When I look out my kitchen window I can see the kids playing across our mildly rural road with their friends and it’s one of my favorite things about this house. This summer has been full of new kids who recently moved to our neighborhood. There is now a small swarm of children, biking around until the sun goes down. My heart swells remembering my nineties childhood. In a world where children are usually not even seen outside, let alone by themselves without an adult, it gives me great pleasure as a mom to be cultivating the opposite attitude. Children need summers with nothing planned, they need time to be free. That was summer.

Chris and I found work in June and since then we have been catching up on things we put on hold without a steady paycheck. We let the garden go. We cut the grass as little as possible. We tried not to fuss over projects not progressing, easier said than done.

Summer was filled with free instead: trips to the library, meals at home, trades with friends, evening bike rides, time at the river, and of course, lots of animated movies in the middle of those HAWT afternoons. Plus, one big road trip to New York to see my dad, then Vermont to see my Aunt Louise - a success against all odds!

When we told my son we were pregnant with our daughter, the first (and only) question he had was whether he would have to share his room (since we only have a 2-bedroom house). Putting them together has been an inevitable decision since we aren’t building an extension any time soon. Still, we felt bad for our son, being an only child after all these years and now having to share his only private space with his almost-3-year-old sister, but much to our surprise, they have loved being together. Eloise is finally sleeping through the night too.

As of yesterday, we are back to getting them both up and out the door. Thinking of ways to make this easier, usually involves food prep at night or baking things that can be easily consumed ‘running out the door’. So, the last time we went to the library, we loaded up on some cooking and baking books that looked interesting for inspiration. This week, I plan to bake my end-of-summer anxiety away and celebrate making it through several months of real togetherness.

(Below is a subscriber-only recipe for double chocolate zucchini muffins!)

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Looking back at old photos, I realize that much of what existed on this property still does – the main barn, the hand-built outbuildings, our 1950’s brick ranch – because we have repurposed so much, but this place looks completely different in many ways.

Our house and farm sat on the market for over a year with no offers – there was black mold in the basement, severely eroded areas marked by red clay, a crumbling brick ranch that had not been updated since the 1970’s – major work and effort was required to make it liveable. We said Y E S anyway (despite the disgust from some family members) because it was the perfect amount of acreage for us to learn on.

However, the land had not been used by animals in a long time, since the farmer we bought this place from was an old man, and in recent years, had sold all his donkeys. Because of this, parts of the land were either overgrown or overgrazed, an imbalance from not enough rest while also letting the animals only eat what they prefer.

More aggressive, undesirable weeds like pokeweed, bitter Sorel, horse nettle and thistle sprout up when not being managed, or out competed by native grasses. Unchecked invasive vines like bittersweet, wrap their sturdy tendrils around native trees, like the Black Walnut, for height, choking the life from them slowly. Bramble bushes take over and become impossible to cut back. The forest always tries to take over an unused pasture. Now after years of active grazing, observing, managing and learning, we have turned the land around to look like a fertile ecosystem.

Collectively, we spent about a year or more demolishing a maze of internal locust wood fencing that had seen better days. After years of rotational grazing with an electric net, I am now redrawing some of those former paddock areas with more hard fencing. In an effort to make our lives easier, we are following his layout ideas on how to hold animals. His out-buildings have proven well constructed and perfectly located, so we have altered them for our own use. The low barn, for example, faces south and is situated under the only tree line on the back of the property, so during the heat of the day, the building is relieved by shade.

Here in the mountains, the challenge with grazing is the topography and steep slopes. Everything Chris and I had looked up about farming, showed flat land where you could pull any moveable structure or temporary fencing along pretty effortlessly. Even though we don’t have a lot of acreage, we have spent years figuring out how best to work on hillsides without looking like noobs, utilizing what we have.

The sheep will stick their heads through hot electric netting to get grass on the other side, even though we just moved them to a fresh paddock (it is mainly the lambs that do this, not our older ladies). We have lost lambs two years in a row because they then get tangled up and strangle themselves. This is one of the main reasons why we are eliminating the netting and going with permanent fencing. To a sheep, the grass is always greener on the other side, but to us, the grass just needs to be cultivated.

We can forget how far we have come – from knowing absolutely nothing about farming to immersing our lives around feeding ruminants – and we have caught ourselves second guessing our choices in times of stress. I must remember that we chose this life and there is way more depth to it than surface level.

Wild birds raise their families in our backyard, at a time where I have friends asking me how to get birds to come to theirs. Black rat snakes silently patrol for vermin in the feed room. Frogs trill from the wetter lower parts of the pasture at night. Spiders, beetles and wasps are allowed in our gardens. At dusk, lightning bugs emerge early in the season and bats grace us with their presence.

This farm is alive and responding positively to our human interference. It is possible to cultivate ecological stability as an animal farmer, to practice the balancing act between us and them, while also being productive. Agriculture literally means growing food within a culture. There is no culture when we kill everything.

As small farmers, we don’t need to use pesticides to grow crops, or give growth boosters to our animals, or contaminate the earth with chemicals – that is for corporate agribusiness.

We have recently recovered after another drought that was the full length of spring, and here we are in summer, not bringing in hay simply by managing when it was time for the sheep to move. More obviously, I am feeding our small flock for ‘free’. When the rams go to the butcher in a few months, I am following along with the end of the growing season. The flock will return to our core ewes again, purposely reduced to a smaller number to align with warm season grasses dying.

We can make do with what we have been given on this earth. We can apply common sense to farming, instead of being driven by endless profits. The grass on our farm is plenty green from basic husbandry practices, and that is good enough for us (just don’t tell the sheep, they will complain).

These ‘extra hours’ can be put towards working on personal projects, enjoying slow time, finishing a longer book, getting to that movie you have been wanting to watch, doing a puzzle that usually sits in a box. My son and husband have been playing board games in the heat of the afternoon. The day encourages us to get physical labor done earlier, allowing slower more relaxing time later, followed by a brief stint of chores before bed. We go to bed tired and I love that.

July is also the height of grass growth (if it’s raining and it finally is), it declines steadily as the sun shines less and less. This is the time of year when we don’t feel like we have enough animals; the grass is plenty and the property looks on the verge of being overgrown.

However, I recently offloaded some animals – we sold our duck flock and lost a bunch of chickens (some superstars like Mr. Pencil and Bebe, whom we’ve had forever). The lambs will be leaving in August/September if I can find buyers, the rams in November for the freezer. Regardless of the sudden green abundance, we decided we need more time for other things, not just a million animals. We want to be good caretakers and have the time to mean that.

How to get a project started

Both my husband and I are guilty of procrastination. We can manage each other, better than we can manage ourselves. Prioritizing projects then, is the first step. Holistically being on the ‘same page’ matters, because if not, there will be a power struggle on ‘whose stuff comes first’. We have realized recently that starting is actually the easiest step, counter intuitive to what everyone says about it being the hardest part. People that have attention issues like us, can start a million projects, but never finish any of them. Have a ‘master project list’, and prioritize which project comes first, for the sake of your marriage.

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How many of you have ever had a word for the year? I have done this several years in a row, but hadn’t until now, been able to think of one for 2026. Better late than never, our family has finally come up with one – which is PROACTIVE. However, all these months of not finding contract work, while watching our bank account drop lower and lower, has made us feel anything but that, so we are exploring why that is.

We are realizing in this new age of AI – which is combing through, filtering and prematurely rejecting applications and resumes – that we need to reach out to actual people we know and who know us. We need to stop doing what we have ‘been told’ (blindly applying to job after job) and instead be cultivating relationships in the real world, all the time (even when you don’t ‘need something from someone’). We need to be maintaining our work-life, just like we maintain our home-life, in fact, it is one and the same since we work at home. We are being constantly reminded of the need to be creative, instead of just hanging on for dear life.

