Of all the rolling fields of Fauquier
County, a quarter-acre plot belongs to Melanie Lawrence, for now. The enterprising
18-year-old farmer and parishioner of Holy Trinity Church in Gainesville is
part of a new Fauquier Education Farm program that allows people to try their
hand at farming before purchasing their own land and equipment. Though still
early in the season, tiny sprouts of broccoli, tomatoes and turnips already poke
through the agricultural fabric on her little piece of land.
“The program (exists) to help you learn
and figure things out,” said Lawrence. “The
whole point is to really let you experience the time and amount of work and
effort it takes to produce things and make a living off of it.”
Lawrence, the third oldest of 11
children, lives in New Baltimore, near Warrenton, with her family. She and her
siblings were homeschooled, which gave them ample time to explore interests
such as farming, she said. “On a smaller scale, we grew things at home and
raised animals, and I was able to spend a lot of time outside,” she said. “We
started out with just chickens and then ducks and then rabbits and sheep. We
hope to move out to an actual farm with a good amount of acreage.”
Until then, her siblings help tend her
plot. “I bribe them with ice cream. They enjoy being out here,” she said. Other
times, it’s just Lawrence and the land.
“It gives you some peace, being outside.
I can spend hours not talking to anyone,” she said. “I feel a sense of
worthwhileness knowing I’m doing something good. I don’t have constant,
everyday worries — things that tear you away from God.
“If you work hard enough, especially outside,
you don’t have time for anything that might bring you down,” she said.
Lawrence attends Lord Fairfax Community
College and plans to graduate next spring. But she hopes that will be the end
of her formal education. “Currently, I’m just trying to turn farming into a
full-time career,” she said. In addition to school and tending to her plot, she
works at Powers Farm and Brewery to earn money to buy land of her own.
Jim Hankins, the executive director of
the Fauquier Education Farm, mentors Lawrence and the other participants in the
program, which is in its first year. The organization also provides critical
equipment, such as drip tape to water the plants and electric fencing around
the plot to keep deer out. Even with her practice working with plants and
animals at home and on other farms, the experience has been enormously useful.
“For a long time, I wanted to farm and I
didn’t really know where to start. How do you learn which tools are best, when
to plant this kind of plant? It’s very encouraging and helpful, and I’m getting
to meet people in the farming world who know what they’re doing,” she said.
“(Without the program), I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
On a recent Thursday, Lawrence weeded the
plot and planted a few tomato seedlings given to her by a friend from St. John
the Evangelist Church in Warrenton. Nearby, tiny cabbage leaves soaked in the
afternoon sun.
“I’m excited to see cabbage grow,” she
said. “I've never grown it before so I don't know what it looks like. But it’s
all about trying things for the first time.”