction, and she taught me how to move large things in a safe way using my lower body strength. She was fantastic. She taught me basic carpentry skills so that I can do my own woodwork. I'm not reliant on somebody else to come in and do that for me. 

The livestock's important too. When I first started (because fruit takes a really long time, you have to allow yourself a 7 to 10 year window with fruit, till it's mature) there's a time gap there, and I needed income, so I bred baby doll sheep. A baby doll sheep is like a small, it's a traditional South Down sheep that actually comes from the area I grew up in England, so I was familiar with them. They're quite cute. The size of them means that I can handle them myself. I have since added Shetland, and same thing. The sheep are small enough that I can handle them myself. I did apprentice on a sheep farm that had the standard size Dorset's, and they're like small ponies, and I had a really hard time flipping them. So choosing smaller livestock made sense to me.

If You Were to Go Back in Time and Meet a Younger Version of Yourself…They Could Be 10 Years Younger, 20 Years Younger, 30 Years Younger. What Advice Would You Offer Yourself?

Well, I don't know. That’s complicated. I've wanted to do this since I was 20. What I'm doing right now. I still have the books that I bought. Country Women is one of the classics, a hippie book about living off the land, and I still go back to that. So, I've wanted to do it for a really long time, and I think what I would say to myself is don't listen to other people. If it's what you really wanna do, do it. I can't put it more simply than that. People dissuaded me, told me it was crazy, told me I couldn't do it. I needed to do other things. I was pushed towards an academic career. That's not what I ever wanted. I can't stand sitting still. I have to be doing work that is physical and meaningful at the same time. I'm not motivated by money. I'm motivated by passion and meaningfulness. It's like a mission for me. It has to have meaning. What I'm doing has to have meaning. I have to be physically active, and I wish that I had had the courage to do this in my 40’s. Which is when I thought I was gonna do it and not listen to other people.

Now, What Advice Would You Offer a Young Woman, Let's Say in Her Twenties, Who's Just Entering into the Agricultural Industry Now?

I think the most important thing is to get the most experience you can on other people's farms. Working on other farms of different sizes and varieties to learn if you have the passion to be a farmer; it's really hard and it's 24/7, especially if you have animals and if you haven't grown up on the farm. If you're new to farming and you think that's what you want to do, the most important thing is to get the widest range of experience possible. You can do this by interning on other farms and understanding what it requires from you as a commitment, as a time-life commitment. Something that somebody said to me a long time ago, which is very important is if you're going to have livestock on your farm, you won't be taking any vacations! That's really important. 

People say to me all the time, young people especially, oh, you're living my dream, I wish I could do this. Mhm. Do you understand what it takes to have to euthanize an animal because it's the humane thing to do? And that if nobody's gonna come and do that for you in time, you might have to do it immediately? Do you understand what it means to have a crop failure? It's like having your own business only bigger. You never let go of the thinking or caring about what's happening with the weather. Knowing that ahead of time, or at least having a taste of it before you make a commitment is essential. 

There's another thing too. If you have access to land, in whatever way it is, I think cooperative ownership is something that I hope we see more of in the future because land is ridiculously expensive. But if you have an opportunity, if you have access to land, spend a year on that land, not farming, just watching. Learning. Where's the light? Where are frost patterns? Do you have frost pockets on your land? Where does the water flow? What wild things thrive there? What wild trees are growing? What wild plants are growing, because that tells you what the soil is like. That tells you something about the micro climates on that piece of land, and then make your plan.

What Advice Would You Give to an Immigrant Woman Entering into the Canadian Farming Industry?

I think the advice would be the same as for a young woman entering agriculture for the first time, with some additions. Although my immigrant experience was many decades ago, I was acutely aware of feelings of isolation when arriving in Canada. So perhaps the most important thing to do is to establish connections and a network as soon as possible. Joining the Ecological Farmers Association would be one suggestion. They have many workshops and support networks that could be very helpful. They also have a mentor program. The National Farmers Union is another helpful resource. There are free government workshops on topics such as building a farm business plan or an environmental farm plan, for example.

Why Is Farming Important to You?

Three main reasons: protecting the natural environment, education, and growing nutrient dense food.

It is important to me that I work with the natural ecosystem, rather than against it. That is why I follow organic and regenerative farming practices.

