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North Tabor Farm, located on North Road in Chilmark, could not more fully embody the spirit and productivity of a small, family-owned and operated farm. Founded by Rebecca Miller and Matthew Dix, operated by them and their children, and vigorously supported by the island community, North Tabor has evolved in every way possible to support the island and thrive in various seasonal circumstances and unknowns.
Rebecca and Matthew’s experience and focus in tilling the land rubbed off on their middle child, Ruby, who ran with the lessons learned growing up in a farming family. Ruby runs the farm; 2021 is her second season doing so, and I sat down with her between spring plantings to talk about her experiences and plans for the future of the farm.
CF: What are your earliest memories of the farm?
DR: Walking barefoot to the West Tisbury Farmers Market to buy an Ethel’s jam cookie, and how the stones hurt my feet. I dug fingerling potatoes out of the ground and my mom told me they were gold nuggets. My father paid us a quarter to eat a caterpillar.
My parents let my sister and I have our own garden one summer. We planted artichokes and [I remember] be devastated when we realized we were growing Jerusalem artichokes instead (mostly ugly tubers).
Climb into flower buckets filled with water and pretend to be in the tub. Mud. Lots of mud, and find some frogs in our little pond, and take their leeches off.
Describe how you felt when you went to school and brought your friends home and to the farm.
My sister first decided to go to boarding school off the island, and as a typical little sister, I followed her when I got to high school. We went to a small progressive and artistic high school, and I formed a group of friends who, except for last year, always come to the vineyard in the summer for July 4th. My friends from high school grew up in cities, so coming to the farm on the vineyard for the first time they had a lot of firsts. The first time around, we all camped out in the field, and a friend of mine snuck into my house and slept in my bed instead. My parents let me bring friends over, and I mean about 10 teenagers at a time, but the rule was we couldn’t be inside the house, so we had to cook and sleep outside.
How did you make the decision to take on such an important role on your family’s farm? How did you make this decision and how did the transition to more responsibilities go?
I divided my time between working on the farm and working in restaurants during my summer vacation. I realized how much I loved being outdoors and never wanted to stop farming early to work in a restaurant. I was excited to get up early and work all day, and realizing that not everyone is lucky to enjoy their jobs made me want to have a bigger role on the farm. My parents needed someone to run the farm because my dad always had another full time job and my mom had recently started working at the Misty Meadows Community Riding Center. Taking on the role of manager made it easier for them to get involved in the daily life of the farm. Because we are a family, I think my investment in the farm as a manager goes deeper than a job. It’s my house.
The first two summers were difficult for me as it was difficult to balance sales and administrative work on the farm and managing the team. Now that my mom is back on the farm full time, it has allowed me to be more present as a manager in the field, and not be stuck in the barn writing invoices or delivering.
What is your favorite thing for growing up?
Watermelon, because it’s always a guessing game to know when they are ripe. And the best way to tell if they’re ripe is to do lots of taste tests. When I was younger we grew a lot more green salads and we didn’t have room for melons. Now I have the space to cultivate them. It’s like a treat to have a patch of melon.
Tell me about the soil on the farm and how you decide on your crop rotations
Our soil is clayey and contains a lot of weed seeds because we use horse manure as compost. Our soil holds water well, but it tends to crack as it dries out, which can be a challenge for no-till in some crops. It is difficult to rotate crops in our salad field because it is intensively seeded. Therefore, we are fortunate to have few weeds, and if we were to turn the salads green, most likely we would encounter a lot of weeds, which would make it impossible to use our salad harvester. As we learned more about how to take care of our soil, we tried not to over-plow the fields and use a method called solarization. Once we’ve finished harvesting a crop, we cover it with a thick layer of clear plastic, and the sun shines through and kills the plants and weeds below. For our vegetable crops, we try to change their location every year, because if you don’t change it, you may have the same insect problems on the crop.
What skills did your parents teach you about farming that are unique to each of them? In other words, what categories do your parents thrive in when it comes to farming and how do these skills complement each other?
When you’re the leader, I realized, a big part of the job is building trusting relationships and healthy dynamics within your team. My mother is very good at discovering and raising people’s gifts. When your farmers believe in them, they become loyal to the farm and to you, which creates a successful season. She is also good at building relationships with our clients and incorporating their feedback.
Farming is a dynamic process and you are constantly trying to predict nature’s next move and adapt to changes on a daily basis. My dad believes there is no one way to do things and continually tries new things on the farm. Over the years I’ve become a better problem solver, and I don’t have to call him every time something goes down, but instead I’m like, OK, how could he fake that?
The three of us have coffee together every morning in the summer at an unofficial farm meeting. We are often not on the same page when we meet for breakfast, but we discuss our different opinions on things and find a compromise. My mom channels her energy into understanding our customers’ desires, while my dad prioritizes how to grow food holistically yet effectively. And my role is to bring the reality of what my crew can realistically do on the farm that day.
Do you see yourself as a teacher?
I’m doing it now; I certainly didn’t think I was at the start. The first season I was a manager, I was 18 and two of my crew were in their thirties; I wasn’t sure I was a leader because I didn’t think they would consider me more experienced than them. Last summer I realized that I had been farming on the crew for 10 years. Every summer, I show people how we cultivate, and as I feel more comfortable as a leader, I get better at teaching people.
I think one of the most important things they taught me is that as farmers it is our responsibility to support other farmers, especially when you live in an isolated community. This means lending your equipment; if you take a truck off the island, let the other farmers know, and you should probably bring two hammers to the farmers market because someone will always have forgotten theirs.
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