I think wanting to do this is really the secret to farming in general because this is hard work and the world we live in today almost looks down on people who do hard work…but unless you have gotten the satisfaction that comes from doing this sort of work, you have no idea how spectacular it can be.
Eliot Coleman
We became inspired to grow our own food after seeing first hand the awesome power of deep nutrition to heal after an illness. This outcome led to a study of ancestral diets, growing food, and soil health and then, almost inevitably, permaculture and regenerative agriculture.
Healing thru a therapeutic diet taught us so much about the importance, power, and possibility of food. It has been a huge catalyst for good in our lives. Ancestral diet knowledge and deep nutrition were topics that had not previously been a priority and now had become of vital import.
In 2010, we found Nourishing Traditions and then read The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Which led to Joel Salatin’s work and ethic on raising a family, growing healthy food, and feeding others. We dove into writings and workshops on growing bio-intensive and permaculture. We started gardening every inch of our landscape, planted a forage lawn, captured our water in rain-barrels, and put chickens in the front yard. The neighbors and local newspaper took note of the transformation and many people stopped to chat and share their garden seeds and growing stories. (FACT: A well tended garden is an attraction to all humans!)
When the opportunity presented itself, and having been primed with the knowledge of how to grow and prepare nutrient dense healing foods (and that it’s not only about what you eat but what your body can easily digest), we purchased land and I furthered our study of holistic management and regenerative agriculture but now with a really big sandbox in which to apply our knowledge. We worked to learn ancestral and local knowledge to trial and grow ecologically diverse systems, with ruminants moving over and grazing the forage, cultivars of diverse fruit, storage, perennial & medicinal crops, and an array of natural craft materials.
This is quite a narrow simplification of our path but explains the spark that kindled the fire to grow the healthiest food, and collaborate with this knowledge now having a place to put it into practice. A place to grow, to learn, to teach, and to restore this bit of land and humans, as a regenerative ecosystem.
Now, on this land, we have the capacity to weave many techniques from various schools of thought. We observe, we try, we fail, we change, we question, we learn, we succeed and repeat. WE SHARE and WE EAT. To this day we are repeating these cycles and each passing season educates us.
Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.
Theodore Roosevelt
Holistically tending and stewarding the life growing here fills us with a deep satisfaction from knowing this experience is shared with willing others on so many levels; from the vital reality of nutrient density to the nourishment of our role in being a valued part of these natural systems that can be thriving providers of abundance. We are building an ecological experience for income, profit even to be able to continue to nourish and empower others with skills to also grow and thrive. It’s not yet clear if our small scale and purpose can sustain us but we still strive to share, sell, barter, and donate what we learn and can produce to continue to grow on these few acres for our family, our volunteers, our guests, our neighbors, and our community.
When medical emergencies occur (as they did for us in 2019, 2020), fires devastate (CZU fires of 2020), floods ravage (three times in 2023), vital roads fail (2023), pandemics shut things down (2021-2023), financial markets crash; thru it all I knew we’d be fine AND we were in a position to help others. Thru all these challenges, we have delivered food to the housebound, housed families of evacuees, cared for and adopted evacuated animals, hosted garden and farming students, and provided food & other donations many times over to local individuals thru both organizations and privately in each year.
As a farmstead, anything we have in abundance beyond what our family, farm, volunteers, and guests consume is offered to our member community. As an experience, we can share various levels of participation, education, and immersion in what we consider this most diverse puzzle and rewarding endeavor. This is how we are changing and growing a more connected, resilient, and caring planet. We can’t do all that we want but we can, with intention, do something and so here we are.