The influencer: The farmer documenting daily life on the farm and advocating for policy changes.

A new season of Rooted In Tomorrow kicks off with Alice Crothers. Alice helps run Long Green Farms in Rising Sun, Maryland, with her husband Caleb. Alice was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, and met Caleb in college. The two ditched their lives and jobs in the city and joined Caleb’s family farming operation in 2015. Their conservation and Farmers On The Rise awards have helped make them leaders in agriculture.

You can follow Alice at:
Instagram: @heelsandholsteins
Farm Website Long Green Farms

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Transcript

 We live six miles north of like the Chesapeake Bay. Okay. We have stream 14,000 linear feet of stream that runs through our property. And so a lot of the work that we do is on protecting the Bay. We've planted over 60,000 trees. We've been here eight years and planted over 60. Thousand trees. We completed a large stream restoration project.

Rainwater management is huge. We're actually in the process of decommissioning an old earth and lagoon. And we've, we've done a tremendous amount of work, um, in sustainability. So, and we're really no different than our neighbors.

Tomorrow. It's never a guarantee unless we take care of today. We are a cooperative, grounded in 100 years of forward thinking ever since our beginning in 1921. It's the pursuit of a reliable food supply, a sustainable future, and vibrant communities for all of us. Rooted in the promise of a brighter future.

This is rooted in Tomorrow, the podcast by Land O'Lakes, Inc. I'm your host, Kim Olson. Join us for stories of innovators. Changemakers and the modern entrepreneurs who work the land.

1759. Our country wasn't even officially born yet, but the family farm we're going to introduce you to today can trace their history back to pre-Revolutionary War Maryland on the same land they farm today. It's not often you come across an eighth generation farmer. Of course, Alice and Caleb Caruthers are the latest generation to take on farming while the land may date back over 250 years.

Their approach is a little more. 21st Century, Alice has built a following on social media, being open and honest with consumers and documenting daily life on the farm. Today Alice joins us on the pod. She's a regional council representative for Land O'Lakes. Serves on her local county Soil Conservation Board and has her masters from the University of Tennessee in public health.

All right. Well, welcome Alice. I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor to be here. I, I appreciate the time. I am always interested in talking to folks, um, who are now in, uh, agriculture and, um, didn't grow up in it. Since I've, uh, been at Land O'Lakes, I've met so many folks that, that grew up into in, um, in farming and ag.

Um, but that's not your story, right? Uh, you didn't, didn't grow up a farmer. Not at all. I did not grow up in an agricultural area. Um. Really had very, very limited exposure prior to moving on the farm. Really? And, and why, was there a, uh, a love connection that maybe moved you onto the farm? Yes, but my husband and I met first semester, freshman year of college, so we were 18.

Okay. And, um. The farm wasn't really a discussion point when we met at all. Okay. So we're a small farm and um, his middle brother was farming at the time on this farm. Yeah. And so it wasn't really to be his. And so when we first met it was kind of like, Hey, I'm a farmer's son. Yeah. Next conversation. Right?

Yeah. And um, we married after college. And it really didn't become a conversation until after we had our second kid. We had been married for about seven or eight years before it really was a point of discussion. So you were, you met at what, uh, what school did you guys go to? We went to Carson Newman University, which is the division two school in east Tennessee.

And he had moved down there to play football. Ah, okay. So that's how he landed there. And then it's. It's 30 minutes outside of Knoxville. My parents met there, married after meeting there, so I kind of thought it was a good choice. Oh yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. And what were you, um, after you all met and got married, started your family, you were working, I assume, um, as you were, uh, as you were doing that, what, how, what were you working, you and, and Caleb, what were you doing?

So, Caleb, after college, he initially was a graduate assistant coach and he stayed on and he coached football. Um, for a couple years really until we got married and he kind of was like, alright, probably don't wanna live on campus the rest of our lives. Probably, probably wanna paycheck. That's only fun for a few years.

So, um, he went into law enforcement, so he worked for the city of Knoxville. Okay. And he served in law enforcement for eight years, including on the SWAT team, which is something I'm very proud of him for. Oh yeah. Um. Right after college, I went to the University of Tennessee and I got my master's in Public Health Administration.

Mm-hmm. And as soon as I finished, I actually, my first job was with Team Health, which is a nationwide organization, um, that provides staffing or management. Um, for physician groups across the country. Oh. And so my first position was working with anesthesiologists across, up and down the East coast. Oh man.

