#FarmHerOntario: Charlotte Reaburn
Did you know that 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer? Join us throughout the year as we spotlight our #FarmHerOntario farmers to showcase the important role women grain farmers play in our food system. This month, Charlotte Reaburn from Reaburn Farms talks about her choice to reconnect to grain farming after 15 years working off the farm.
There is no simple answer to why anyone farms. In my father’s case I used to tell people it is a calling. He lives and breathes farming. I looked at the relentlessness of that as a teenager and decided to go to college for something else. I didn’t realize then how much being a farm kid had already shaped me. Even though I worked off farm for 15 years, I never really left the farm. I still used the lessons I learned there on a daily basis and I still helped out there during busy seasons.
It all came together when I had kids. My job was downsized and I started working at the farm more and more. It gave me the freedom to have my children with me during the day, to not spend any more time behind a desk, and still contribute to my family. Now that I am older, I can see more rewards than sacrifices.
I am a little bit of everything on the farm. My children aren’t grown yet, so I don’t put in the same hours that my sister does. This means that she or my dad will take the long-haul jobs like planting. I do a lot of the support work such as bringing seed, prepping wagons and augers (device used to lift grain), washing and fueling equipment, etc. I fix a lot of little things that cost us time the longer they go unfixed.
My role in the farming community is more of a supporting role. We try to be good neighbours and help where we can. Sometimes this means loaning equipment or having parts on hand for after-hour breakdowns. Sometimes it means being able to offer understanding and reassurance that stress and bad luck are universal and we are all just doing our best. We try to buy our supplies locally and do what we can to support the strengths of our area. It’s a lot of simple small things like taking our antique tractors to the fairs or giving the snowmobile trail access to go through our farms.
There are days when I don’t enjoy farming at all (usually when it is forty below). On those days, it feels like you are never going to accomplish anything and by the time you are ready to go it is either dark or raining. But when you keep working and keep trying, there are also days when you get to say, “I fixed that”, “I got that field in before the rain”, “I solved that problem,” or, “my kids watched me do it and now they know they can do it too.”
Those are the days when you realize you are perfectly happy to have put in the long hours because you get to end the day sitting on a tailgate with your family, eating cold church supper takeout, smelling fresh earth in the warm breeze, and preparing to start a whole new adventure tomorrow.
