“Sustainability is an act of love.” These words projected on the screen behind Melody Walker Brook as she spoke of seeds, ceremony, relationship, and reciprocity. I’d gone to the NOFA-VT Winter Conference to speak in three different sessions, but I was most excited to listen. Melody, an Abenaki artist, educator, and activist, was giving the …
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” ~ Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac Every summer and fall we visit other farms to harvest fruit: strawberries, blueberries, and apples being at …
5 Meaningful Ways to Grow A Connection to the Land & Your Food Read More »
“How do you do it all?” she asked. We were setting up next to each other at the farmers market when my fellow vendor posed the question with a note of defeat in her voice. It startled and surprised me, and for a split second, I thought the question had to be for someone …
How to do it all: Finding balance on the family farm Read More »
We arrived to loon calls and eagle flights, to a family of crows cawing each morning in the pines along the shore; to red squirrels venturing out to acorns at the end of oaks, branches flexing down, down, as paws reach for nut. Mornings in Maine, like at home, start with tea and coffee, …
How To Take A Vacation When You Have a Small Farm Read More »
We bought our land in June 2012, and told everyone we weren’t going to move here until the following spring. “That’s very responsible of you,” our lawyer said at the closing. “If it were me I wouldn’t be able to help myself from moving right away.” I smiled inside, feeling very responsible indeed. After all, …
Small Steps & Giant Leaps: The Most Important Lesson For Starting A Farm Read More »
In 2010 I flew from Vermont to Alaska to work for Calypso Farm and Ecology Center as a School Garden Supervisor. The 6 months I spent farming in interior Alaska changed my life. All of the sudden, I knew it was possible to not just farm, but to do it in a way that grows …