And we just provided, provided their, um, management, like their accounting, their hr, their payroll processing, that kind of stuff. And then, um, team Health ended up deciding to close the division. And after that I went to, um, a hospitalist pulmonary critical care group. And, um, it's part of Summit Medical Group, one of the largest physician groups in east Tennessee.

And I started out as their operations manager and just kind of doing the day-to-day operations and building our nurse practitioner physician assistant program in the hospitals. And then, um, just worked my way up and before I left, I was the administrator of the group and we had a. Pulmonary outpatient clinic.

We staffed five hospitals with hospitalists and intensivists and staffed seven nursing homes. That's, that's amazing. Yeah. So you're, I mean, you guys are doing well in your careers. You're an administrator in healthcare. That's a, uh, high pressure, um, highly, uh, highly, uh, sought after job. He's on the SWAT team.

He's obviously doing real well. So how did you end up on a farm in Maryland? So we had two kids in 15 months. So that puts a lot of pressure on

that. Puts a lot of pressure on. Um, me as a young mother Yep. And a career. And when we start, when I started my second maternity leave, um, his dad received a terminal diagnosis. Oh, I'm sorry. And, um, from the time we got married, um, until then, his brother had left the farm and he, he moved to upstate New York and he started his own farm.

Um, and so. They, my husband's the eighth generation. Mm. So it was my husband or his brothers to come home and take the farm, and neither one of them wanted the farm. I think we just kind of looked at it like an opportunity. One we weren't expecting. Yeah. One we weren't looking for. Um, it was gonna be a totally different lifestyle than what we were living.

Yeah. Um, we, we knew that. Um, but I think there was a part of us that was kind of excited about. An opportunity that that came to us that we weren't looking for, and we just said, what if we pass it up? What if we say no? Yeah. We both were very happy and were very hesitant to leave our career, but we also.

Were very nervous about passing up an opportunity and, and we knew that if we didn't, that the farm would not continue. Yeah. So that was, there was pressure applied for sure. I imagine. I imagine after eight generations, so Caleb's the ninth. Caleb is the eighth. Caleb is the eighth. So my children would be the ninth.

Oh my goodness. So you're making this big decision. You see an opportunity, um, you're asked to see the opportunity, it sounds like, uh, as well for sure. And you, you decide to do it. So tell me about. Uh, long Green Farms and the operations. Gimme, paint me a picture there of, of what you get into when you first start.

So let's talk about the operations. So Long Green Farms was established in 1759 and it has continuously operated as a dairy since 1759. Mm-hmm. And it is continuously operated by the family. Okay. So there is a lot of history that we. When we came to the farm, we said, if it, if, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this well.

And we wanted to maintain and preserve the history of the family because naturally, to be really honest, the, the easiest opportunity would've been to sell the cows and just crop the land. And, you know, it's still be a farm, but not be a dairy farm. Yeah. But I think we felt like if we were gonna do it, we really wanted to preserve the family history and carry it to the next generation.

Mm-hmm. And when we moved here, um. To be really honest, it was, it was kind of chaotic. So his dad was not doing well. Yeah. And um, I'd never spent more than two or three days here. I couldn't get myself to the grocery store. I couldn't transfer our bank accounts 'cause I didn't know where the bank was. Oh.

And we moved here with a two and a half year old and a 1-year-old. Oh geez. Um, so. Yeah. And, and we came into it, um, with probably a different perspective than his dad had, which is we were young and we said, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna jump in with both feet. And we wanna make this an operation that we can pass on to our children.

But that is, um, not just survivable, but that is thriving for us as our little family. So we immediately came in and we're like, what are the things that we think that we could do to improve our quality of life? To improve our finances. Yeah. Um, and, and make this a good family opportunity for us. And did you, as you're looking at that, were you considering, you know, you're coming from more of a, um, an urban setting into a very rural setting where you.

Considering the differences there and seeing, I don't know, advantages, challenges, what was that like? I'm gonna be honest and tell you up front, I thought it was a lot of challenges. Yeah. Um, I, yeah. I had never grown up anywhere. Like this. And, um, it was a, it was a big transition for me. Now my husband was coming home, so his biggest heartache really was, was leaving his career, but he was coming home.