A friend recently gave me a self-help style book that I devoured in a few sittings called, Are You Up for The Challenge? by Rod Hairston. It is primarily about changing old habits, while reimagining your life in new ways. In the chapter called Survive a Hurricane, he talks about 3 types of people: the Proactors (who decide they want to change before they are forced to), the Reactors (who wait until life it about to flatten them, and then they change), and the Stagnators (who refuse to change, only to get buried by change eventually).

“When you choose to be proactive, you’ll be able to benefit from the change when it happens. If you choose to keep your eyes off the horizon so you can pretend that you don’t know that change is coming, then when it does come, and it will, you’ll be forced to deal with it reactively.” He says that the first step is positioning yourself to appreciate that change and benefit from it by stepping ‘outside of your comfort zone intelligently’ before life’s circumstances force you to leave it.

Of course this is all true, you will have a better life if you are proactive with your resources, but it is also easier said than done. If you are a person who is in the habit of primarily reacting to life, this change is monumental.

One thing that has helped with being proactive, is daring to dream about possibility, expanding what could be, creating a ‘bigger picture’ in my brain in order to come up with next steps. Proactivity takes foresight, you have to be someone who can see the future, but also practically plan for that success somehow.

Some successes we had this past spring were inviting people here. Eloise’s preschool was the first to plan a school-wide visit with us on a beautiful Friday afternoon in early April. As the hour of their arrival came, I stood at our farm gate up at the road, ready to greet a few people. But much to my surprise, a good portion of the school showed up, and all at the same time in a car pool line. Turns out, we have plenty of parking along the road, where people can pull safely along our front farm fence. People brought lunches, blankets, younger siblings, grandparents, hats, sunglasses and lots of questions. All the worry we had about hosting, melted away when we saw people’s excitement over what we were doing.

Two weeks later, we hosted my son’s school, which was a kindergarten to second grade class. We enjoyed having curious minds running around and diving deep into animal care. I had the energetic class spread cover crop (I dumped a 50 pound bag of sunflower seeds into a cement-mixing tray and had them run relay races into the pasture with solo cups). I also had them collect eggs, throw the birds some feed, touch the face of a nervous lamb, make a tool run to the lower barn, play with wool and combs. Most of these kids had never had an up-close experience with a large farm animal, let alone ever stepping foot on a farm.

Welcoming people here, has shown me specifically what I need to do next, but I needed to get outside my comfort zone by inviting them in the first place. This is why I wanted to farm – to learn how much I don’t know, to work out my own social anxiety, to put time into doing something with passion, only to share it – that is the whole point. I am not just farming animals, I am farming myself and my community. I want this place to be for others, just as much as it has been for us.

I have learned that I need to create my life, simply with what I have, and I have so much. “What you create for yourself with what you have in front of you is completely up to you.” Farming is about living, expanding who you are, and cultivating real reasons to get up in the morning.

Six years after we bought this place, I am finally able to work on a vision that is more vibrant than I ever could have imagined. I am giving myself permission to grow, to get more comfortable with who I am and how I want to live. I am letting my thoughts turn into reality and that is a powerful thing.

Extra (paid) work at Roamly Getaways

On a morning where I probably had too much coffee, I posted a mini-rant on Facebook about how hard it was to find remote, part-time, contract work. A friend reached out, offering me a job working as a cleaner and property ‘overseer’ for her vacation rental space. The rentals are vintage airstream campers, set intentionally in carved out spaces in the woods, near the French Broad river. It is only 15 minutes from my house, the work is physically intense but flexible, and I can choose to add hours later / grow the job.

So far, I am really enjoying being there and just putting my head down to get things done. There is a lot of time to think while I am there and I like that best of all. Also, I am selfishly getting a crash course in the reality of owning ‘passive income’ (surprise! it’s not passive as all!) and dealing with hospitality issues. I would love to eventually host a vacation rental and offer friends + family a place to stay, this will probably end up being our vintage Shasta camper in the sheep pasture. In the meantime, I am learning, absorbing, enjoying working with my hands and using my whole body again.

Other announcements

I wanted to tell everyone that our farm now has an Amazon wish list! This is a direct way for you to support our farm that is not just throwing cash at us (also welcome) or buying products from us. These are not just nice-to-have things, but seriously needed things, such as a First Aid kit and auto-coop doors, just to name a few.

I am currently working with a local screen printer in Asheville for Small Potatoes swag canvas tote bags! This is our first real merch (omg squee!) but these will also be give-aways for our supporters on Substack! We are currently working on a farm t-shirt and a zine-style book about hillside farming in the mountains.

Some of my subscribers have really shown support over the last few months, and I want to take this opportunity to say T H A N K Y O U from the bottom of my heart! Every time I get an email letting me know someone has donated to this ‘cause’, I know people believe in me. Just know that I am working on returning the favor soon, in terms of showing appreciation to my supporters. Thank you again. <3 Alison

Follow Small Potatoes on Facebook for our farm products and updates.

Our family has also been on a ‘working drought’, living without a paycheck for over 6 months. Carefully pacing ourselves, we have been purposefully living on less.

Recently, I have been putting a lot of time into thinking about this topic because, against all odds, we have never been happier. We have had time together, to learn about ourselves, to appreciate this life we have chosen. Even though we have been struggling to find work, we are in a more ‘real’ place than we’ve ever been.

I raise animals because I believe we have lost touch with ‘the why of life’. Why bother creating new life in these times? Why bother growing something from nothing?

A few weeks ago, we decided to finally use our incubator to try hatching some chicken eggs while we still have roosters. Out of the 20+ eggs that I put into the incubator, only ONE egg turned into a chick. This chick has been hangin out in my laundry room and on my shoulder for a month now. We have these successes, they are small, and no one sees them, but I feel them, they accumulate inside of me. Now I know how hard it is to get a chick to hatch, let alone have it not be a rooster, let alone it lives long enough to lay one egg.

This time we are currently living through, where we only prioritize money, infinite growth, admire/elevate insanely rich/valueless/wreckless men, while watching many people we know struggle to *pay a grocery bill*, makes it difficult to think of doing anything else but making money. Everything seems to be all about money.

What I have learned about farming is that there are many ways to be wealthy, not just financial ways. Every day, I am laying my hands on real, tangible things, which I was either responsible for growing or making or ideating.

Coming from working in the ruthless digital universe, where everything is an emergency but none of it really matters, farming has been an awakening for me. I am not suggesting replacing work-that-makes-money, just that farming can be a part-time practice that enriches your existence, while possibly making ‘extra’ money on the side which can be put towards life’s inevitable many expenses.

Here are some other ‘wealths’ that are not financial:

Social wealth

Moving to a small rural town in the mountains, far from a major city such as Atlanta, was a several-year adjustment for us. I see the same neighbors every single day, rain or shine, walking their dogs and wondering when I will appear outside again. I had forgotten what small-town intimacy was like; being from a small town myself, I had simply spent too much time in the center of a city.

Since our move coincided during the pandemic, Chris and I have had to get over our social anxiety in order to be part of something larger – a real community. Our immediate network may be significantly smaller in size compared to the one we had back in Atlanta, but my gosh, it is far more intimate. Friends really check in here, they stop by and call. We may not have close family nearby, but we have close relationships that have sustained us through hard times (such as through Hurricane Helene when we had no power for over 2 weeks). The trust, energy, and vulnerability that we pour into our people, is coming back to us tenfold, and it feels so good.

Time wealth

If everyone is *too busy* to connect – leave the house, set up a date, check in on each other – then we have failed ourselves, collectively. Chris and I both turn 43 this year. Being middle-aged, I truly understand that time is an unrenewable resource. We are refusing to sit on our phones, to scroll infinitely, to let our attention be part of some tech companies business plan, to subscribe to everything, to let our attention be divided between real life and being entertained. Living presently is all you have. Tomorrow is never guaranteed. Leave time in your schedule for others.

