Young man sows a future farming
Kevin Jarosinski checks out his chicken coop. • Photos by Tye Cypher
By Tom Victoria
While many twentysomethings are chatting on social media or finding spots to chill, Kevin Jarosinski is tilling the ground and feeding livestock.
Kevin, 29, a first-generation farmer in Western Pennsylvania, doesn’t have time for such things.
“I really have no social life,” he said.
Kevin has no Facebook or Instagram accounts, bu has no regrets, either.
“I’m very happy about where I’m at,” he said.
“I’m very happy about where I’m at”
Kevin started farming with 12 chickens when he was 16. Now, he has cattle, sheep, ducks, rabbits and turkeys on roughly 40 acres in Buffalo Township, Butler County. When Kevin was a teen, he could not predict the extent of his dream being realized.
“I did not know how it would go or to the extent,” he said.
Kevin has to put in 13-hour days to keep the farm running.
“There’s no time clock,” he said.
Kevin is maintaining a one-man operation.
“If I get sick or injured, I’m in major trouble,” he said.
Kevin greets every visitor to his farm with a smile.
Even after dusk arrives, Kevin still has work to do. All the paperwork tied to operating a farm must be done. His time on the computer is researching farming techniques, government regulations and other topics young adults may find dry reading material.
According to Kevin, a farmer cannot be let external forces be a distraction.
“You have to be grounded,” he said.
Another key component for Kevin is remaining positive. People are always asking why he is always happy. Kevin said his attitude is tied to his religious faith.
“This is a ministry,” he said about his interactions with others.
He quoted the Bible passage in Romans 12:12: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
Kevin rides a tractor down his rustic field.
Kevin employs no chemicals in the fields or drugs in his livestock - a key selling point to his clientele.
“Many of my customers are younger,” he said.
Kevin adds grass to the livestock’s diet, which many farms restrict to grain, to make the meat taste sweeter. The chickens sold for poultry are kept in mobile coops, so they have access to the grass.
Selling an all-natural product protects Kevin from economic impacts to the farming industry caused by tariffs and imports.
“That doesn’t affect me at all,” he said.
However, the farm has been hit by government restrictions that were in response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, outbreak. Before the chaos started this year, Kevin had a mix of residential and commercial customers.
He lost his wholesale clients, but increased his residential customers to roughly 30.
“I had to reinvent myself,” Kevin said.
He personally delivers to the people in five Western Pennsylvania counties.
“A lot of people appreciate local food,” Kevin said.
He also sells his product to several local restaurants.
Kevin lifts a bale of hay in one of his barns.
Even Kevin’s barns are built the old-fashioned way. He employs an Amish crew from Ohio to construct all of his buildings. The latest addition has been the first level of his and his home, which will eventually become the basement.
Kevin has slowly added structures so as not to go into debt, which is why the rest of the house won’t be erected in the immediate future.
He became interested in agriculture visiting his grandparents, who lived by a farm. The itch never left him.
Despite having a 4.2 grade point average in high school, Kevin was not swayed from pursuing his dream. He said farming is something he was meant to do.
“It’s in your blood,” Kevin said.
His friends are farmers, too, so he spends much of his time with people in older age brackets.
“I don’t have friends my age,” Kevin said.
But that doesn’t bother him.
“It’s a brotherhood,” Kevin said.
He recently married his longtime girlfriend, Jenna, who understands what she signed up for due to her family also being farmers.
“She knows five minutes is actually an hour,” Kevin said.
And there is a glint of a social life.
“I don’t mind going to movies,” Kevin said.