Yeah. But for me, I had to learn a completely different lifestyle and make brand new friends. And honestly, logistically, I didn't know how to get anywhere. And because we're rural. Um, it's not like I, I passed the Target or I passed Walmart, or you know, I had to figure out where those places were. Right. Um.

I also was very nervous about opportunities for my children, which I, I can laugh about now because where we live is just incredible. Our library system is just phenomenal. We have an incredible parks and rec system that my kids have gotten involved in playing sports, and so it's interesting because I would, I would tell you that now, my number one concern when we moved here was about opportunities for my children.

And eight years later I'm like, I was. I, I was completely wrong. I mean, there's no other way to put it. Just, just wrong. So interesting. Um, but there was a big transition. Yeah. Yeah. I imagine I So you decide you're gonna keep the dairy farm, you're gonna take on the challenges and, and, and dive right in, you know, move along the trajectory.

Eight years later, you now have social media challenge or channels. So heels and holsteins. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. I'm so excited to talk about this. This is, this is your handle. Um, you've got a website for the farm. Um, why, you know, what's the impetus for that? Why do you start, uh, documenting your life and, and sharing, uh, those moments?

What led to that? So. When I first moved here, I had friends at home that was like, this is like nothing else. Like, you got, you gotta put it out there. Like, people are gonna think this is neat, you know? And I think secretly they also were like, I wanna know what you're doing every day. Um, Paul Hanson reached out to my husband and I, um, and asked us to attend Advocate and Action.

And my husband was like, definitely not me. Pick her pick. And, um, I was nervous and I, I was nervous because I didn't grow up on a farm and I was nervous about talking to people about a subject matter that I did not consider myself an expert, but I was mm-hmm. I was learning a lot along the way. Mm-hmm.

And honestly, Paul just kept giving me opportunity after opportunity and. I would tell you, like, when did I pull the trigger? Um, is he sent me to Young Dairy Leaders Institute and it is one of the very first session was like learning how to tell your story and I met so many other young females in the industry Yeah.

That were interested in, in, in, you know, being in the industry, but telling their story and I kind of just was like. You know, I'm surrounded by people who are cheering for me and my, my biggest. Quo was my own insecurity of not being a subject matter expert. Huh. And, and you know, it's so surprising because people don't think of young women when they think of, of ag and you instantly found a support, uh, support team.

Some, uh, folks cheering on and having the same sort of challenges. Is there, um, what kind of content, when, when you think about what you're sharing, uh. Among, I, I assume it's, uh, you know, a little bit of day to day stuff. Is there content that's kind of your favorite or stuff that, um, you see get more traffic, more engagement?

Honestly, I would tell you the things that get the most engagement are either talking about the sustainable practices that, Hmm, we use, but other farmers used to, um, things that we're doing for the environment that gets a fair amount of traffic. And honestly, my children, so part of me, um. Being a female in ag is that I have three girls and so I wanna set a good example and I wanna lead a path of confidence for them to be females in agriculture.

And, um, they are a part of our day-to-day life and work on the farm. And. Um, they have a bigger fan club than I do for sure. Isn't that always the case? They're pretty cute. I, I am sure. I bet you have some pretty cute animals as well that they're, uh, I mean, how can you go wrong? Cute animals, cute kits. It's awesome.

That's right. That's right. Do you feel like you have a, as I'm talking to you, I'm thinking it's almost like a calling for you in, in some ways. Do you feel like you have kind of a responsibility to, um, to tell the story and, um, for. For folks to understand more because I, I would think that more people, I didn't grow up on a farm either are, are like you and I and don't know much about it.

I do feel like I have a responsibility and part of it is because I was that disconnected consumer. Mm-hmm. So the day I moved on a dairy farm, I would still tell you I was still a very disconnected consumer. And so the, as I realized. How uneducated I was about my food source. I became far more passionate about wanting to show where your food comes from.

Mm-hmm. And how you get your food. Yeah. And it's because I know that my thoughts where you go to the grocery store and you buy food and my thought process stopped then. Yeah. Yeah. And so I, I do, I feel like I have a responsibility because I have been on the other side. What do you think are the, are the gaps?

So there's that, um, it's almost like when you're, you have young kids, they, uh, think about their teachers. And when you see teachers outside of the school, they can't quite put it together. Like I think sometimes we. Think that way a little bit about, um, about food. It's at the grocery store and you just go get it and that's where it is.

