Story Summary

“For A Season” follows the life of the family behind Jireh Family Farm in Durham, North Carolina. After losing their brother to colon cancer, Valerie and Immanuel Jarvis co-founded Jireh Family Farm with the intentions diversifying the food sources in their community. Faced with the harsher realities of being a small family farm, the Jarvis’ find themselves leading separate lives. With one daughter off in college and his wife, Valerie Jarvis, working as a travel nurse in the off season, Immanuel is left to manage the farm by himself. This story explores the dynamic realities of the family behind Jireh Family Farm during the off season.
As the farm remains enters the greater part of the off season, the Jarvis’ remain hopeful that this season full of sacrifices, too shall pass. “Nature tends to tell us how we should live. We have periods of dormancy and periods where we are active,” Immanuel Jarvis says. “We should live our lives that way,” Immanuel Jarvis says.

“It’s faith that got us to where we are,” Immanuel Jarvis said. Immanuel reflects on his life and the sacrifices he makes for his family during the farm’s off season.

Without the readily available help of his wife during the off season, the production of Jireh Family Farms slows. “Usually, we have about 30 chickens… The process would go a lot faster if my wife was here to help [clean] them,” Immanuel Jarvis says.

The vision throughout the seasons remains the same. It is one of sustainability for the Jarvis family and the surrounding communities. “We host guest, summer camps, and classes to teach the community how to better take care of the environment. In turn they take better care of themselves,” Immanuel Jarvis says. Immanuel checks out members Jack and Jill youth club organization after a tour of teaching them the ins and outs of farm life.

Immanuel Jarvis finds himself tilling what will be the legacy of his family as a 4-acre family farm. Despite the hardships that come with the solidarity on the farm, Jarvis finds the sacrifices his family makes this off season worth it. “It’s just me right now during the week. I usually get up around 8 or 9 to start feeding the animals. It’s a slower process but I learned to manage it on my own,” Immanuel Jarvis says.

The farm started six years ago. “My wife wanted to start the farm and I told her lets go. Let’s do it,” Immanuel Jarvis says. Jarvis left his previous job to support their vision. He continues to work today to provide for his family.

Family is the foundation of the Jireh Family Farm. They play together just as much as they work. Valerie Jarvis shares a playful moment with her daughter, Mikayla, currently is planning to return to the farm to work after she finishes her agriculture degree at Kentucky State University.

One of the many roles Immanuel plays is his role as a family man. He starts to prepare for Thanksgiving dinner with his family. “I gotta prep everything for thanksgiving…Usually cooking for my wife for thanksgiving is easy. She likes simple dinners,” Immanuel Jarvis says.

It’s a family affair that involves all the Jarvis’ along with family and friends during the Thanksgiving Holiday. Immanuel finds joy in these moments when he is no longer feeling the solidarity of the farm life but instead a sense of unity with his family. “We just love hosting and being together. Every year we have someone relatively new with us that we just met,” Immanuel Jarvis says.

The Jarvis Family Farm was created to offer another resource for sustainability in the community. It started because of family. “My brother died of colon cancer, and we wanted to change our lives for the better after that, so we did,” Valerie Jarvis said.

Working on the farm is economically challenging. In order to make ends meet, Valerie prepares to leave for her off season job as a travel nurse, after the holidays, in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. What seems like a normal farm life for the Jarvis’ makes life moments surreal.

Immanuel and Valerie Jarvis reflect on the reality setting in during this year’s off season. It tests the boundaries of their family dynamics and relationships, leaving them with the notion that time is fleeting. Valerie returns home to Durham, NC on the weekends.

Working on the farm is economically challenging. To make ends meet, Valerie prepares to leave for her off season job as a travel nurse, after the holidays, in Myrtle Beach, North Carolina. What seems like a normal farm life for the Jarvis’ makes life moments surreal.

Immanuel and Jarvis sit in the driveway, as Valerie prepares to leave for her job. “It’s a mutual decision. She’s positioned herself for a high wage. The first three years were just starting the business. But after the pandemic the sales started to go up. We can’t maintain the sales as well during the wintertime, so she decided to go back into nursing,” Immanuel Jarvis says

It is the future that the keeps Immanuel Jarvis motivated as he recognizes this time as only for a season. “Regardless of if you have a business, a wife, a family, God gives you a responsibility to lead and guide,” Immanuel Jarvis says. Immanuel has hopes of expanding the farm with his family in the coming years.