voc ep 77: Carol Bean

Carol: “I have been lucky since I moved to the Eastern Shore almost 20 years ago.  Luckier than most. Like most people, I was drawn to the Shore because of its beautiful landscape and the quality of life offered. As luck would have it, I found work as a small market gardener, raising animals and heirloom vegetables, and selling to my local community at farmers’ markets and area restaurants.

Even luckier, I met and married a local waterman who comes from a long line of farmers.  As anyone who moves here knows, there is often a steep divide between the “come heres” and the “from heres”; but those lines blurred for me because of who I married and I was lucky to be given entry into the two traditional occupations on the shore: farming and fishing.

The most tangible evidence of my good fortune was the delicious food that graced my table every day. Varying widely depending on the season, it was almost entirely comprised of food we caught or raised ourselves, supplemented by what hunter friends would supply. I learned to cook venison, clean wild geese and fillet fresh fish. My husband taught me how to open oysters and cook crabs. Food is what connects me to the Eastern Shore.

And the farmers, watermen and hunters I’ve been lucky enough to meet have not only enriched my table—they have enriched my life in ways I never would have imagined before moving here. Making a living, working on the water or on the land is often very alienating work—disconnected from 9 to 5 schedules of the rest of the working world. At the mercy of the elements and the markets of which you have no control, the hours are long and the work is hard. There is a constant level of uncertainty hanging over your head, a sword of Damocles poised to strike in the form of too much rain, or not enough rain, or disease that ravages your field, or the Bay itself. Carrying on, day to day, year to year, generation to generation, is a feat of perseverance—but one that those who work on the water and on the land readily dismiss by saying, “It’s in your blood!”

After more than a decade of living hand to mouth (delicious though it was!), I took a position as Agricultural Specialist with the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy. If I could not make a living farming, at least I could work to ensure that others continue to have that opportunity by helping to preserve precious agricultural lands.” Eastern Shore Land Conservancy’s Carol Bean

Carol Bean. (Photo courtesy of ESLC)