‘It just makes you slow down’: A way of life pivot created Gardening Gays Farm

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It is tough to overlook as you journey down U.S. 301 by means of King George County, Virginia: a colourful signal with arching rainbow that reads, “Gardening Gays Farm.”

Now of their fifth season, the married couple who personal the farm known as this pivot of their lives a little bit sudden at first however extremely rewarding.

“I never thought that I was going to go back to it,” stated Dragan Kurbalija, a Gardening Gays Farm co-owner.

He grew up on a farm in Croatia, and when he was younger, vowed to by no means work a farm once more.

It is an analogous promise that his husband Kevin Graham made after working throughout his childhood for his father’s garden service enterprise in Florida.

“It’s not foreign to me, being outside, the hard work and ‘eating dust’, as my dad would call it,” Graham stated. “My brothers and sisters and I vowed that we never wanted to have a flower bed in our yard when we became adults.”

Instead, the 2 now oversee a 27-acre farm, rising recent produce corresponding to tomatoes, peppers and watermelon, and watching over flocks of sheep, chickens and geese.

“We pride ourselves on, first and foremost, being a working farm,” Graham stated. “We have a farm store and a garden center.”

Gardening Gays Farm is open to the general public yr spherical, and welcomes clients seven days per week throughout the rising season.

In addition to entire chickens, just-laid eggs and different farm-fresh merchandise, guests will discover objects made by 20 or so native distributors.

“It’s like having a farmer’s market experience at your disposal without having to get up early on a Saturday morning and fight the crowd somewhere,” Graham stated.

Every Saturday within the spring and fall, the farm invitations meals vehicles and serves brunch. Farm festivals held 4 weekends a yr appeal to as much as a thousand individuals every day.

Gardening Gays Farm began as a backyard within the yard of their Upper Marlboro, Maryland, townhouse. Graham and Kurbalija grew sufficient to start giving pals their produce, and Gardening Gays was born there as a hashtag on pictures they’d submit on social media.

In March 2020, Graham had a pal sketch their Gardening Gays emblem, and for Kurbalija’s birthday, they printed tank tops.

“Never in a million years thinking that it was going to be this,” Graham stated. “It was the two of us, just our little hobby that we enjoyed enough to put it on a T-shirt.”

During the pandemic, they noticed how empty grocery retailer cabinets had turn out to be and determined they wished to turn out to be extra self-sufficient. That’s when the thought of a full farm got here to be.

They initially wished to remain near D.C., however have been priced out of any land that will be capable of assist a working farm. They appeared in Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and even New Hampshire earlier than discovering their spot in Virginia, transferring there in August 2021.

“Our friends thought we were crazy,” Graham stated. “Being a gay couple moving to some place — like D.C., where there’s so much acceptance, so much freedom, so much ability to be yourself — walking away from all of that to come back to a place that has a lot of question marks.”

The transfer tore a few of their friendships aside. But they described the transfer as the subsequent chapter of their lives. Where as soon as they may stroll right into a D.C. bar and the bartender would immediately know their drink order, they now get pleasure from watching their 5 canine roam and benefit from the farm.

“Just to watch nature unfold in front of your eyes, and to know that all of this stuff depends on you every single day,” Graham stated.

Kurbalija agreed. “There’s more to life than a Friday afternoon happy hour. We decided to build this and enjoy it every day. Yes, there’s absolutely hard days when it’s 100 degrees and stuff needs to get done, but overall there’s just such a joy of being here,” he stated.

But with that pleasure comes exhausting work.

“I don’t know many people in their 40s who decide to work this hard,” Graham stated.

There are fixed chores: feeding and watering chickens, sheep, guineas and geese, or planting the newest crop after bush hogging the sphere.

The new focus has modified their views, they stated. Things that used to emphasize them out don’t matter practically as a lot as a result of there are extra essential obligations on their every day to-do listing.

“If we don’t get out of bed in the morning, these animals don’t eat. They don’t get fresh water,” Graham stated.

Kurbalija appreciates how the farm made him extra affected person and fewer reliant on the moment gratification of contemporary life with smartphones.

“It just makes you slow down, like you plant stuff in April, you don’t harvest it until August, September,” he stated.

Ultimately, they stated, the agricultural transfer and profession shifts dramatically improved their high quality of life.

“The deep connections that we make with people, with the conversations that we have, is beyond anything that we ever had by living in D.C.,” Graham stated. “We get to know people on such an intimate level, who their kids are, when they’re vacationing, all those types of things. It unlocks something inside of your spirit to be able to develop that type of community here, and we’ve never had that anywhere that we’ve ever lived before.”

What has the response been to a gay-owned farm within the largely rural King George County?

“It’s been amazing. I mean, beyond our expectations,” stated Kurbalija.

According to the farmers, the group is pushed to assist native companies, they usually’ve been voted greatest agricultural enterprise, greatest family-owned enterprise and greatest general enterprise within the county for 2 years working.

“We were accepted by this community. Yes, absolutely it was risky. It’s a conservative community,” stated Kurbalija. “But we also believed in our work and what we do.”

For the primary yr of its existence, their well-known “Gardening Gays Farm” signal was not put in. They as a substitute wished to indicate neighbors that their farm about greater than their branding.

Kurbalija and Graham stated they do solely what feels genuine to themselves, whereas it’s Pride month, the variety of rainbows on the farm is similar as any month within the yr.

“We don’t need an extra month to be proud,” stated Kurbalija. “Find what do you enjoy doing, and do that, and do it every day of the week.”

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