Everything I Needed to Know about Good Stewardship I Learned from My Grandparents

Good asset management doesn’t cost, it pays. This truth is often missed by corporate leaders who think that asset management is something business has to afford. The hard lessons my grandparents practiced on the land are a model for everyone who needs to do more with less.

When I was young(er), I spent several weeks each summer on my grandparents’ farm in Northwest Ohio, where I received my first lessons in stewardship. My Grandma Lila planted a big fruit and vegetable garden each spring, bringing an enormous amount of fresh food to our summer meals. Working to get every bit from her effort, she attentively watered and weeded her bean vines, carrots, lettuce, squash, potatoes, kohlrabi, melon, cucumbers, and my personal favorite, sun-ripened tomatoes. She knew exactly how many plantings it would take to produce the food the family needed for summer eating and canning, and planted just that number and no more. What accidentally came in overabundance, she gave away to friends and passers by like the great mounds of melon that she would stack by the road for anyone to take. 

My brother and I helped pull and pick the things we wanted to eat each day from the garden. Some, we ate right there on the spot, even a little dirty. The meals were so fresh and good, and the veggies were mostly served raw and salted. For dessert we would slice the melons, salt and pepper them, then devour the slices in big, drippy bites. The peelings, rinds, and root tops were always thrown back into the garden where they would soon rot and put nutrients back into the soil for next year.

My Grandfather Elmer was a soybean and corn farmer, and his day began early. Elmer’s strategy: beat the sun, take care of the soil, tend to your equipment, plan for the future, and treat your friends like family. The neighboring farmers, mostly good friends, shared farming ideas, planting techniques, equipment, and selling power. These children of the Great Depression understood money, and how having more of it required making do and spending less. 

Sadly, my grandmother passed away several years ago but my grandfather is still living, in his nineties, and supported by his own means. What lessons did Elmer and Lila teach me about business?

1. Plan your work with a very long view.
2. Almost everything can be reused for something.
3. Produce (buy) and use only what you need.
4. Nurture the environment for future harvests.
5. Share and borrow when necessary.
6. Be generous when you can.

Talking about good stewardship is a current business fashion, but for practical purposes, I could have taken no better graduate course on running a profitable, ethical, green business than my summers on one northwest Ohio farm.