Um, so there's that gap. Are there other knowledge gaps that you're seeing as you're out there doing your social? I think there's a fair amount of knowledge gaps and one is, um, a lot of people buy into miss marketing and so I wanna, I wanna kind of tiptoe lightly on this, if you will, but, um, you read a label and you assume.

Um, that what you read on the label somehow makes that product stand out in one way or another, and you don't deep dive in and realize that all all products of that same category have the same requirements, if you will. Um, I think that there is an assumption that everything is factory food and, um, although farms come in, in, in various sizes, there are, um.

There are mainly, it, mainly it's family owned farms that are producing all of our food. And so the assumption that everything comes from a factory is just a misnomer. Yeah. Um, I think there's, um, misperceptions about animal care on a farm. Mm-hmm. Um, I think there's misperceptions about farmers and the environment.

Um, so I mean, I, I feel like. There's a fair amount of disconnect across the board. Yeah. And I kind of use my social to just like open the door, like Yeah. Um. If there, if there's a subject matter that someone wanted specific information about, I'm happy to talk about that, but I also just want you to get to know us as people.

Yeah. Like farmers. We're real people. Our animals are real animals. My children are, are really growing up on the farm. Yeah. Um, and just, it just kind of builds a relationship maybe between farmers and consumer. Put a face on it. Is it, do you ever get weird questions? I, they, you know, I remember the old one on the late night talk shows that said, uh, brown cows produce chocolate milk.

Do you get, uh, kinda weird stuff like that from time to time? Um, every now and then, but to be really honest, a lot of that comes from kids. So I, um, even better, um, host the Adopt Acal. Yeah. I host the Adopt Acal program for the state of Maryland. And so, um, oh, tell me about that. Well, so last year I think we had like 20,000 students that adopted a calf from our farm.

And, um, they get, um, they get all kinds of information about the calf growth and they just get to watch it grow up. So I send them pictures and what they're eating and what it's like, and at the end of the school year, we have a. A live chat where, um, they can ask me questions live. They get to see their animals bounce around, but throughout the school year, the kids write me letters.

And so some of the letters are really funny. Um, you know, how do cows celebrate Christmas? You know? Um, so I, I would tell you most of the, the entertaining questions I get come from children, but I think it's a great opportunity to bring children up, more connected to. The farm, which is the number one reason I do it.

Yeah. Now I, on the, on the flip side of that, the, um, the fun and kind of entertaining of funny stuff. Is there anything that you hear about farming or agriculture that kinda, um, upsets you or really gives you pause when. People say something they believe to be true. Um, yeah. So I would tell you when it comes to things like nutrition and how clean and pure your food source is, and part of that's because I'm just really passionate about nutrition.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's my personal interest. Like I'm a runner. Um, yeah, my personal interest is in nutrition, and so when I hear people questioning the quality of the food or the quality of dairy produced, I, my feathers get a little ruffled because I also have a husband who morning, midday night, in the middle of the night does everything that he can, um, for our animals and to produce.

The purest, most nutritious product, so anytime there's questioning, it kind of rubs me the wrong way. Because I see how hard farmers work at that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure. And you know, as, as you've said, it's so personal and it, it involves your husband and your kids and, um, and your in-laws and eight generations of family.

Um, I think there are plenty of misconceptions about farmers and ag, just kind of in general. Um, so much of what consumers understand about farms might not be accurate. You know, they've, they've never met. A, uh, farmer, they've never set foot on a farm. Um, the Washington Post published an article recently, 10 mega Myths about Farming.

So I wanted to read you a couple if you're game, and just, uh, have you Yeah. Have you respond and we will do a little rapid fire. Does that work? Yeah. Perfect. All right. So one of the, uh, one of the, um, mega myths that they pointed out was farming is low tech. Um, there is a tremendous amount of technology involved in farming, and I'll briefly just go over some of the technology that's available, whether on our farm or other farms, but there is.

Robots that milk your cows. There's robots that refresh the cow's bedding. There's robots that push up feed. Um, there's preci Precision Ag for planting for, um, GPS involved in planting, you know, involved in the planting, but also like spreading your manure so that you don't over overspread and you can keep up with a number of gallons per acre.

