Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers

by Lisa Kivirist

Women in agriculture are sprouting up in record numbers, but they face a host of distinct challenges and opportunities. Blending What Color is Your Parachute -style career advice with sustainable agriculture practices viewed through a gender lens, Soil Sisters provides a wealth of invaluable information for fledging female farming entrepreneurs.
The first manual of its kind, this authoritative and comprehensive blueprint presents practical considerations from a woman's perspective, covering everything from business planning to tool use and ergonomics to integrating children and family in farm and field operations. Key topics
Finding your mid-life encore careers, young and beginning, Boomerangs, and more From concept to diversified farm start-up basics Resources, grants, and loans available especially for women farmers.
Soil Sisters also contains case studies, inspirational ideas, and savvy advice nuggets from over one hundred successful women farmers and advocates. Targeted specifically to members of the fastest-growing demographic in local agriculture, this highly readable guide is practical and pragmatic "Chick Lit" for today's food scene.


Lisa Kivirist  is Senior Fellow, Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems at the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and a national advocate for women in sustainable agriculture.  She founded and directs the Rural Women's Project of the Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service, an award-winning initiative championing female farmers and food-based entrepreneurs. Together with her husband, John Ivanko, Lisa is co-author of  Homemade for Sale, Farmstead Chef, ECOpreneuring , and  Rural Renaissance . Lisa and her family run Inn Serendipity Farm and Bed & Breakfast, completely powered by the wind and sun in the rolling green hills of southern Wisconsin.

Genres: Gardening, Nonfiction, Business, Environment

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

As a pioneer in the cottage food industry, both covering the national movement for publications as well as championing for the passage of a “Cookie Bill” in Wisconsin, Lisa Kivirist is on the cusp of the latest trends. Lisa and her husband and co-author, John D. Ivanko, are food-loving entrepreneurs. Together, they’ve authored Homemade for Sale, Farmstead Chef, ECOpreneuring and Rural Renaissance.

Lisa is a regular presenter at numerous national conferences and library, university and community events. She is a recognized spokesperson for the national sustainable agriculture and farm-to-table movement, featured in the New York Times, USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, MSNBC and on various radio programs across the country, including Martha Stewart Radio, the Sirius Satellite network and “Good Food” on KCRW. Lisa is a distinguished Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellow and a national advocate and leader for women in sustainable agriculture. She initiated and directs the Rural Women’s Project of the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (mosesorganic.org/projects/rural-women...), an award-winning initiative providing resources and networking for women farmers and food-based entrepreneurs. As a freelance journalist, she has contributed to Mother Earth News, Urban Farm, Mother Earth Living, Hobby Farms and Natural Awakenings.

Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko are innkeepers of the award-winning Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast, completely powered by renewable energy. Their B&B features local, seasonal vegetarian cuisine prepared with ingredients harvested from the Inn’s organic gardens. For more, see innserendipity.com. They also write and speak about culinary travel and ecotourism trends.

Lisa and John share their organic farm in Browntown, Wisconsin, with their son, a ten-kilowatt Bergey wind turbine and millions of ladybugs.

Reviews

[Claire]

As down to earth as it is inspiring

I laughed, I cried, I had finally come home to my true family, my sisters in agriculture. For decades, I have felt alone, as though I were slowly wandering through a man’s world, feeling my way into a balanced, ecologically healthy relationship with self and Mother Earth. Suddenly, through SOIL SISTERS, I’m introduced to wise women who have gone before me, and are now offering their guidance harvested from years of experience.

As down to earth as it is inspiring, I am using this book to refine my mission statement, personal, financial and ecological goals. SOIL SISTERS is totally accessible, a practical guide filled with links to all the resources needed to reach your dreams of living on the land, in local community.

Nurturing, supportive, encouraging; feel the embrace of your Soil Sisters.
A classic. A great gift for any women who loves to get her hands in the soil.

[Jodi Parins]

Lisa writes like she farms; with a nurturing, creative twist on the practical and scientific. Her style is humorous and conversational. It’s like talking to your best friend over a cup of coffee or glass of wine. For the true technician of sustainable farming and food systems, Soil Sisters is loaded with practical advice from planting to banking with smidge of relationship counseling on the side.

After reading the first chapter I realized I needed to make a list of all my "Soil Sisters" I need to gift this book to. I'm now at 22 and growing. As someone working to keep the small farmer on our rural landscape, I can't thank Lisa enough for giving women farmers such an invaluable tool. Soil Sisters: A Toolkit for Women Farmers has now taken its place on my "go to" shelf - right alongside my Farmer’s Almanac!

