March brings rain and snow and rain again: a mix of mud and ice, of thaw and snap. In one week, we go between 55º and -5º. The next week, we’re back to the mid-30s, with frozen ground and running brooks. Hoar frost holds up layers of pressed leaves, and my footsteps sound hollow, giving …
We woke to another 18 inches of snow yesterday morning, and I spent an hour shoveling out the car and clearing a pathway from our driveway to the house. It’s soft, light snow, and I didn’t mind at all that I was out bending and lifting and pushing. I was happy to do it, in …
I didn’t intend to become a farmer. It happened almost by accident. I graduated from college in 2009 with a degree in Environmental Studies and English, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. What I did know was that I was ready to start eating meat again, after 6 years of vegetarianism; I …
Running an organic farm requires you to deal with compost. Not just deal with compost, but to praise compost. It’s the base of fertility at Good Heart Farmstead, and without it—without the manure turned soil—we’d be left trying to coax vegetables out of acidic, nutrient deficient soil. In short, it wouldn’t go so well. Compost isn’t …
Best Case Scenario: Give Everything Away (and compost) Read More »
The Beginning In January of 2013, I was pregnant and taking a course called Whole Farm Planning, trying to learn how to run a business. I knew how to sow seeds, prepare beds, transplant, manage weeds, set up irrigation, and harvest. I knew how to farm. I just didn’t know how to run a business. So I was …
Welcome, friends, to The Good Heart Life: A life in progress, made with sweat and muscle and gentleness and love. A life constantly evolving amidst finished and unfinished projects, and projects yet to be started. A life that turns with the seasons and seeds and harvests. A life that roots into soil as it stretches to …