Physical wealth

Daily chores have been at the center of keeping our bodies and minds in check. I am able to notice, from day to day, how my mood has changed, how my body feels, how my attitude is effecting my progress, etc. Chris and I came from sitting in front of a computer screen when we moved to our farm, so we were more than willing to do everything manually and exhaust ourselves.

Now we are trying to save our physical energy for things we prioritize at the top of the list. We can feel ourselves aging and bending over is hard after 40. We have been pouring more exertion into hard fencing and building projects, instead of hauling water or rotating the animals.

During June, fresh veg awaits to be used in dinner, a fragrant herb bouquet sits on my kitchen counter, along with bowls of collected chicken + duck eggs. Meat we raised ourselves fills our freezer for the grilling season. I share abundance with neighbors on a weekly basis. Chris and I have never been in better shape and it is noticeable that the farms feeds us right.

Spiritual wealth

There is an old adage that says “if you have livestock, you have deadstock,” a saying that sounds crass but it is true. These are animals you passionately care for, but they also live outside. If you have enough of them, they die constantly and in lot of interesting ways. They have very short lives, sometimes horrible (natural) deaths, but every second of the day, they live presently. And also, never have I felt closer to seeing God, then watching an animal die in my arms.

Their lives are truly well lived. When I stare into the eyes of one of my sheep, they see me, I see them, we are together in this moment here on earth and alive. These animals need me, simply because we domesticated them, but I need them a whole lot more.

This idea, that real wealth depends on who you ask, allows you to count your blessings, and all the beauty in your life that makes it worth living.

After 5 years I have been questioning if we should keep this going. Spring was full of stress. After my last essay on preparing for lambing, our mountains (and quite a bit of the southeast) was riddled with wild fires followed by tornadoes. There were whole days when all I did was watch the weather news, silently obsessing how to move the animals and take belongings we didn’t want burned. When the fires happened in late March - our sheep were pretty far-along with their pregnancy. I would watch them standing out in the smog, panting. We have not only spent money on these animals but have years invested in them.

Our second lambing season

Despite mother nature throwing tantrums, our second lambing season was a success! All our ewes did great with birthing, bonding and nursing. We even got a surprise lamb from a ewe that we had termed ‘aunt Tina’ because we figured she was infertile - her adorable all-white ram lamb (Alberto) made the final number #10.

6 ewe lambs + 4 ram lambs = 10 new lambs that make up our temporary flock.
We noticed that our 3 first-time mothers were in a bit of shock after birth. One ewe never really ‘got over’ giving birth and is now trying to escape her ram lamb daily. The farmer realizes they have no idea what is happening to them…not that motherhood has to be any harder than it already is.

The other 3 ewe mothers - who are now grandmothers - gave birth and had those lambs like a boss. They seemed to remember the experience from two years ago and had no issues. All of a sudden, their lambs appeared and they were up looking for food immediately. Anyway, meet our newest farm members!

Our naming theme this year was - famous southeastern storms!
From the top left - Ivan (ram lamb born to Clove)
Fred + Irma (a set of twins born to Biddy)
Camille + Florence (a set of twin ewes born to Anne)
Zeta + Hazel (a set of twin ewes born to Itty Bitty)
Bertha + Hugo (a set of twins born to Pepper)
Alberto (our surprise ram lamb born to aunt Tina)

We now have close to 20 sheep, which means that we need to make hard decisions about who stays and who goes, and if we are going to keep one of the ram lambs for breeding next year. One of the benefits of having a small amount of land is - that it makes me more selective/practical. The land dictates how many animals it can hold (also known as ‘animal units’), regardless of my husbandry practices. It won’t let me outgrow myself before I am ready to handle more chaos - the grass don’t lie.

Some branding for the farm

I am happy to announce that we have a new logo! Designed and carefully hand-drawn by a lovely local designer in which I met on facebook. Her hand-done aesthetic resonated with me and it has been a pleasure working with someone that is not my husband. The logo had to ultimately be a useable rubber stamp which I am excited to have made soon. Her work will help me stay consistent/easier to find online.

Eventually, I am planning on becoming a meatsuite farm - which if you don’t know - is a platform to connect meat eaters with local farms growing good meat. People have the opportunity to purchase larger amounts of meat (or ‘bulk meat’) including half/whole animals - which is starting to become my passion.

If you are looking for local sheep meat that is raised thoughtfully on grass - give us a LIKE on facebook, follow along with us here or reach out to be added to our email list for future meat sales!

T H A N K Y O U for following, reading, liking, sharing and growing with me.

Here in the Southern Appalachian mountains – spring is here, ready or not. After a spot of rain, things are greening up quickly and the animals (and children) are getting excited. My quiet days of relaxing and pouring over winter webinars and baking recipes has come to a sudden end.

That’s OK – because I have some exciting things in the works. One, is working with an awesome local designer and outsourcing my graphic needs. I can not wait to see what she comes up with!

Another is being part of a post-Helene cohort of newer farmers in a business program called Journey person through Organic Growers school. This gives me the time/opportunity to work on a direct-to-consumer meat sales program with an experienced mentor. It is a whole year of deep diving into holistic financial planning, enterprise development, and direct marketing opportunities, to name a few. At the end, we hope to have a clear plan for rotating more sheep on unused, leased land.

The sheep - shearing & lambing

The two biggest events in a Shepherd’s life is shearing & lambing. Sheep shearing is more than just a practical necessity; it is a tradition steeped in history and is still essential for modern agriculture. Shearing is typically done once a year, usually in the spring, before the hot summer months.

We were talked into shearing earlier than we normally do (in mid-summer) by our shearer. Instead of crutching (the practice of removing the wool on the backside so you can get a good view during lambing), we fully sheared them, therefore getting their fleeces before the dirty business of lambing, plus pollen and spring weeds.

At first, I wasn’t ready, shearing day, is such a big deal and all, but then the more I thought about it, the more shearing earlier in the Spring made sense to me. One other major benefit - you skip the stress of the lambs being separated from their moms on shearing day / the lambs get confused after mom gets a haircut.

Yes, it is still cold here at night, but the naked sheep do surprisingly well. The hardy Shetlands are from the sub-arctic region of the globe. Our shearer could feel lambs in all of our ewes except one - so we anticipate a bunch of lambs this year!

This month, I will be categorizing the different fleeces and deciding what to do with each. I have some friends who are interested in full unwashed fleeces, which is fantastic because I can ship them easily, to anywhere. Categorizing will entail organizing photos of the animal with information on the coat, staple length and colorings/various markings. Each fleece is incredibly unique, just like our sheep.

Possible community work day?

One of the big projects for the spring will be fixing up our sheep structure to make it into more of an open-air handling area with half walls (letting lots of sun on the ground). The old metal roofing needs to be replaced badly, right now - it has been flapping in the wind. However, before we invest in the roof, we hired an Arborist to thin out a gangly mess of trees poised above the barn. As soon as we are ready – I will put the word out, asking for a few helpful friends to help us knock out the roof redo.

WNC Farming conferences

A couple weeks ago, I attended the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) Business of Farming conference. It is held annually around the end of February - usually at AB Tech, but this year it was at Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, N.C. Farmers learn about marketing, business planning, and financial management. The conference is designed for beginning and established farmers as well as those seriously considering farming as a profession. They also gave me a toolkit book that has been very helpful.

On March 15 - 16th we will be attending the 2025 Organic Growers school spring conference! Held at Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, N.C. The conference ‘supports, inspires, and educates people to farm, garden, and live organically by providing affordable, practical, and hands-on education.’ Registration is still open! We always leave with new ideas, inspiration, and encouragement from the community.

February was for strawberry bare roots!

THANK YOU! Shout out if you ordered bare root strawberry plants from me this past week. I still have a few orders to wrap up but I am excited to hear about everyone starting their new berry patch. Bare root starts came with a growing guide I wrote based on my experience with the Albion type. I am transitioning those beds over to growing potatoes for the year!