Educating people about how to grow food, harvest food, care for animals, and to understand the life below the soil … these are all important to me as a farmer. There is development all around the farm, but the farm itself is like a little oasis of green. Volunteers who come to help to pick fruit, cultivate, or help with the animals, are often truly appreciative of the quiet, meditative aspects of the work. There is an opportunity to step away from the built world for a few hours.

I get an enormous amount of pleasure from introducing people to fruits and vegetables that may be unfamiliar to them. Many of the fruits I grow were selected specifically for their nutrient qualities. There's nothing more beautiful to me than having people taste things. I don't know why I get so much excitement out of this, but when I have a fruit that's particularly wonderful, like a ripe juicy plumcot, I want to share that.

What Do You Wish the Average Person Understood About What It Means to Be Specifically a Woman Involved in Agriculture and Farming?

I wish more people understood the commitment and the amount of labour it takes to produce food. Especially in organic ag[riculture], because so much of the tasks that we do require hand tools and hand labour. I wish more people understood that. I've had people say to me, “Well, it's winter now, so aren't you just like lying around, you know, you have a good time?” No, I have animals. I'm out there every hour, every 2 hours breaking ice on the water buckets, collecting eggs, because some of my crazy chickens decided to lay all winter, and we have to keep collecting, otherwise they freeze. No, you just keep going. 

Growing fruit organically is very challenging. I would like people to understand that growing fruit is a long-term investment in choosing the right species and the right varieties, annual pruning, waiting a few years for the first harvest, protecting fruit from birds, picking fruit. A customer might exclaim that $10 for a pint of sea buckthorn is excessive. The antidote for that is to invite them to go and pick some for themselves. You pick one container for yourself and one for me, and then they come back after an hour and there is a realization, “Oh, I think you should be charging $20.” Yes, there's no machine that picks this, so it's picked by hand and it's a skill. It takes a lot of practice to get fast at it so that it's economical, but the margins are very slim, and I wish people understood that the margins are very slim.

Yeah, farming is not a profitable business.

I am making a living, but I am not making a massive profit. . If I were industrial scale, then I probably could, but I'm not. I don't want to do industrial scale.

I sometimes wish that I were only growing one or two crops so that I could be super specialized in that model. However, in the permaculture system that I have created it's extremely diverse. I have multiple charts of when to use different holistic sprays on various fruit trees, charts of when each kind of fruit will ripen and how to tell if they're ripe. I have created a map of where every tree and shrub is on the farm. I have charts of specific pests or diseases that specific fruits are susceptible to. It's a massive amount of knowledge and information. And that would go right back to advice to a young farmer - find a mentor. Find somebody to talk to. I think my job now that I have entered my eighth decade of life is to be an encyclopedia, you know, enter your search term and if I can help you, I will. But find a mentor, someone who's going to be there when you have a crisis; someone who will help you with that because the sheer amount of knowledge and experience that you have to have is immense.

Farm Management Canada Found That a Lot of Women Struggle to a Lot of Women in Agriculture Struggle to Identify Themselves as a Farmer. Why Do You Think, Why Do You Think So Many Women Struggle to Identify Themselves as a Farmer?

If you're married or partnered, with a man and you're farming, you get labelled as the farm wife. I think it's a patriarchal thing. You're equally a farmer. I watched my mom out in the fields - she was picking, planting, basically doing everything with my dad. She would not have identified herself as a farmer, she would have said she was the farm wife. But I think it would help to have more recognition of that role. I know families have issues, but you need more than one person. I have a network of people that I rely on. I think it has to do with that husband-wife role, and that the farm wife role has not been as appreciated or as lauded or as public as the role of a farmer. Right? I think it has something to do with that. I mean, if you're the only farmer and you're a woman, well, you're gonna call yourself a farmer because you are. You're the only one there but when there's a partnership, it makes sense to divide up roles. It's all part of being a farmer, all of it, all the roles, whether you're doing the books or you're doing the marketing - it's all part of being a farmer.

What Is the Definition of a Farmer? What Is a Farmer?

My first definition of this was far too narrow. I was thinking strictly in terms of food crops. However, growing Christmas trees, flowers, nursery plants, aquaculture, woodlot, breeding livestock, raising fibre animals … these are farming too. Perhaps nurturing/tending/caretaking livestock (bees are livestock too) and/or plants and selling some or all of those products is a more encompassing definition. 

Farming is a way of life (not a lifestyle) with a history of thousands of years.

Thank you, Sally, for your honesty and vulnerability. It was an absolute joy to chat with you.