What do you do?

FARMER
David Van Eeckhout
Hog’s Back Farm

What do you do?
I raise vegetables and chickens organically on about five acres for a hundred-member Community Supported Agriculture operation, and raise another sixty-five acres of hay.

History in this line of work:
Five years.

Education and employment background:
I spent an additional five years working on other farms before starting our own operation.

Do you have health benefits through your work?
Fresh air, ample sunshine, the songs of birds, and healthful food to eat are the main health benefits—but no, I don’t have any from the so-called “health” industry.

Fringe benefits or perks:
The food is one. I raise the best food I possibly can, first for my own family. We love good food and the best way I know to assure its ample supply is to raise it myself. As long as I’m going to the trouble I might as well raise it for some other families, too. Raising our children in a rural setting and having them enjoy the farm is another. My five-year-old daughter can just about keep up with my employees.

Drawbacks, hassles, or hazards of the job:
The pay is low, the weather is fickle, the weeds and pests are plentiful, and the stress can be overwhelming some days. Most people think the quiet country life is low-stress, but not when you’re operating a CSA.

Family:
Wife Melinda and two kids, five-year-old Iris and eighteen-month-old boy Baker.

Housing:
Owner.

Transportation:
1995 Toyota T100 pickup truck with long bed and 4-cylinder engine with 229,000 miles on it. Two tractors, both older than me: a 1960 International Harvester 504 and a 1967 International Harvester 140.

What he wanted to be as a child:
I don’t remember if there was anything specific.

What else, if anything, he’d rather be doing:
Nothing else.

Where he sees himself in five years:
Continuing to farm with increasing help from our children, and I’ll have figured out how much to increase the size of the farming operation to be providing a more sustainable living for our family.