Around town and other interesting things

I signed up for some classes with Local Cloth - most weaving related. They are having an International Women’s day social at RAD Brewery that I may go to (and it’s also my birthday)! And I am taking a beginner crochet class at the Emporium on Main in Hendersonville N.C. through Foxes Fiber den – a brand new woman-owned yarn vendor who is also hosting fiber related classes.

Check out this article on a Danish woman artist doing amazing things with wool! She also invented a robot that felts wool in 3D - here is a giant lamb constructed from European wool that would have otherwise been discarded as waste.

And speaking of waste wool…

Pre-order this book by a new fiber farmer ‘friend’ of ours – Anna Hunter. Chris recently discovered her website - the Longway homestead. She is a fiber farmer based in Manitoba Canada, who also mills her own wool pellets. The more research we do on this, the more we think that is a great idea we’d like to copy.

Above is an example of dirtier ‘waste wool’, which was removed as a first step to processing a full fleece – this includes the belly and rump areas. This wool is too dirty to wash and gets added to the compost for a second life. The benefits of wool in your garden is such a long list, I need to save it for a post all by itself. Pelletizing wool requires a milling machine, a shredder, and some infrastructure, but would provide the rest of the community with a sustainable fertilizer which is otherwise a waste stream. We are so excited about the possibility of this!

Listen: this podcast explores the relationship between soil health, fiber production and market solutions. Allison and Danielle talk about the project with Rebecca Burgess, the Executive Director of Fibershed, about building community around grower-to-grower networks to help producers become ‘economically, ecologically, and socially successful.’

I have a love/hate relationship with the month of January. The beginning of the year is filled with so much possibility and energy, yet when I look outside at the cold, brown ground, I feel uninspired and tired. I am learning to make the best of being forced inside during our coldest month – there are other things to do like order seeds, draw up a property map, and plan plan plan!

Here are some things I am focusing on right now:

1. Improve pasture-grass for our ruminants

Since I have been feeding these animals mostly for free, I have invested in pounds of cover crop seed to broadcast by hand before it starts warming up this year. Winter rye, feed oats, tillage radish and Austrian winter peas, are in my intentional ‘winter mix’ and each plant has a job to do, separate from the others. To the sheep - these are delectable treats, and will become the ice cream of the pasture. These cover crops also compliment the existing forage that is primarily white and red clover – legumes that can make them gain weight.

In previous years, I didn’t know enough about: 1. what was growing already and 2. what they needed that was missing. As a beginning farmer, I didn’t know enough about identifying useful plants, plants that bring ruminants calories. When you are looking at a pasture, you shouldn’t see ‘just grass’.

As a grass farmer, you have to get the timing right – give the cover crops a chance to grow high enough before animals are brought in to graze the growth down. I don’t use a tractor, a seed drill, or any other heavy implements to broadcast pasture seed, instead, I watch the weather. After a few mildly warm weeks in a row, I will hand-broadcast the seed right before a heavy rain comes and let nature do the work for me. Then, I will wait until the new plants are somewhere between several inches high, to almost going to seed, before rotating them to graze.

2. Revisit holistic goals

Our farm’s holistic goals live on the wall in my office. I do my best to review and revise the goals every year, reflecting any changes or growth on our farm.

If you are unfamiliar with this idea - it is more than a business plan – it is the practice of exploring your values and is related to ‘whole farm planning’. It is the foundation that will guide all your decision-making in the future. I will have a more detailed essay on this topic and lean farming coming soon...

3. Lean-up the place

Lean farming has gained traction over the last few years, mostly thanks to Ben Hartman of Clay Bottom farm in Indiana. Originally, a strategy utilized by Henry Ford (and then Toyota) in industrial auto manufacturing, it streamlines processes and eliminates waste, creating consistency and efficiency. Farmers should especially be using this method as a way to eliminate unnecessary equipment and land purchasing. This winter I will be employing lean-system-thinking to organize our workspaces and our life, because we live on our farm like most people and it is all entangled. The leaning process is perfect for a farmer to be revisiting every year in January.

Here is the formula from Ben Hartman’s website:

1. Delete: Many farms have too many parts, tools, supplies, and non-value-adding things lying around, impeding good work and obstructing concentration. Get rid of anything not absolutely necessary.

2. Start with the customer: work backwards from there. Be totally precise. What exactly do they want? When? How much? This requires going to listen and observe and take notes. Precision is caring.

3. Cut out the waste: Simplify everything. On our farm, we strive every season to do less but better, to grow more food with fewer steps. We no longer use plows: we let roots and microbes do that work. We stopped using walk-in coolers and instead deliver immediately after harvest. We deliver our CSA with no packaging. The turning point on our farm came when we decided to grow by getting rid of hidden waste.

4. Get better: Every season the goal isn't to get bigger or do more, to constantly expand. It's to do less but better: to cut out more waste and better align with what our local community needs us to be doing--growing great food.

4. Draw-up a property plan

Along with revisiting your holistic goals, a good practice every year is drawing up a property map with changes / future goals incorporated. This is a chance to visually see all of your potential.

Our property is only about 2 acres, yet I have barely used some of the space here. It helps to divide everything up by sections - closest to the house is zone 1 if you are going by permaculture principles – and then decided what makes sense to have where. Much like your holistic goals, this is a practice of seeing the big picture and all that is involved. Tools and all necessary equipment should be right where you need it. Animals should have their feed barrels next to where they reside. If you needed to train a farm sitter, could you in one afternoon? Is everything where it should be? Could they figure it out on their own without an explanation? Use this opportunity to organize and re-evaluate any overlap, redundancy, or inefficiencies.

Over the years that we have lived here, I have made many drawings, each are layers over the original aerial photo of our farm from before we got here. Now I can look back through the layers and see how far my thinking has come. It can also give you a new sense of appreciation for a little amount of land – we are grateful for just 2 acres and want to utilize every square inch.

What have you gotten up to this January? How do you best utilize winter rest-time before the growing season begins? Has anyone else ordered seeds yet? Made a garden plan? Let me know in the comments below. I cannot wait to get my hands in the soil.

Among my myriad of answers was an honest one – negative thinking – which looks like not working with what I already have, feeling ‘less than’ about my circumstances, or getting caught up in that 'one-perfect-day-thinking' (one day, when I have more time, money, resources, will everything fall into place).

Do I need to give myself permission to go after what I want or to elevate what I think is important? Some things take years to cultivate, but some you can get started on right now. Just make it exist first, you can make it good later. Being a perfectionist is exhausting and probably also unrealistic.

For example - if I ever want to host a work day, I need to get an email list together, announce it to friends, and maybe pick a couple dates that work in the future –– all things I could do right now. Having a graveled area to work, a place for everyone to park and sit, and picking a perfect weather day, are the parts I get hung up on. Instead of starting small at the beginning, my mind is going to the complete end, which makes the whole thing feel unachievable.

Negative thinking is dangerous because it deprives one of their true potential, of finding ways to make ends meet creatively, of one's own power, resources, and of knowing who their supporters are.

It does not happen out loud, it happens deep down, stopping yourself before anyone else does. Some hurdles you can fix, some hurdles you can't fix. This year, I am going to try biting off those chewable pieces and starting somewhere instead of nowhere.

What has helped combat my negative self-talk is the practice of gratitude, repeating positive affirmations, and having compassion for myself. I am realizing that no matter how small, I have something to give, to offer, to sell, to barter for, to help with, to teach, to sow. Instead of dismissing my ideas as frivolous, I can unearth new possibilities. Look at ALL the things I have! How lovely it could be to share it!

Gratitude keeps the haters in your life at bay, it helps you to focus on what you enjoy, and what you want for yourself. Being internally motivated, instead of seeking approval from everyone (which is being externally motivated), is the difference between knowing and not knowing your true power. Perhaps my true power lies in starting small and with nothing and I should be learning from that.

