We recently connected with Leslie Witter and have shared our conversation below.
Leslie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
Am I happier as a business owner? I’ve certainly asked myself a version of that question multiple times as a small-scale market gardener currently working as owner/operator and sole employee. When I started on the farming path as an intern I thought I’d never be a farm business owner; those folks worked way too hard! But sure enough, here I find myself in the same boat.
Most recently this question came to mind over the past summer. It was the second year growing at my current location and business had pleasantly, but totally unexpectedly, doubled from year 1. I was swamped working 80-100 hrs a week and barely keeping up. In the meantime, my mother was in the middle of a health crisis and I was navigating new elder care responsibilities. The goal I had set with my life partner of taking every other “weekend” off had gone out the window and honestly I was pretty close to burnout. What happened? I kept going albeit working progressively a little less efficiently and less intelligently. Thankfully farming in our climate has a seasonal nature, the crunch time passed and I’ve been able to slowly recover from the exhaustion and reassess.
I haven’t come to one final insight and think the conclusions will keep evolving as will the business. The rapid growth in demand seems to call out for adding employees into the mix. This, however, comes with it’s own set of complications. Managing people isn’t my strongest skill and is something I’ll need to invest time and planning to grow into. Plus, farming is a notoriously low margin business. In our community, as is so many others, the wages I could offer aren’t in line with the cost-0f-living in our relatively wealthy, tourism driven town. The same economic factors that led to the growth in demand also complicate the possibility of supporting additional labor. The situation with my mother is ongoing and evolving too. She’s since moved closer and I’m both wanting and needing to spend more time with her. I also need to prioritize my relationship with my partner. So, for the coming year I’m actually dialing things back a bit with the farm. I’ll be telling my restaurant accounts I can’t manage the same variety that I’ve offered in the past and hoping as small business owners themselves they’ll understand having to balance work and personal responsibilities. Long term, I hope to add an employee(s), but have decided that in a year of so many continuing adjustments it’s better not to take on this change right now. A wise friend once told me that as a business owner no one was ever going to tell me to take time off. It’s true and one of both the benefits and challenges of running a business is learning to manage this work-life balance for yourself. You can craft the business to fit your life or resign yourself to a perpetual breakneck schedule… to a large degree it’s your call. Ultimately, I think I’m happier pursuing a livelihood I’m passionate about and day-to-day work that I thoroughly enjoy and believe in. But, I’m also learning the hard way that it’s okay to say ‘no’, set boundaries, pump the brakes and perhaps question the idea that if there’s demand you’ll of course grow into it.
Leslie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m the farmer & owner of Root to Rise Gardens. My partner George & I grow baby greens, herbs & quick root vegetables at our ½ acre market garden in Red Lodge, MT.
We’re both first generation farmers. George is a full-time carpenter who supports the farm as much as he can. I came to agriculture via wildlife biology. After doing research in northern ecosystems, I decided to shift towards more involvement in sustainable lifestyles. I worked on farms in Montana & Oregon before starting the first iteration of Root to Rise, a ¼ acre market garden & Airbnb in Wilsall, MT in 2017. When my lease ended, I moved to George’s place in Red Lodge. We spent 2021 building farm infrastructure from the ground up (putting in a road, electricity, deer fence, well, irrigation & converting a shipping container into seed starting & cold storage). We got set up just in time to make 2022 the first growing season at our new spot!
We grow outside using row cover as well as within a caterpillar tunnel which allows us to extend production in our cold climate. We eventually hope to add a geothermal greenhouse to facilitate more season extension. We’re grateful for the welcome our farm received in the community of Red Lodge. We attended farmer’s market, sell to the local grocery & restaurant accounts all within 10 miles of the farm. We hope to stay hyper-local & continue to grow connections here for years to come. Our goals are to increase availability of local veggies in our cold climate, foster soil & ecosystem health, and provide a living wage & good quality of life for ourselves & future workers. We are a tiny farm, but we strive to be an example of what is possible on a small plot in a cold climate and to provide community connection to local food systems.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I’m currently on the second iteration of Root to Rise Gardens and have been blown away at the almost immediate demand for our local, organic veggies and interest in our farm. This is different than the first iteration where it took the business about 4 years to gain a following and access reliable sales channels. A huge part of it is actually luck… being at the right place at the right time. Post-covid people seem more interested in local food and there are a dearth of local farms in our community. Luck aside, I believe honesty, integrity and consistent high quality helped build our reputation at both iterations of the farm. Many of our sales are direct-to-consumer at farmers market and postive customer interactions are definitely key. I don’t have a particularly extroverted personality, however local food is something I am really passionate about and I think that passion cuts through any nervousness and let’s me really engage with customers. Plus, I smile almost automatically and that is always a good trait for drawing people in. I think if you can be yourself and show your passion people will want to be involved.
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
On the first iteration of the business I started small and benefited from some existing infrastructure on leased land. Start-up capital came from cashing out my (pretty tiny) Roth IRA, a loan from a previous farm employer and another loan from a close friend. For better or worse, I’m somewhat risk adverse when it comes to debt so I wasn’t willing to take on too much. In the current iteration, I was able to use profit saved from the first iteration along with money I’d saved from working part-time with restaurants, catering and housecleaning side hustles to start up. This go-around I also benefited a ton from the assistance of my life partner. The farm is on property he was fortunate enough to buy before land prices skyrocketed. We probably wouldn’t have a farm if it wasn’t for his timely purchase. His skill set in carpentry was instrumental in building the farm from the ground up and not having to pay for labor. Both he and I donated our time and coming into year 3 of the business I am just now starting to pay myself a small salary. Start-up costs for our 1/2 acre market garden were still around $100,000 without paying for land or labor! I feel extremely lucky to have land access as it is a huge barrier to entry for folks wanting to get involved in farming or ranching.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.root2risegardens.com
- Instagram: @root2risegardens
- Facebook: @root2risegardens
Image Credits
George Downing (for photos of Leslie except market booth) Audra Bintz (for photo of Leslie at market) Leslie Witter for farm photos