A Paradise, Unpaved

Office Professionals Find Balm as Amateur Farmers

Photos
Choosing Overalls Over Overtime
Many corporate Americans are using hobby farms to escape the grueling demands of the office.

The big sign for a new store stares drivers in the face: TRACTOR SUPPLY.

Inside are the tough tools wielded for decades in the muscled grip of farmers. Over here, hog feed, fence posts, hoof nippers, cattle castration blades. Over there, koi food, kitty litter, wheelbarrows with drink holders.

Koi, on the farm?

Well, sort of. More like koi on the farmlet.

Out beyond Washington's suburban fringe, techies, lawyers and other office types are taking up farming -- part time and on their own terms. They do it not to make money but for the lifestyle.

Hobby farms -- also called "farmlets," "farmets" or "lifestyle farms" -- appear to be popping up locally more often. In 2002, according to the most recent figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Maryland had 3,633 farms with sales of $0-$1,000, a 54 percent jump from 1997. In Virginia, they were up 31 percent to 11,418.

The growth is enough to help remold longtime institutions such as the Tractor Supply Co. chain, which dates to 1938. It used to focus on regular farmers. Now . . .

"How do you wear them?" asked customer Dan Carrick recently, unsure what size overalls to get. "Do you wear these over what you're wearing?"

Yes, said an understanding 18-year-old clerk working in Tractor Supply's Charles County store, about 30 miles south of Washington.

By day, Carrick helps manage IT systems for NASA's Hubble Space Telescope program; his wife, Suzanne Benedict, tests Hubble flight software. At home, they raise 40 chickens, five miniature sheep and three miniature horses.

Tractor Supply's stock is worth 29 times what it was a little more than five years ago, and the chain has grown to about 640 stores. It racked up $2.1 billion in sales last year and $86 million in profits. Around Washington, Tractor Supply runs seven stores on the fringes -- in counties such as Charles and Carroll in Maryland, Loudoun and Fauquier in Virginia. Inside are stacks of a free magazine called Out Here. Recent articles ranged from "Sandblasting Made Easy" to how to start a book club.

This past spring, the company rolled out quirky TV ads designed to appeal to the new farmer. In one, a banker and his friend stand in front of a busted fence. Cattle graze in the distance.