An easily digestible book I have been reading recently has been: The Serviceberry : Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer In the beginning of the book, Kimmerer talks about an experience she had picking berries with a small flutter of backyard birds at the same tree. She realizes in that moment, that her life is attributed to all the elements that grew the wild berries she is about to consume – the sun, the rain, the soil – all things she had nothing to do with, therefore allowing her to really experience gratefulness.

"Enumerating the gifts you've received creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you already have what you need. Recognizing "enoughness" is a radical act in an economy that is always urging us to consume more. Data tells the story that there are "enough" food calories on the planet for all 8 billion of us to be nourished. And yet people are starving. Imagine the outcome if we each took only enough, rather than far more than our share...Ecopsychologists have shown that the practice of gratitude puts breaks on hyper-consumption...In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver… Might cultivation of gratitude be part of the solution?"

Challenge yourself this new year, by recognizing and removing subconscious hurdles that are keeping you from thriving, from becoming the person you want to become. Living in these mountains has taught me that I am a strong and capable woman. Hurricane Helene showed us both our strengths and our weaknesses. I got my family through not having any power or running water for two (long) weeks. Instead of telling myself "not this year" I am now asking myself "why not this year?"

Our community needs all sorts of people, resources, makers, thinkers, doers, conservationists, and small growers now more than ever. How can your ability to positively think affect your neighbors? Your community? What is missing or needed or unavailable? What can you start selling or trading? What kind of relationships can you create based on general reciprocity?

Feel free to share what are some of your revelations for the new year. What will you be working on or striving towards? Will you be trying to answer this 'thriving' question along with me? To all my readers, have a healthy and wonderful new year!

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Many of our friends have been getting sick these past few weeks, so I thought I would publish our version of the herbal ‘miracle-worker’ tonic called Fire Cider, along with some other natural-style immunity ideas (recipe below).

If you’ve never heard of it – Fire Cider is a health tonic and folk remedy that helps boost your immune system, improve digestion, and prevent ‘the crud’ from coming on. It is a mixture of horseradish, turmeric, garlic, orange, ginger, herbs, and hot peppers all fermented in apple cider vinegar. Essentially, it is our ‘apple a day keeps the doctor away’ spirit. Here are the ingredients broken down with their benefits:

Apple Cider Vinegar: This is the base of the tonic. Fill the jar enough to cover all the ingredients or you will see mold. We buy Bragg’s with the Mother. It contains antimicrobial properties, which help kill bacteria and help lower blood sugar.

Onions and Garlic: They both help to fight off infections, work as expectorants, and are natural diuretics that flush out toxins and regulate blood pressure. If you had to choose an herb to take to a desert island - Garlic would be the one!

Fresh Horseradish: Use freshly grated horseradish, we grew our own this year! It is naturally rich in antioxidants and helps reduce inflammation and improve respiratory health (good when fighting a sinus infection). You can grow this in your garden!

Ginger: Grate or slice it into dials. There is no need to peel the skin. Ginger contains gingerol, which has powerful medicinal properties. It is packed with anti-bacterial properties that kill germs, and antioxidants that help alleviate nausea, reduce stomach pain, and reduce inflammation.

Hot Peppers: Any hot peppers will work! Jalapeños or cayenne peppers especially. They contain capsicum which is high in vitamin C and iron, works to reduce inflammation, aid in weight loss, improve blood circulation, and improve bone health (I also take a daily vitamin C supplement in the winter).

Over-the-counter ‘medicine’ has not worked for us for years now and we have had to rely on things like this cider instead. I myself have had chronic sinus problems, multiple sinusitis surgeries, years of disappointing results with multiple ENT’s, and ultimately, was always just prescribed Mucinex. It wasn’t until I changed my eating habits, quit drinking, and started caring for my sinuses with saline rinses did anything change. Now I work on prevention instead of just doing damage control.

Anytime, our little ones have a stomach issue, we give them a slightly watered down ‘shot’ of this concoction and they instantly feel better. We can also give this to our animals, just a bit into their daily water will give them super-herd immunity. Turns out fermented things are good for everyone!

I recently learned from a mentor and friend that he ferments everything for his sheep and they love it. He will put a little hay and water in a bucket every day for a special fermented treat they don’t have to work so hard to digest. The point is that you are breaking the food down first so your system can ingest it faster with less energy.

Winter squash is another seasonal immune-booster. We store our massive Dutch fork pumpkins in our basement and process a new one every few weeks for us – or smash it on the ground for the animals. Butternut squash is also pretty effortless to grow with a little trellising. They keep well for months without asking for anything, like finicky potatoes, and can be used in everything from baked goods to soups to quiche. I love to store cubbed or pureed squash in ziplock bags in our freezer.

For anyone eating these under-rated orange beauties – they pack a low-calorie, nutrient-dense punch, full of beta-carotene and vitamin A/C that will help with everything from inflammation to immune function to blood sugar control! The seeds actually act as a natural anti-parasitic which fight intestinal worms in our sheep.

We have been continuously moving the sheep though fresh grass for 260+ days this year (since April 8th when we started rotating). As long as the tips of the grass are pointed, they can graze it, while simultaneously keeping them from milling around poop and parasite loads. The Shetland sheep are especially thrifty sheep that can grow big on not much.

Even though we rotate and use natural remedies, because we live in an almost tropical rainforest, we still see parasite problems. Rotating them instead of winterizing them in a barn has been our only way of stopping our animals from getting sick. Animals go to a barn to get sick. They stand in their poop all day if you keep them contained.

There is a lesson in there for us somewhere. Open your windows from time to time and turn off your whole house air from running constantly. Environmental factors are an important part of staying healthy in the winter, something a doctor will never ask you about. Dress warmly, get outside and go see something new.

Local elderberry syrup is a new natural remedy we have been using. Try sourcing it from a neighbor instead of buying it from a store (over-the-counter herbs which originated in China but may soon be unattainable). Elderberry bushes grow very well in Western N.C. and we should have no excuse not to utilize that.

Garlic and Mullein ear drops is a remedy I just learned about last year. A bottle will now always be in my medicine cabinet. I wish someone had told my mom about it when I was suffering from chronic ear infections as a kid. I spent many hours sitting and crying in a waiting room with stinging pain, only to be prescribed a decongestion pill that was essentially a bandaid for some larger problems.

Most of the natural remedies and foods we eat to stay healthy are the same things that we use to keep our animals healthy. Taking care of children and animals may as well be the reason for trying to live better. After all, we credit our backyard ducks for helping us kick our fast food addiction back in Atlanta.

The best part about making cider is – all the essential ingredients are cheap and easy to come by. Take a look at ours below and give it a try. We take it either first thing in the morning or when you are feelin’ a little puny (as they say in the South).

House-made ‘Fire Cider’

A spicy, pungent, herbal tonic with a warm glow. Drink it each morning to enjoy its health-boosting effects, especially during the winter, when all your friends are sick. Recipe inspired and adapted from Rosemary Gladstar Fire Cider Cookbook

Because fire cider is essentially infused vinegar, once strained, it can last in the refrigerator or dry cool place for up to six months. The daily recommendation is 1/2 tablespoons to 2 tablespoons per day to reap the benefits. It is best to take fire cider on its own, but you can add honey or dilute it with water to make it more palatable.