Um, there's collars, um, for the animals that are, are essentially like a Fitbit. They keep up with your activity level, what you're doing all day. Yeah. Um, the technology is pretty amazing in agriculture, so it's, it's interesting to me that that's still a misconception out there. Yeah. Yeah. It's a, it's an old, uh, inaccurate stereotype.

How about this one? Farmers rarely conserv themselves with environmental issues. I would tell you that is. Incredibly false. Mm-hmm. Um, we, it, it, it's something that we're actually very passionate about. So we, we live six miles north of like the Chesapeake Bay. Okay. Oh, beautiful. And so we have water that runs through, we have stream 14,000 linear feet of stream that runs through our property.

And so a lot of the work that we do is on protecting the bay. And, um, we've planted over 60,000 trees. We've been here eight years and planted over 60,000 trees. Oh my goodness. We planted a large stream restoration project. Um, rainwater management is huge. We're actually in the process of decommissioning an old earth and lagoon and replacing it with a con, a concrete manure pit.

Um. We've, we've done a tremendous amount of work, um, in sustainability. So a a and we're really no different than our neighbors. Yeah. And I would, I mean, I would, I would tell you that it's not, it's not just us. I'm not touting us, I'm touting farmers in general. Well, and, and so many of our members and, and farmers that I talk to are like.

You know, nobody wants the, um, wants to, uh, have a healthy planet more than a farmer does. 'cause as you know, as you are an example of you're eight generations here, you wanna pass that, um, farm down to your children and you wanna make sure that, uh, that it's healthy and, um, able to, uh, produce yields for, for years and years to come.

Um, here's another one. How about I would also, yeah, yeah, yeah, go ahead. I was just gonna say, I would also say, you know, historically farmers have done a tremendous amount for the environment. You don't get to have eight generations of farming the same piece of land. If you don't invest the time and resources to protect it, you don't get that opportunity.

Yeah. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. No, please. I, that is an important point and, and, and one that, um, is just so logical when you think about it. Um, how about this one? Farming ruins the soil False. I would tell you that, um, there is a tremendous amount of effort and resources putting into maintaining the soil and improving the soil.

And we do regular soil tests and we rotate our crops and, um, no drill or no-till drill. Um, there are tremendous efforts that farmers are making to invest in the soil. Well, tell me on the, on the flip side of the soil is the water. So, you know, one of the things from the post article said, farms waste large amounts of water.

Is that true? Farmers recycle the water over and over again. Um, we collect rainwater and have rainwater diversion. Um, we recycle the, um, parlor water wash. So I would tell you again, false farmers are very concerned about the water and understand that crops don't grow without water. Right. So I mean it find a farmer that doesn't absolutely love their water.

We depend on it. Well, and this one was particularly funny. We've talked about this already a little bit, but the last one I'll throw out at is most farms in rural America are owned by a corporate entity. Again, false. Yeah. I would actually tell you, I don't know of a farmer around me that's owned by a corporate entity.

Most farms are family farm. They can vary in size, but there are a fair amount of really small farms over there around, but there's not, I would also tell you that a large farm and a small farm are not necessarily that different really, they're family owned operations and it may be the difference between how many pe, how many family members are involved in the farm.

Yeah, I imagine that's, um, it's uh, a scale like anything. You know, depending on, um, exactly the size and specialty and all of that kind of thing. So, um. This has been such a fascinating, uh, conversation and I will say, Alice, your, your kids are so beautiful. I, I have three kids myself, so I'm a Oh, thank you. I, I'm a big mom of, of three, uh, um, person as well.

So, um, I really have enjoyed, uh, the conversation and looking at, um, your social and, and the website. We'll make sure we get, uh, heels and Holsteins out there. Um, we always end our podcast with just kind of a very simple question, um, how do you see the future of agriculture? So I'd like to put that to you now.

I think there's only gonna be opportunity for growth and expansion, and I. Hope, but I do believe that as people become more conscientious of their food source, and I really think COVID kind of sparked this, which is when you realize that not, it's not always available. Or what you want is not always available.

You start paying attention to where it comes from and how you get it. And I only believe that we'll continue to see more growth, um, in that mindset. And I am excited about that. I'm excited for farmers to connect more with consumers. Um, and, you know, really for us to kind of open our doors and, you know, show them what a, what a family farm really looks like.

Well, if the future is in hands like yours, I think we're in very good shape. Thank you so much. Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure to be here.

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