Mason Kennedy: What divide? The urban-rural connection.

While farming may not be for everyone, Zenger Farm has proven that it can be for anyone.

Mason is the News Director at KWVA Eugene, and a journalist from Eugene, Oregon. This submission was originally composed as part of Professor Peter Laufer’s Reporting II course at the University of Oregon.

Planting the seeds to close the urban-rural divide

Image from zengerfarm.org

The divide between urban and rural isn’t nearly as blurred in many states as it is in Oregon. It is this graying of the border that has made Oregon home to outdoor brands, lumberjack stereotypes and many residents who straddle the line between city life and rural living. Bryan Allan, a self-proclaimed “attorney in recovery,” is one of those people. Allan has lived in Portland for the past 20 years and has worked on a farm for the past ten.

Zenger Farm is tucked between a grocery store and an auto shop, located east of Southeast Portland. The organization itself has been around since 1996 and works to connect people through food. According to Allan, who works at Zenger, “The kind of farming we do is really focused on community engagement.” Allan, who was a mortgage processor before he went to law school, said that he found more fulfillment in working on the farm. “I just really enjoyed working outdoors,” Allan said, “I really enjoyed working with my hands and having a connection with the folks that we’re feeding.”

A deep connection

Image from zengerfarm.org

That connection isn’t just at a Saturday Market like it might be for other farmers. Zenger Farm connects with a variety of groups to share their farming knowledge and the food that knowledge produces. That includes their partnership with David Douglas School District to send their fifth graders to the farm. “In a normal year there’s 10,000 kids coming out here for field trips and summer camp,” said Allan. But kids aren’t the only ones who can learn from Zenger Farm.

Most of the people that work on the farm are either volunteers or apprentices — people like Allan - who got his start on the farm when he heard about it from a friend. Their program, in Allan’s words, is “designed for folks with little to no experience farming.” Programs like the one at Zenger Farm offer a path to the outdoors that doesn’t necessarily require a stop at REI.

“A lot of people come to us after having desk jobs,” reported Allen. And while starting to work on a farm might be a leap of faith for some, it sticks for many. “About 80% of our graduates from 2010 to 2018 are still farming,” Allan remarked. Whether they go on to work on other farms, or start their own, most of the people that try farming at Zenger Farm are still doing it today. That retention rate doesn’t surprise Allan, who spoke from personal experience when he said that “there’s a lot of personal fulfillment that comes from farming.”

And that fulfillment is something that can appeal to anyone. As Allan said, “We’ve had everybody, from no college education to master’s degrees. The oldest apprentice we’ve had was 55, and the youngest was fresh out of college.” While farming may not be for everyone, Zenger Farm has proven that it can be for anyone.

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Reach Mason via Twitter: @MasonFKennedy

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