You will need a half-gallon (or 2 quart-sized) jar that was sterilized in the dishwasher.
Ferment time: 3-4 weeks in a dark, cool place like in a kitchen cabinet

PREP TIME: 20 minutes

BASIC INGREDIENTS
3 cups of organic raw unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar
7 oz fresh Horseradish, grated or roughly chopped approximately 1 cup
7 oz fresh Ginger, grated or roughly chopped approximately 1 cup
2 oz fresh Turmeric, grated or roughly chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
10 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
2-3 Jalapeño peppers, sliced or 1/2 tsp organic cayenne powder
3 whole Cinnamon sticks
3 sprigs of fresh Rosemary
6 sprigs of fresh Thyme
1 tsp Peppercorn (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS
Grate the horseradish. Add it to a 1.5-2 qt sized jar along with the sliced ginger, turmeric, jalapeños, onion, orange, lemon, and garlic. Then, add the fresh herbs, cinnamon sticks, and peppercorns.

Pour the apple cider vinegar into the jar, making sure all the ingredients are fully covered. Add more ACV as needed to cover the ingredients.

Seal the jar. Use a piece of parchment paper under the lid to keep the vinegar from touching the metal, or a plastic lid if you have one.

Shake the jar to combine the ingredients and store the jar in a dark, cool place for up to 4 weeks. Remember to shake the jar once daily to mix the ingredients.

After a month, use a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth to strain out the pulp and solid ingredients. Squeeze as much liquid out of the ingredients as you can.

Store sealed in an airtight jar. Keep in the refrigerator or in a dry, cool place for up to 6 months. Enjoy 1-2 tablespoons daily or use the fire tonic when cooking or add it to your animals water for a little boost.

Feel free to share in the comment section what you think of the cider, if you get to make it, or share ingredients that you normally use. It is an add-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink style recipe and there are no wrong answers…

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So, I am renaming this publication ‘Small Potatoes farm’ because that is our actual farm name.

Thank you for continuing to subscribe to my writing and have patience while I figure out what I want this to become. We have some new people here! Welcome and feel free to comment below on why you subscribed so that I can write more relevant and specific content.

Wishing you a happy November (before it’s gone)!

November is a much under-appreciated month in which I look forward to every year. It signifies the end of another growing season, a restful time for everyone involved, and a renewed interest in planning for the next year.

Small farming is a holistic thing. Every aspect of our lives are in some way, related to making this lifestyle work. We don’t just own animals to own animals, or grow a garden for the property to look nice, and I want to write about all that and why it matters to support small, local farms.

When the colder months come, you can find me organizing, cleaning out and working on things I don’t normally get around to. Washing wool and processing it into products is what I will be working on this winter, as well as, looking into cottage industry regulations – I am trying to get a food business up and running.

After witnessing the total destruction of our region by hurricane Helene, I have never been so sure of what we are spending all this time on. Small farms that are still standing here, need to keep going, making much needed hyper-local connections, educating the public on why small farms matter.

To actually make our communities resilient, we need to share information, resources, seeds adapted to our region, tools, sustainable practices that work, free ways to do things, native plants, funds, animal genetics, building space, the list goes on. These ‘backyard’ genetics are the future, not corporate-patented and controlled food.

My vision for this platform is to inspire our community to eat locally, grow more for yourself, support woman-owned small farms, and seek out healthy meat that was raised with love.

The Small Potatoes farm publication is for:

• our curious locavore neighbors, patrons and followers of our farm

• anyone who loves using their hands, getting dirty, working outside

• anyone who gardens or works with animals

• farm-dreamers that have just gotten started on their journey

• creatives that want to source art materials from nature

• women/mothers interested in starting a home business

What to expect as a subscriber:

I write about starting slow and staying small, feeding children, working with animals, making something with your own hands, getting started as a woman farmer, sourcing art materials from nature, and creative ways of saving money. We farm within a closed-loop system and enjoy being creative with what materials and resources we already have at hand. This publication is a bit like my real life portfolio, capturing what I have learned thus far. Eventually, I will feature my artwork made from natural materials.

We are so grateful to be living and farming here in southern Appalachia. This region has been a pleasure to live and work in, and is one of the most farming-friendly areas I have ever seen! The people here also understand local food and how to seek it out, which really does want to keep one farming!

Feel free to share in the comment section (which I am leaving open to the public today) on why you are following this publication. Honest feedback allows me to write more relevant, specific content. As always, I am super grateful for your support!

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A big THANK YOU to everyone who has been checking up on us! I realize I have not written in some time. It is difficult to write around an active one-year-old who is always awake but here I am.

We feel so loved and are very grateful that we sustained no damage. Our house is standing, we had no trees fall, our children are fine, our animals are fine, we are all fine. Apparently, our land is on ‘high ground’.

Many of our friends were less fortunate. We know people that have lost their homes and their livelihoods or everything.

On Wednesday night, when we heard school would be cancelled the next day - my weather app showed we’d be getting 9" of rain and 28 mph winds. Over the next few days, we got 13" - 30" of rain in some parts, with wind speeds up to 78 mph outside of Waynesville. It was unbelievable because it was so unexpected.

We started taking on water in the basement by Thursday morning, but kept up with pumping it out. It was bad out, but we had been in heavy rainfall times before.

We are in a sort of subtropical temperate rainforest. I was surprised we got so much water when we moved here, because I had typically heard stories of drought - Asheville is the one of the driest cities in the state because they are in a rain shadow, surrounded by mountains that catch all the moisture.

Henderson county (which is part of the French Broad river valley) gets quite a bit of precipitation normally - about 55 inches per year - yet we are on the border of Transylvania county, which is the wettest county in the state and is known as the “land of the waterfalls”. Heavy rainfall and sudden storms are not strange here, but a hurricane barely losing its strength coming up to our elevation is strange.

When we ventured out on in our truck on Saturday morning to have a look around, we saw uncountable powerlines tangled in a mess of branches, massive trees blocking major roads, and the river - overflowing and reaching route 64.

Our local Ingels was dark. The only gas station open by us, had a long car line going down the road with panicked looking people behind the wheel. We had no cell service, there were no ambulances or fire trucks anywhere. It was eerily quite.

We knew then we would be out of power for a while, but after all those days still did not know how badly other communities were hit. First we learned about Chimney Rock village. One of our neighbors plays live music for a living and is often playing at Burnt Shirt vineyard. They showed us drone footage of the entire village being swept down the mountain. It was unbelievable. Surely that was just the worst of it?

Read about how deadly the storm was here.

Our cities beloved River Arts district, a creative hub of artists, community spaces and small businesses, completely obliterated by the rising and rushing French Broad.

Local Cloth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing and promoting the fiber economy in Western North Carolina (our fiber shed), had their entire studio flooded and washed away. Years of artwork, gone.

In the aftermath of this unbelievable tragedy, our neighbors have become our extended family. People are taking care of one another, sharing extras, reaching out. Free food stands are on the road sides. Bottled water by the pallets are up against the stores in downtown Hendersonville. There are dumpsters in church parking lots and short lines for supplies. I have seen diapers and formula being distributed.

There is love pouring out and into these destroyed communities. Understanding the whole picture has been totally overwhelming and the mountains are grieving.

We know people who will be without power, water, or roads out of their homes, for several weeks if not months and farmers that will be starting over from scratch.

Here are a few links to local agriculture organizations worth donating to for those of you who want to chip in and help a good cause!

From the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project:

We are thinking of those markets, vendors, and farmers who have been impacted – we know that nearly everyone in this region has been affected in one way or another. Farmers markets have had to relocate, food producers have lost product and inventory due power outages, and many farms have lost fields, greenhouses, or their entire location due to flooding or storm damage. As restaurants remain closed and crucial income outlets for farmers have been put on hold, farmers tailgate markets are a big way to help keep our local farm and food producers afloat through this uncertain time. Farmers want to feed our communities, and they need our help.

ASAP (Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project) is a nonprofit based in Asheville, North Carolina, serving the Southern Appalachian region. Our mission is to help local farms thrive, link farmers to markets and supporters, and build healthy communities through connections to local food.

Donate here

Carolina Farm Stewards is a farmer-driven, membership-based non-profit that helps people in North and South Carolina grow, eat, and enjoy local, organic food, flowers, and fibers. We bring farmers, consumers, businesses, nonprofits, and governments together to make the Carolinas a model for a better, cleaner, healthier food system.

