A new survey highlights the challenges faced by those who work the land.

Rebecca Slattery farmed on Bainbridge for 15 years, and faced all the hurdles Bainbridge farmers do – including the need for affordable help.

The owner of Persephone Farm has a creative solution, a farming “apprenticeship program” during the growing season.

“Personally, I’m committed to training a crop of future farmers,” Slattery said. “They’re my most important crop.”

Slattery was one of more than two dozen local farmers – from dabblers to hardscrabblers – who discussed the challenges facing their way of life in a survey conducted by Friends of the Farms, the results of which were released this month.

Conducted this past December, it was the first comprehensive survey of island farms in a decade.

Twenty-eight farmers and families representing 189 acres of land participated. Spreads ranged from the 25-acre Parcheski/Ryherd farm at Day Road to the half-acre Eagledale Herb Garden owned by Jerry and Patti Erickson.

The survey found that overwhelmingly, local farms are owner-occupied, and about 80 percent of respondents were farming here a decade ago.

The overwhelming majority said they derive personal income from a source other than farming. Asked “Is your level of income adequate for your family?”, 10 respondents said yes, seven no, four “barely” and one “maybe.” Only six said their income allows them to put away funds for emergencies and retirement.

About half have turned to producing value-added products – wines, jams and other fare refined from simple produce.

The labor issue – overcome by the help of migrant workers in the heyday of island farming 40 and 50 years ago, and even into the 1990s – was cited as an ongoing concern.

“Not many people are willing to do physical work, and those that are usually end up doing landscaping work where they can easily make more than double what I can afford to pay,” one survey participant wrote. Others lamented that “no one wants to do hard labor anymore,” and that tending crops is “too tedious for youth…”

The survey results will be presented to the City Council at this evening’s meeting; farm advocates have been trying to advance various legislation to promote island agriculture, including a code change to allow year-round sales from farm stands.

Speaking with active farmers on Bainbridge bears out the survey results, although individuals find some issues more acute than others.

For Steve Phillips of Port Madison Farm, who runs a dairy farm producing cheese, yogurt and goat’s milk, labor is a huge issue as they are producing year-round. Phillips says that although they probably pay their labor at the high end of the agricultural scale, affordable housing for workers is an issue.

“This is an island of doctors, lawyers and corporate presidents,” Phillip said. “Like everyone, we compete for a place to live.”

Phillips has one worker who commutes in from Seattle three days a week to make cheese, and another for whom he provides housing.

Contrary to perception, he said, the work on his farm is not an entry-level job. To compete with producers from all over the world, farming has become more technical, requiring workers to know how to run machines and not just pitchfork-clean a barn.

Betsey Wittick of Laughing Crow Farm and a Friends of the Farms steering committee member, says it is difficult to get labor when farmers can only pay $8-10 an hour, but compete with landscapers, who can pay $10-15 an hour.

Bainbridge real estate is also another obstacle to farmers.

Slattery now farms land she purchased in Indianola, after she looked for five years on Bainbridge for a parcel she could afford.

She wanted to purchase land so that she could plant orchards and have a long-term commitment.

Mary Harmon of Harmony Farm has her land set up under a farm status with the county which helps with property taxes. Still, getting property is just the start.

Slattery says the city could help farmers greatly by removing the current restriction on selling products on farms only “during harvest time.”

Only value-added products such as jams and wine can be sold year-round, under the current code.

Wittick produces few value-added goods herself, but subsidizes her farming by working at the Bainbridge Island Winery, which itself depends on selling a value-added good: wine.

Wittick expressed frustration at the lack of “proactive” help to farming she has seen from the city.

The issue of selling farm products at stands year-round is coming before the Planning Commission next week at a public hearing after years of lobbying by farm activists.

Slattery urged island consumers “to take a percentage of their food money to seek out seasonally grown (local) produce.”

“(Farmers) shouldn’t be taking any produce home on Saturday (from the market),” she said. “We should sell out.”

Harmon sells produce through “subscriptions” to regulars – who get an assortment of fresh produce from her farm each week – and at her farm’s roadside stand. Getting regular customers is key.

“If a person’s going to stick with a farm and try to (come) on a regular basis, it helps even everything out,” Harmon said.

Phillips urges people to attend the farmer’s market, but is also grateful to his neighbors.

He appreciates their forbearance, as a farmer does not have regular 9 to 5 work hours and may occasionally cause the puff of manure odor to escape when cleaning out the barn.

“Everyone’s clear that Bainbridge is not going to be an agricultural society, but there’s a critical mass needed to farm,” said Phillips, citing fellow farmers who share advice and equipment.

What keeps farmers going against the odds?

At one point, Slattery says, she waited tables to support her farming activities.

“I love my work so much I’d find a way to do it,” she said.

Staff writer Douglas Crist contributed to this report.