Farming is in my bones

Tammy Harris riding her horse, Moka, on her land. (Courtesy of Tammy Harris)

HUNTERDON COUNTY, NJ—I grew up in a town called Farmingdale, New Jersey, with my parents and my eight siblings. Although we were just making ends meet, we lived on a one-acre property which my father was farming a garden on a third of it for the family to eat. His kids were not interested in helping, so each year, fewer vegetables were planted. Eventually my father put his farming on hold to concentrate on his full-time job, being a mason. But we always had apple trees, peach trees, and strawberries in our flower beds. Farming was in my father’s bones and part of that legacy is in mine.

Today, I own an eight-acre property with horses, goats, lambs, chickens, a pig, and a cow. It takes hard work and commitment to maintain a property of this size, but eventually I settled right into it. Reclaiming this way of life brings me new joy every day, but it has its challenges. 

My father left the south in 1963 to be treated better as a Black man, but moving to Farmingdale, N.J. in 1967, the town must have had a population of less than one percent Black people. Now there are about 9.8% Blacks in this town, but we still experience incidents of racial prejudice, so the process of integration and representation has been slow.

There were two racist encounters that happened within the first week of moving to my property which are etched in my memory. 

On move day, a hot day in the summer months, my father and my uncle were helping me on the farm. While it was still daylight, my father and I went out to grab dinner and on the way back to the house, a police officer stopped us. He came to the passenger side window and asked for my license and registration which I then gave to him. He asked where I was going and I said, “home” as I had just gone around the corner. He proceeded to ask my father if he had an ID. My father said, “yes” and pulled out his license. The cop took both our licenses back to the squad car. I was furious! Why did he take and run both our licenses when my father was merely a passenger? I felt like he was thinking, we didn’t belong here.  

The second encounter took place on the third day at my new home. My neighbors walked up my long driveway to say, “hello”. They said they heard kids and wanted to come up and meet us. I said those were my  contractor kids and they’d left. Then they asked if I was married and followed up with questions like, what do I do for a living? With a perplexed look on their faces. I’m certain that they wondered how I could afford the property. I answered vaguely and redirected the conversation. That line of questioning was offensive, and again, I felt like they were thinking, what are you doing here? You don’t belong here. Unfortunately, this would surely not be the last racist encounter. 

Tammy’s father with Peaches, one of her goats. (Courtesy of Tammy Harris)

The reason I purchased an eight-acre property is that a realtor I met while flipping properties said, “I wish you were interested in land.” I said, “Show me what you have” and ended up moving forward with the purchase. The thought behind it was that I would be able to board horses and rent out part of the land. That vision didn’t work out as planned, but I fell in love with the horses and animals along the way. My father was always around helping me work on the land and improve it. This was very familiar territory for him. My grandparents had chickens, pigs, ducks, and turkeys, bred to sustain and feed the family. There is a sense of peace knowing that I too have the ability to raise and feed my family off land and farm animals as my grandparents did, but instead I’ve chosen to share my farm animals with children. I wrote a children’s book about one of the animals on my property, titled, Pi’s Forever Farm, and the characters in the book are diverse because farm animal ownership and caretaking is for everyone. We all belong here.

Tammy’s niece feeding one of her baby calf. (Courtesy of Tammy Harris)

Animals make a huge impact on the youth, especially in urban and suburban areas where there is little to no opportunity to interact with them. Animals teach discipline, hard work, and have therapeutic benefits. I want all children to enjoy these animals and realize their benefits, especially young Black girls and boys. I want them to know that raising animals for pleasure or as a food source is an option and within reach. They should feel like they belong in this industry too, if they so desire. When you see someone that looks like you doing something that seems unattainable, it suddenly becomes attainable.  

So when I show up in urban communities, I’m embraced with joyful appreciation and gratitude for being a woman with a Black-owned Equine Business. Something they've never seen before. One customer had an event at an apartment complex in Newark, and when I arrived, she said “Wow, you're Black! I'm so happy to see you and someone that looks like us showing that it is possible to own horses.” That brought joy to my heart. I want my story to inspire Black little girls and boys to dream big and know that they can do whatever they set their minds to.