We are not farmers, but aspiring to be. And here is how we got here.
When Yakeen and I started dating, we lived in North West London in Kentish Town. We pretty much lived a usual city life. It was filled with work, fun on the weekends, drunk people shouting day and night, and occasionally a detective stopping us because there was a stabbing nearby...
Then we moved to South East London, Lee. Lee was our home for 5 years until we had our daughter and realised that the constant cigarette smoke that was coming through our window would not do. Roads surrounded our local park as we were on the way to the Blackwall tunnel, so there was constant beeping, honking, and traffic day and night.
Then right before having our second child, we moved to Tunbridge Wells, we live in a house that is connected to the park, we have amazing farms nearby, and good access to London and yet the feeling that we live in the anti-human system is getting bigger and bigger.
Here is what I mean by anti-human society. First of all the cost. The cost of good accommodation in a safe environment. The cost of good organic food. Mothers are not getting appropriate maternity leave, forcing us to go back to work too early and put our kids into nurseries. Which also cost an arm and a leg and most of the time are a horrible environment for kids to be in.
Pregnancy within a system showed me that any attempt to connect with my body would be shut down. When a midwife told me not to tug on my placenta because I can pull it too hard, but instead I should come into the hospital so that a stranger can do it for me (a stranger who has no idea what is happening inside of me) it made things very clear for me. The system doesn't benefit from people who take responsibility for their choices, health, children and life in general.
For the longest time, I felt confused, we are living a very good life (I would even say a privileged life), yet I feel the calling for something different. I would always joke about living off grid in the forest. Then I learned about small-scale off-grid farms that produce food for the community, that raise their children together and what's more, they are healing the earth too. This gave me hope and fueled my desire to live on the farm.
My dear friend recommended I watch a film called "The Biggest Little Farm" and not to be dramatic, but I cried throughout the whole film as well as watched it two times in 2 days.
This is the calling that I felt.
P.S. First picture is from biodynamic farm Plaw Hatch (Instagram: plawhatchfarm)
Second and third pictures are from when we visited a One Tree Farm (Instagram: wildmindscommunity)