Forget Poe and Shakespeare - Tom Murtha prefers potatoes to poetry and soybeans to soliloquies.
Murtha, a former College student, turned in his textbooks for tractors eight years ago when he set out to farm his way across the country.
An English major slated to graduate in 1995, Murtha spent harvesting seasons in Connecticut, Oregon, Delaware and New Jersey before settling down on his own plot of land in Upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, not too far from his (almost) alma mater.
It's a unique tale among Penn students, but one that is not as uncommon as it might seem.
"In our society, there's still a bit of that Jeffersonian agrarianism that farming is a noble occupation," said John Baker, administrator of the Beginning Farm Center and coordinator of the National Farm Transition Network, two organizations dedicated to developing the next generation of farmers.
"It may be a myth, but mythology is very powerful," he said.
It's more than myth for Murtha, who now farms at the 14-acre Blooming Glen Farm. On the fields, he and his partner, Tricia Borneman, cultivate more than 75 varieties of organic vegetables, herbs and flowers.
Murtha says he chose this life because his college studies were sometimes just "moving papers," while agriculture is "rewarding because you have a tangible result."
Farming, as opposed to conventional out-of-college jobs, is "an appealing way to exist," he said while citing the proximity of his work and home, the physicality of farming and the chance to commune with nature.
While director of Penn alumni Elise Betz has never heard of another English-major-turned-organic-vegetable-farmer, she said that with 290,000 living alumni, there are plenty of Penn graduates in nontraditional jobs.
"They could be just about anything," Betz said, pointing to a female alumna who became a firefighter.
Although Murtha elected not to complete his degree program because of the language requirement, he still values his time at Penn.
"A liberal-arts education teaches you how to think," he said. "Being an English major at Penn didn't prepare me for anything specific in life, but the Penn experience prepared me to go out and meet the challenges out there."
One of those challenges: money.
"If you ever want to blow a ton of money, just start a farm," Murtha said. "A 20-acre farm might cost you a million bucks before you've even planted a seed."
But, Baker said, college-educated farmers have a leg up in financial matters because of their training in other fields.
"The key always comes down to good business management," he said.
Going organic, like Murtha's farm, is a twist on traditional agriculture that new-to-the-field, college-educated farmers often embrace.
Not "bound by the definition of farming based on where they grew up," they are free to explore innovative techniques, Baker said.
And besides, Murtha joked, "I get to drive tractors, which is always fun."