[Kriss Marion]

Quick fun read with lots of food for thought and inspiration to act on! This is a quick intro to the sustainable women farming pioneers across the nation who've been bringing start ups and innovated new ag ventures to the countryside. Got an idea for a farm business? Try it! That's the message here and there are women mentors throughout to encourage you to live the dream.

[Betty]

This is a beautiful and insightful read right from the start. I've just read the forward, acknowledgements and preface (I almost never read those things!) I've already laughed, cried and felt completely understood right where I am on my fledgling journey into the world of farming.

[Carey]

Loved it! A good read even for the small urban farm. Lisa Kivirist names lots of resources and really shares her knowledge and experience.

[Beth]

Not JUST a good read, but a fabulous reference, that will be remaining on my shelf. ideas and contacts for everything from business networking to government red tape, to how to! just an all round freat reference!

[Sandi]

This was a book for younger women than me but interesting

[Catherine Edmundson]

Excellent read! Great reference for other related intensive-gardening reads.

[Theresa]

LOVED this book!!

[Pam Dawling]

Although women are not a minority, we are among the “traditionally under-served” as farmers, by the colleges, universities and government agencies supporting farmers. Lisa Kivirist is a national advocate for women farmers and the co-author of several books on earning a living from rural enterprises. In this book, Lisa combines years of her own experience with gems from other women farmers she knows. Full disclosure – I am one of the women farmers she interviewed. She farms in Wisconsin and I farm in Virginia. We meet up from time to time at Mother Earth News Fairs, where we are sometimes speakers.
Although there is information useful to all farmers, Soil Sisters is specifically about the experience of women in farming. Whenever Patricia Schroeder, Colorado's first Congresswoman (1973-1996) was asked why she was “running as a woman”, she replied “What choice do I have?” Similarly, women farmers deal with all the issues of farming (hard physical and mental work, the weather, the need to earn a living) the same as male farmers do, along with the challenges of attitudes from some people about women doing what some see as “men’s work” and the cultural challenges of perhaps being raised with too many clean frilly dresses and not enough toy wheelbarrows and construction kits.
This book has four main sections: the history and reality of women in farming; how and where to gain farming information; running a farm, sustaining the soil and the bank balance; and cultivating balance for mind, soul and body. Because Soil Sisters gathers together a wide range of information relevant to women, I think all women farmers will find something uniquely valuable here, whether it’s information about ergonomic tools, insight into a different approach to a challenge or a pervading sense of support and encouragement.
This book is good to read cover-to-cover, and also to dip into when you have a spare five minutes. Throughout the book are four series of sidebars. The “How she sows it” icon highlights a series of real-life stories from successful women farmers. The “Tool Shed” sequence provides practical tips and links to resources. The “Idea Seeds” are inspirational quotes, and the “Tip Jar” series has the gems of advice. I typed out the Tip Jar contents to pin to my wall. In the Tool Shed I found farmtransitions.org, a collaborative venture providing free tools and templates for farmers passing their farms from one generation to another, to construct management plans to fit their goals and needs. In the Idea Seeds rack I found quotes from Catherine Friend, author of Sheepish: Two Women, Fifty Sheep, and Enough Wool to Save the Planet and Hit by a Farm: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Barn. I’m adding those books to my Winter Reading List!
The gender inequity in farming arises from the long story of women being legally barred from owning property or voting. From the history section I learned that married women could not own the income they earned from farming in one third of the states as late as 1887. Legally, this changed for the better in the 1900’s, but custom prevented wide acceptance of the law. As often the case, situations were even worse for women of color. During the First World War, 20,000 women joined the Women’s Land Army of America and, as Lisa puts it, “blend[ed] patriotism with planting parsnips.” The vote came for women in 1920. The WLAA revived during the Second World War with the Victory Garden program. The Census of Agriculture only started counting women farmers in 1978. Women farmers were outliers. One pioneer, Denise O’Brien, founded the Women, Food and Agriculture Network, to promote the voice of women in farming.
Lisa has grouped women farmers into four broad categories: those choosing agriculture as a second career, those going it alone, new young farmers, and those returning to farm the family land. Having farmed in intentional communities for over 40 years, I check “none of the above”, and yet I found writing that spoke to me. In the solo operator section, Katie College put it succinctly that while we influence our own relationship to our farm and our own relationship to those we live with, we have no influence over the relationship between those we live with and the farm. It’s impossible and unethical to manipulate your life partners’ enthusiasm for the farm. That relationship is entirely outside of our circle of influence. We can only improve the aspects we do have influence over. “We pretend that the problem . . .is the lack of support from our partner, when in fact it might be that we ourselves aren’t managing the farm well.”
