Being a peasant (in the sense of someone working in the land, not as the subject to some feudal lord) was much more free and far less repetitive than being a factory worker (or an office drone for that matter).

People also don't understand how many free hours those people had (because a lot of farm work is seasonal).

Farmer in the winter sounds like an OK job as long as you had enough food stored away.

Depends on the place. The mediterranean winter (which I am aware of) in places like Spain, France, Italy, Greece, etc, was not that much of a deal.