I now have a bit of farming experience. I have worked as a volunteer on two farms, for a total of six weeks. I have weeded, hoed, tilled, transplanted and harvested. There's a lot to be said for this life. You are outside in nature, building up your strength and developing a tan. It's peaceful and soothing. There are no suits, no fluorescent lights and no office politics to be seen anywhere. I miss it just writing this. Alas, winter is coming, so I decided to return to the city until spring. Backpacking from farm to farm in the cold and snow doesn't hold a lot of appeal.
Mind you, farming can be very hard work. Many farmers work 12-hour days, because they don't earn what their labours are worth. Think of it--without farmers most of us would starve to death. Do you think we reward them adequately for their essential service?
Clearly, if you work 12-hour days you'll have very little time to write. So one solution is to subsistence-farm. That is, grow food to eat yourself instead of to sell. You'll greatly reduce your food bill. Then in the winter, when there's no growing to be done, you can do something else to make money. This type of farm is called a homestead. Homesteaders typically work shorter hours than commercial farmers.
As a volunteer, I worked part time, putting in at most 6 hours of physical labour a day. When you're used to living in the city and working at sedentary jobs, unless you are also an athlete, you're better off working part time at first. In time, you can build up the strength to work longer days. One farmer told me it takes about a month.
But on to the main point--is farming a good lifestyle for a part time writer? The answer is, I think so.
Theoretically, farming and writing should be a good balance. One's physical labour, one's mental. Your mind is free to wander and be inventive during the day. In the evening, it's easy to sit down at your writing desk--because you're tired. Whereas if you work at a sedentary job all day, sitting down at your writing desk may be the last thing you want to do. Plus, nature is supposed to inspire writers. That's why writer's retreats are in the country instead of in a hotel downtown. Well, I did indeed write on the farms... but not fiction, which I consider to be my "real" writing. Instead I wrote about my experiences. I think it is difficult to write creatively when you are plunked down in an unfamiliar environment. Your mind is too busy processing everything. Indeed, shortly after I returned to the comfortingly familiar city, I wrote a short story. However, if I or any writer lived on a farm long-term, so that it became home, that writer would no doubt become as creatively prolific there as anywhere.
So my results are inconclusive. Not to worry. I plan to return to farming in the spring.
Want to try farming yourself? One way, the way I used, is to sign up with Willing Workers On Organic Farms (W.W.O.O.F.), an international organization that provides listings of host farms from all over the world, for a small fee. You provide work, the hosts provide room and board. As the name suggests, all the farms are organic, so you don't have to worry about getting icky chemicals on yourself. Another possibility is to advertise your services in a farming publication.