What is a Farmer?
On the surface, Lucila says of Suzie's Farm, it looks like farmers just grow vegetables. But they actually do much more
Grown in San Diego: A Journey to Sundial Farms in Vista by way of Taiwan and the Iraq War
*This story was originally published on DailyHarvestExpress.com, an online farmers market dedicated to connecting consumers with local farmers.
When most of us were nine years old, our biggest worry might have been losing a soccer game or getting put in school detention for passing notes in class. When Shen Yen Ting was nine, his biggest worry was where he’d find a comfortable place to sleep on the floor of the restaurant where he worked.
A new immigrant to the United States, his parents had sent him and his brother to America from Taiwan in hopes that they’d have access to a better education and economic opportunities.
“It was a rough life,” he said. “We were sent to live with a close relative of my dad who lived here in the US. Our relative soon decided he didn’t want us sleeping in his house and told us we would have to stay in the restaurant where we worked washing dishes, cleaning, and taking out trash.”
Another aspect of his new life was his new name as his relative decided to call him “Jeff”. A child living and working in a foreign country without his parents, stripped of the name he was born with, sleeping on the floor of the restaurant where he worked, was not exactly a recipe for a story with a happy ending.
Things got worse when the family restaurant went bankrupt, prompting a move to Champaign, Illinois. Only a portion of the money Shen’s father was sending to their caregiver actually made it to he and his brother.
When Shen turned 11, he and his brother moved out, working wherever they could: cleaning restaurants and bars and cutting chicken leg quarters for $2 an hour. They didn’t tell their parents in Taiwan.
“I didn’t want my dad to feel bad since he was paying a lot of his money for me to be here,” he explained, pointing out that this period in his life forged his fierce independence, strong work ethic, and desire for success.
At 21, Shen enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he was told he could choose whatever name he wanted for himself. In the midst of reading a book about the famed British Naval explorer, Captain James Cook and the HMS Endeavour (the research ship he used to explore the Pacific ocean), he decided that he wanted to become Endeavour Shen.
Four years later, a back injury prompted his separation from the Navy. He got married and moved to Texas, taking night classes to become an accountant. When his wife became pregnant, the couple decided it was time to move back to San Diego.
Endeavour was happy, but he missed a sense of connection and purpose in his work life. When he heard about Archi’s Institute, a program started by a Marine that teaches veterans how to start a hydroponic farming business, he was intrigued. In 2015, Endeavour started growing and selling hydroponic basil, and fell in love with farming.
The problem was, he was still a full-time accountant and real estate agent with a wife and two children. Free time and the financial resources to make a career change were not abundant. So, for the next three and a half years, Endeavour worked three jobs, saved money, and waited for the right time to make a full transition into hydroponic farming.
Opportunity knocked one day when he found out about a septuagenarian who wanted to retire and sell his commercial orchid growing business. It was a large operation, far beyond anything Endeavour had ever done before, but he took a risk, securing investment capital through a church friend to buy the land and the business.
It was a rough start. The day he quit his accounting job, he was in a car accident that totalled his car. From November through December that year, the weather in San Diego County was the worst he’d ever seen, with days of rain every day and no sun. This all translated into a financial loss of $20,000 in his first month of business. By the third month, the weather had improved, but his delivery truck’s engine blew out. Then his son got a kidney infection.
“In Taiwan, we call business owners ‘never dying cockroaches,’ because no matter what happens to them, they figure out how to keep going,” Endeavour said, laughing.“My pastor’s wife always says, ‘what is bad is not necessarily bad and what is good is not necessarily good’.”
One Saturday morning, Endeavour began to doubt his decision to become a farmer. He prayed, asking if this was what he should be doing with his life. He entered the greenhouse to find an illuminated cross on the door just above his welcome sign. The reflection, coming from a small cross hanging from his car rearview, made his hair stand up on the back of his neck. He took it as a sign that he was exactly where he was supposed to be.
One year later, Endeavour had a staff of nine employees operating two different farms on his 4.5 acre plot. South Coast Orchids (the upstairs portion of the greenhouse) provides cut orchid flowers for area businesses, and downstairs Sundial Farms grows hundreds of pounds of edible greens each week for area restaurants, businesses, the Escondido school district, and for sale direct to consumers through the online farmers market, Daily Harvest Express.
Endeavour hopes to one day give back to other veterans through a program teaching special forces veterans with PTSD how to start their own hydroponic farms.
“I can trust those guys to do the job right. Continuously serving others is just part of who they are, and I want them to have an opportunity to heal through growing something.”
About the Author
Food explorer, seed & soil geek, duck evangelist, writer, health nut, and entrepreneur. Aaron Von Frank is farm manager at Oak Hill Cafe & Farm, a no-till, permaculture, farm-to-table restaurant and farm located in Greenville, SC. Aaron and his wife, Susan, have a popular gardening, backyard duck, and foraging blog, Tyrant Farms. They are also cofounders of GrowJourney.com, a USDA certified organic seed & gardening education company.
Aaron is a writer for DailyHarvestExpress.com, and also writes for Edible Upcountry Magazine, WordPress.com, and other food and tech-related organizations. He currently serves on the board of the Diversified Agriculture Committee for the South Carolina Farm Bureau.
Read the Original Post and other stories about farming in San Diego County at Daily Harvest Express.
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