In the chapter about complementary on-farm enterprises, you can read all about unusual crops and livestock, selling crafts and home-made foods (whether in a commercial kitchen or under the Cottage Food Laws) running a B&B, farm events for the public. To balance wild dreams, here is information about the cottage food laws, when you need a food service license, what you need to know to serve food on your farm. The Tool Shed icon brings info about affordable legal help here and here as well as finding tax, financial and marketing info. Lisa recommends Building a Sustainable Business: A Guide to Developing a Business Plan for Farms and Rural Businesses, free online here or here.
Lisa takes us through the seven Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Partnerships and Purpose. She discusses the current options for online marketing, and stresses the importance of being open to new technological developments with “continuing to grow that encyclopedia in your mind”.
The next section of the book was especially useful to me, a seasoned farmer beginning to suffer the challenges of an aging body. Train year-round, balance physical activities on the farm with other sorts of workouts, yoga, stretches and strength-building routines. Buy tools from Green Heron designed for women’s bodies, use correct lifting techniques every time (see the Green Heron website).
The last section of the book includes four topics that need addressing but didn’t fit in earlier: Improve communication with men (at the feed store, government agency etc ), Fit in, Find your tribe, Integrate your family into your lifestyle. On the topic of improving communication with men in the traditional male farmer domain, Lisa encourages us to use the Power Posing advocated by Amy Cuddy in her TED talk “Your Body Language Shapes who You Are”. In private, just before you’ll need to stand your ground, stand tall like Wonder Woman for two minutes, hands on hips. Weird as this may feel at first, over time, you notice it helping. Physiologically, doing this increases testosterone 20%, and decreases cortisol by 10%, leaving us more assertive and also calmer.
Fitting in is not caving in! Lindsey Morris Carpenter advises doing these 11 things:
1. find common ground with rural neighbors by giving everyone the same chance you would like them to give you,
2. look out for your neighbors (tell them when their livestock escapes),
3. know the lingo (don’t call hay straw!),
4. start conversations on easy topics (the weather, wildlife sightings, country hobbies),
5. practice tolerance and patience (choose your battles)
6. join in local events
7. engage in local trading
8. give country music a chance (yes, really)
9. be a good networker (pass on info on good local sources and opportunities)
10. be proud of who you are (lead by example)
11. make your own community (gather your tribe, don’t wait for them to seek you out!)
Integrating family and kids into the farm is not one of my areas of expertise, but I recognize it’s of vital importance to many women farmers. I remember in the 70’s, as a WWOOFer in England, being asked wistfully by the woman of the farm whether housework and childcare were more equally shared in intentional communities and the women got more time to farm. Yes, indeedy!
The section on creating balance advises being efficient with your time by looking to other small-scale farmers for answers in solving challenges. Claire Hintz suggests an idea that hadn’t occurred to me; farmers in Eastern European countries or Mexico or Central America are particularly inventive as they have less cash and fewer purchase options and have to create many items themselves. Type your challenging situation into Google Translate and try Spanish, Ukrainian or Slovakian. Copy the key word in that language into YouTube, and watch carefully. Now then, when you read the phrase “farmers in Eastern European countries or Mexico or Central America” did you picture women or men?
There’s a good booklist of farm memoirs written by women. I’ve only read 5 of the 11 listed – more to add to my Winter Reading List! There’s an inspiring Working Manifesto that Maisie Ganz wrote for Soil Sisters Farm, that she and Willow Hein live by. There are tips from Kriss Marion, a “forty-something farmer” on staying fit and eating healthily. Don’t snack on lunchmeat sandwiches between tasks! Track your food input on WebMD – “You first, then the farm.” Kriss runs a “farm girl boot camp” Facebook page where she shares fitness and health tips.

[audrey]

This is... really heavy on the sisterhood thing. As in a lot of "as women we all", and "women intuitively", "women are naturally good at", and while I do have a hammer to smash the kyriarchy thankyouverymuch, after the 10th or 12th repetition, it got to be a bit much.

There is definitely some great advice in here from established female farmers, and I really dug the chapter on diversification and crafting a business plan, but overall, I was looking for more. Such as a bibliography, for starters. There are so many other books about farming written by women that are referenced on every other page, and then one small call-out box on the second-to-last page, listing only eight of them. Which means I have to go back and manually make a list of all the others to check out on this here GoodReads thing. No bueno.

There was also a verrrry suspect design choice in having multi-page spotlights of an established female farmer done in black regular text on a medium-gray background and by all things holy I could not read them with two bright lights. Two! (Hooked up the knitting light for backup).

Still, the book comes from a place of good intentions and was clearly written with love in the heart and dirt on the boots, so it evens out.

[Desiree]

Overall it was a good over view of women farmers.

[Cindy]

A well thought out overview of women in the current agri- business field. Encouraging and supportive.

[Trish]

If you are looking to farm this is a great book. Lots of great tips. This book is geared for women farmers.