NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — Visar Duane, of Purple Skies Farm, considers herself an “accidental farmer.” But there’s nothing accidental about the way she farms.
At the farm, in North Royalton, Ohio, Duane focuses on growing crops in a way that is good for the environment, and for herself. She has a medical background, and views food as medicine.
She also works as an occupational therapist, and believes it’s important to work in a sustainable way. That means moving in healthy ways, and planning around what she is able to do.
“That’s how you take care of the body. This is bread and butter,” she said. “Without this, none of this would happen. It’s an investment.”
Agriculture
Duane was born and raised in Cambodia and came to the U.S. from a refugee camp in Thailand in 1981. She and her family were originally told they were going to Pittsburgh. But after a stop in New York, they were told they would be going to Cleveland, instead.
“I think fate brought us here,” she said.
She had no interest in farming for a long time after coming to the U.S. In Cambodia, she and many others were sent from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, to camps in the countryside and forced to do farm labor under the Khmer Rouge, a brutal regime that ruled from 1975 to 1979 and aimed to bring about an agrarian society.
Duane recalled carrying bundles of rice seedlings and other things on her head and walking for miles, sometimes planting in fields with water up to her knees and being lucky to have solid food to eat during some seasons. Compared to that work, “this is nothing,” she said, about the farming she does now.
In the U.S., Duane worked as a medical technologist, and now as an occupational therapist. Years later, she and her husband, Dave, wanted to invest in something. And her work in the medical field has given her a different perspective on agriculture. So, they decided to build a farm.
“Food is medicine,” she said. “I really don’t regret it.”
The farm
In 2010, they bought some land about 10 minutes away from where they lived at the time. When they bought the land, there was basically nothing on it — not even running water.
Over the years, they added things including hoop houses, a pond, fences to protect their gardens from deer and other animals and the house they now live in. At the farm, Duane grows fruits, vegetables and flowers. In late March, Duane has already planted many of her crops, both outside and in hoop houses, and in trays in her basement.
The house also serves as a bed and breakfast. They built it specifically with that in mind.
Duane doesn’t promote the bed and breakfast much — at one point, they assessed what they would need to do to advertise it more, and decided the costs weren’t worth it. But they do get quite a few bookings from hikers visiting nearby parks. Duane uses the food grown at the farm and eggs from a nearby neighbor for the meals she serves.
In addition to using the food she grows for the bed and breakfast, Duane runs a small CSA and sells some of her produce to chefs in the area. She also grows things that she likes to eat, so if there’s anything she doesn’t sell, she uses it herself.
Some of the crops Duane grows are fairly uncommon, like black pansies. She looks for chefs and other people who are interested in using those more unique crops.
“I want to find that niche,” she explained. “So, if I can grow a unique thing … and then I can get a good price? I grow them.”
Environment
The farm is not certified organic, but Duane uses organic practices and focuses on taking care of the environment there. She doesn’t apply pesticides or herbicides, and mostly weeds by hand. She also plants vegetables that do well together next to each other, and uses cover crops in her gardens.
The culture she grew up with, Duane said, is very focused on using every part of a plant, and not wasting any of it. Now, on the farm, she is careful to repurpose and recycle as much as possible.
“I don’t feel a burden. I feel that it contributes to what I can do, at least in this piece of land,” she said.
Health
Duane continues to work as an occupational therapist, seeing patients three days a week. That also influences her work on the farm.
Duane doesn’t always have help on the farm, so when she plans to do something, she thinks about the resources she does have available, and how she can use them to move forward. Her earlier work in the medical field has inspired her to always come up with different or better ways to do things and to work around limitations.
“I’m constantly thinking that,” she said. “If I cannot do this, if [a patient] cannot do this, what should I do?”
But she has worked with some students and interns over the years.
“I need help, and they need a place to practice, right?” she said. “I make sure I teach them proper body mechanics.”
That’s something she thinks every farmer should know: how to take care of their bodies while working. She noted she has been farming for 10 years, doing a lot of work by hand. But she walks and moves comfortably, without back pain.
Even when doing something simple, like washing dishes or cutting microgreens, she makes sure to use and turn to both sides of her body. That kind of awareness helps her stay healthy.
Investment
Duane views taking care of herself, and the farm, as an investment. She also believes caring for the land, and teaching interns how to do the same thing, is simply the right thing to do.
“I believe that doing good doesn’t have to have somebody … provide the same value back to you, when you help someone,” she said.
She said she has been fortunate to have some help from a nearby neighbor with experience in farming. And she has learned, both from school for occupational therapy, and from the values her mother taught her growing up, that success is all about using the resources and the environment available to you in the best way you can.
“You create your own destiny,” Duane said. “What is possible out there, when I look at this land? What can I do with it?”
