GRAND FORKS, N.D. - Grand Forks has a Target store, stoplights, a "downtown" and a wide variety of places to eat. Where I grew up, I had none of these things.
The differences between life in a small town compared to that of Grand Forks are many, but there is one familiar thing I pass by that reminds me of my home - seeing people out in a field tending to crops - yes, right in Grand Forks. Small plots of land along Demers Avenue are available for residents to rent out and garden.
Throughout the summer I have stopped to talk to these "small scale farmers."
"Do you see any correlation between gardening and farming?" I asked one small family working together to pick peas in their garden plot. The father replied, "Well just the other night we had high winds, and I wondered if the plants here would get affected. I couldn't imagine having 100 plus acres of crops to worry about - that's just too much stress for me."
One elderly woman was weeding out her gardening plot. "I can hardly keep these pesky weeds out of my garden," she said. "If I had acres of land with weeds growing, I just about couldn't sleep at night."
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One of my favorite evening talks was with a local gardener from Grand Forks who is a now-retired coach for the University of North Dakota. Standing in his garden with a watering pail in his hand he made the statement "Well, sometimes they (crops) just don't grow."
Simple but well-put - and he's right.
Farming comes in all shapes and sizes. A corn grower doesn't share the exact same problems as a potato producer, but they are both farmers. A feedlot operation doesn't share the exact same problems as someone raising sheep, but they are both ranchers. A gardener doesn't share the same problems as a full-time producer, but they are both a part of agriculture.
Working with Agweek this summer, I've had the opportunity to see that agriculture is much wider than I had ever thought, and together it forms a community - one that is complex. Though sometimes it's the simplest of things that are the answer to the hardest problems. And with a drought affecting so many this season, a small reminder from a gardener is important to remember - sometimes things just don't always go the way they are supposed to.