Donate here

Organic Growers School is the premier provider of practical and affordable organic education in the Southern Appalachians. After 30 years, we continue to build a vibrant food & farming community by boosting the success of organic home growers and farmers. Organic Growers School inspires, educates, and supports people to farm, garden, and live organically.

Donate here

Local Cloth: Support Local Cloth's Resilient Fiber Artists and Farmers

On September 27, 2024, Local Cloth, located in the heart of Asheville's River Arts District, was devastated by Hurricane Helene. The Local Cloth Studio was almost completely destroyed from flood waters and debris, which knocked out our front door and windows and rose inside the walls to more than 10 feet.

As you can imagine, this has impacted our entire organization, disrupting our retail and workshop operations, damaging equipment and tools, and wiping out entire collections from our fiber artists and farmers. Some of our Resident Artists lost everything.

Donate here

This May we celebrate our 4 year anniversary of living in the mountains!

4 years already my gosh. And along with Mother’s Day, May 12th is also Eloise’s 8 month birthday – 8 months already. This baby, who is quickly turning into a little girl, is on the move, and everyday has been us, squeezing being productive, into the moments she is not falling over or crying.

Late Spring is also the worst for seasonal allergies – as soon as the garden and animals start to demand more – all we want to do is shower and stop rubbing our eyes. I have been feeling overwhelmed, and even frustrated with the baby, for getting in my way.

Patience is parenting; that is almost all of it. Losing control over my own time, watching the hours of the day dwindle to bedtime without getting an inch of work done, is a daily occurrence. Out of necessity, I have started to think about what I don’t need to be doing right now (or even this year).

A lot of being a mom feels like doing millions of invisible things that absolutely no one notices, no one cares about, but if you suddenly disappeared tomorrow, you know things would fall apart.

Motherhood is so lonely because we are raised to want to be seen as an individual. I am not talking about getting attention, but rather making something of yourself in this world. No one tells you that motherhood – is being seen as a mom above all else. I am reminded of this any time my son’s friends yell out “Hey, Harry’s mom!”

However, I am starting to realize that NO one is really asking us to do everything. I am in a purgatory society crafted – between not traditionally staying at home and not traditionally working outside the home. How much of my choice was my choice?

I recently re-watched “I Don’t Know How She Does It” for a reminder of this. Women are told we ‘can be anything’ but the reality is, you have to choose one. The decision to become a mother is solidifying, everything I do now, revolves around this one choice I made back in 2014. Years later, I have come to understand that there always has to be one parent that is flexible enough to catch all the sick days, teacher workdays, be home for a long summer vacation, keep track of the constant calendar changes, etc.

As that flexible parent, the truth is that I am constantly interruptible (and as I am writing this, my oldest is home sick, trying to show me his next lego project in the tiny window that the baby is napping).

Is your metric of success money? Is ‘making something of yourself’ about what people are willing to pay you? Because no mom really gets paid, but they are all still working their asses off. How do I provide value for others that is not in the form of a paycheck in the sliver of time I have leftover? Can I supplement the need to make money, with making what we need to make money for?

Spring also ushers in abundance. There is far too much growing to eat all at once. It is the reason I am pursuing growing our own food and saving as much as I can. This is me ::giving the finger:: to the man, the corporate, global, industrial system we are stuck in, giving up a steady paycheck yes, but none the less, it is a way to rebel.

In order to not waste what you grow, you must first learn to preserve it. At first, I thought this would be a ‘few years down the road’ kinda thing, like saving seed. I also thought that ‘preservation’ mainly required advanced knowledge of pressure canning and bacteria. The method will depend on what it is you are preserving.

Here are a few examples of what’s going on in our kitchen:

• We are fermenting several jars of Sichuan carrots (weights and salt needed)

• I pureed our bolting cilantro into ‘butter’ using ice cube trays

• Chris blanched and chopped several pounds of end-of-season kale into a pesto

• We wild foraged Plantain leaf and cut our Comfrey to dry for salves

• I am adopting a sourdough starter from a neighbor for weekly loaves

Preservation work is now unavoidable because I am realizing that not knowing this, is keeping me from being able to grow and save much more. The potential of mastering this secret super power would allow me to walk around the grocery store saying “I can make that” and not buy it.

The more I can grow from scratch, save, stock up, buy in bulk, forage from a field, dehydrate, ferment – the more I can feel good about not bringing in that second paycheck.

This goes for fermenting especially. The quality can rarely be matched by what you find in the store. Commercially produced foods usually contain unwanted preservatives, colors, thickeners, additives, maybe unidentifiable chemicals – the point is that what you buy in the store, may make you sick.

The price of groceries is related to grocery store overhead, printing packaging with petroleum, flashy marketing, paying for all the gasoline it took to get groceries on the shelf, paying lots of salaries and middlemen, and the USDA giving incentives to the wrong types of farming, producing the wrong types of food, that are making the entire world sick.

Localizing home growing and home making, might just be a way to remedy a lot of dependence. Dependence we have not just from grocery stores, but also from failing systems and outsourcing our own food-growing to other countries.

So all you need to do this Mother’s Day – is to go to your local farmers market and support a mother selling healthy food. If you can’t grow or preserve yourself, buy from a woman who does.

Always support women + mother owned businesses that are growing or sourcing local ingredients to make healthy food available to their community (that would be you). Supporting mothers may just save the world. And have a Happy Mother’s Day!

Seven Seeds farms is Brian and Ali. They grow on a 2-acre piece of (leased) gently-sloped land, about an hour north of us in Yancey county. They grow vegetables, flowers, berries, and fruit trees, and practice organic / no (or low) till methods, but are not Certified Organic. You can find their produce through their (100+ person) CSA or at the Asheville City Market.

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The mountains are alive with Spring, just bursting at the seams. Buzzing insects surround our house in a pollen haze, grateful for the blooms. As a family with seasonal allergies, we are waiting it out, unless we are outside watering something. Oh, and the garden, never looked so good…

This is the first year I direct-sowed seeds way before last frost. I somehow managed to keep baby seedlings healthy, through all the night temperature dips, with some simple row covers. The extra work has paid off, and already we have food on our table.

I am impressed with my own skills, surprised even. It’s like I fooled nature, that this was grown by cheating somehow. With some seed packets, I have rows of continually-giving leafy greens for weeks, and that’s just in one bed. No clamshell needed, I just cut the veg and bring it inside. This success was not overnight — I can forget sometimes. Only this year am I on the upswing to the slope of enlightenment.

Over these past 4 growing years, I have gone through many internal struggles about bothering. This little garden, built from nothing fancy (wood chips, sheep bedding cardboard and old branches), looks like nothing fancy, because it doesn’t have to be. This year, however, is the first year I have been validated by my nothing fancy.

Thinking back about 8 years ago (after Harry was born), I remember how deeply depressed I was (and surprised that anything would change) about losing the will to do the work I used to do. I have felt guilty for not using my college degree (that my dad and I just finished paying off) and deviating from a path that I had invested in (a 15 year portfolio of work). Watching ‘my career’ disappear overnight, like I never existed to my clients, was eye opening. I was absolutely replaceable as a Designer and not only by people, but templated websites.

I never wanted to talk about what I did for work. I hated the clients that didn’t listen, the corporate acronyms, pretending to care in meetings, how disrespected I felt, that nothing I ever did was truly creative. The problem with being a Designer, is that everyone else also thinks that they are a Designer, including your boss.

During my lunch hour, I would pull out a notebook and work on my stuff.

Years later, I am starting to see :all those lunch meetings with myself: actually accumulating. Maybe this journey started as a day dream, which turned into doing research, asking questions, taking action. I knew nothing about this farming stuff, but I would find people who did know. All I knew was — I was interested.

Since I am a visual person, my son and I started going to see other people’s farms. First, we saw urban farms in Atlanta, then just any farm that interested us. I didn’t know what we were looking for, I just had to see it all.

Learning the right things to ask when you don’t know, takes practice. I felt stupid, a lot. I admitted how much I didn’t know, a lot. There was so much we didn’t know…

Sure, Harry was along for the ride, but he also made it easier for me to connect, grow confidence, take chances, ask questions. I thought it valuable for him to see his mom passionate, able to educate herself outside of traditional ways. I didn’t want him to see me depressed, I wanted him to see me living an active life, one of my choice.

“Children help us to mediate between the ideal and the real: they propel our thoughts forward. Their protean nature encourages us to think in terms of design that is flexible, inclusive, and imaginative” said Juliet Kinchin.

The ideal (I thought) was a large, level garden with low tunnels, a greenhouse for starts, a tool shed, an irrigation system, and a cute farm house surrounded by several acres (good luck). The real (turns out) is what you have to work with, right now. It really isn’t about what you have, it’s about what you can do (read - stop being a perfectionist).

If you ask most farmers their secrets, they will tell you everything, because it is custom to their situation, land, micro-climate, abilities, tools, etc. This realization leads to divergent thinking — the ability to come up with lots of different answers.

Most small farms we visited were run by mothers, part-time, which was a surprise to me, but it also makes sense. In this new space, I could be all the things I am: a Designer, an Artist, a Writer, a Mother, a Maker, a Grower, someone who enjoys working from their house and in the outdoors, someone who wants to be their own boss. Maybe one day, an Educator. I can feed my family instead of having a corporate job.

Real motivation to do something new with your life, comes from inside you, it is not ‘reward or punishment’ driven. That being said, I am not replacing the salary I used to make with any type of salary now. If you are a mother, most of your life is unpaid, and if you are farming, you are lucky if you make enough back to pay for the cost. I love the work I do now, but the rewards are not financial– I seem to be attracted to things that don’t make any money.

Despite this, my children have been what keep me going. They have allowed me to find my authentic self and explore who I am. This is a new beginning – a self-propelled, free-spirited, open-ended journey. They have given me permission to play, to be curious, to ask questions, to keep growing, to demand a brighter future for myself, and especially, for them. As they become more independent, I hope I can say I will be just as motivated to keep working on my work, for me.

Start small, or with nothing, go from there. There are no wrong answers, only your own answers.

This essay kicks off farm tour season here in the Blue Ridge mountains! I can’t wait to share our experiences with all of you! I will be taking my camera with me this year. These local-farm case studies will only be available to my paid subscribers. I have some other things in the works as well! Stay tuned. A

Below our house, the sheep anxiously await to be turned out – they have been overwintered in front of their barn – and they are mad about it. Our pasture looks like a hillside from the Emerald isles. Sheep love them some sweet feed, but they love green grass even more, live for it in fact. I plan on strip grazing them at first.

With this substack, I thought I would show more of what it looks like around here and do a little less writing. Everything is waking up, warming up, brightening up. We have been clearing the barn and basement out, to make room for some new ventures, to allow us room to focus. We are trying to lean this place up, justify where tools and feed barrels go, get rid of the “extra”.

The garden has been freshly mulched and planted, early I know (zone 7 a-bish) but I am going for it. I am taking a chance with late low temperatures (late March - early April) since I have row covers and the ability to protect young seedlings. If I can figure out cold frames, I could definitely grow greens year round here. Spinach, turnips, baby greens, bunching onions, chives, kale, peas and arugula are popping up with little help. Thankfully, we had already amended our beds with sheep bedding.

Harry got 20 day-old bantam chicks in the mail, a much-wanted Christmas present. All are healthy and arrived alive! Bantams were almost impossible to find locally, so this was our first online order. They will have their own house within a room of the barn. We are planning on incubating and hatching some of our own eggs from our Barnevelder flock (regular chickens), starting in a few weeks, for local sale.

On these beautiful (but blustery) early spring days, I open our house up for a change of air, a change of attitude towards life perhaps. With several growing seasons behind us now, we are setting our sights on what’s possible, on what we can contribute, on what we can learn about ourselves. I am taking my gardening and myself more seriously. This year, I want to see how much I can grow, both with food and in life.

A few weeks ago, we said goodbye to our cat of 14 years. Her nickname was ‘Nana’ because when our son was born, she would come get us if he was crying. She was a gentle being, an early morning friend, and always loved our coffee-before-kid time. Nana was originally Chris’ cat and I was the new woman in their lives when him and I started dating. Slowly, she warmed up to me, and I remember the first night she slept curled up next to me instead of him.

Her health deteriorated so quickly, we decided to let her be, until the day I called a mobile vet to come put her to sleep. She took her last breaths in the garden as I held her head and watched her eyes turn from sight to black.

As I watch him take so well to being a big brother, I wonder how much a part of him Nana is. He seems to understand the gravity of caring for another, how much responsibility it is, the biggest I would say. Is this how you raise a feminist? Is this how you raise a child with empathy? Is this how mothers can raise boys to not just “be boys” but also be caretakers? Is this how you change an entire generation to care about something other than themselves?

The animals in our life might whisper yes, we think so.

In the South, Spring shows up early, and this year, it is demanding our attention more than ever. We have not gotten around yet to cleaning up this place – the barn is a disorganized mess, there are tools scattered from several projects, animals wait for new infrastructure, vet and hoof care, and the garden still has her leaf covering on. And we probably have some pregnant sheep.

Since I am a bit slowed down with this baby, I am looking for little wins. I bite off my to-do list in increments – one day, I get all my materials out, the next I clear a space, the next day I may actually get to it. Baby girl will nap wherever I put her portable crib, so the other day, I quietly washed a bag of wool with her by my side.

The fleece was from a smaller ewe named Biddy, a chocolate colored Shetland x baby doll sheep we sheared last summer.

This was the first time we had ever washed raw wool, let alone wool we raised ourselves and had shorn ourselves.

It took about 4 rinses to get the water to run clear. After the batches were all washed, we lay the clumps down on a drying rack for a couple days.

When the wool was bone dry, we picked through it while talking about the sheep, finding evidence of her shenanigans. We found fossilized bugs, burrs, remnants of vegetation that grew last year, things she got into, things we got her into.

Biddy cleaned up well, better than I expected, given she probably had more than one year of growth on her and was a total mess, much like our other sheep. The white wool we got off our white sheep, ended up in the compost or being used as a mulch. After all, this was wool we inherited; it was these sheep’s first year getting shorn with us. We don’t know any of the original ewes ages, if they had previously lambed or been shorn. Our flock is sort of a ragtag bunch.

Washing wool was like being in art class again, experimenting and having fun working with a medium for the first time. We are also growing that medium – a thing we can hold, experiment with, sell, give away, craft into something. Perhaps, this is where art therapy intersects with farming, an idea I have been exploring lately.

If you’ve ever washed laundry by hand, that’s what it looks like. It is a slow process of manually agitating, submerging the wool under the water and stirring the batch with a stick. A process to get lost in thought while doing.

We have had some losses this winter. Our Indian Runner drake got viciously attacked by an aerial predator and left alive. Our black Barnevelder rooster dropped dead and my son found him stiff as a board. I sold some adult hens just to reduce the flock chaos. I traded two solid rams with a local shearer for vet care, narrowly avoiding a parasite catastrophe (simply because the winter brings their rotational grazing to a screeching halt). I have been feeling badly about my ability to keep animals going.

Our family is also eating a more plant-based diet, which is fueling the doubt I have about spending time on creatures, instead of on the garden. The animals take the most time and energy, and they always come first. If we are eating less meat and eggs, is it even worth it? Why bother?

I asked myself the same thing about processing wool from scratch – was it even worth it? Old fiber-timers have warned me that “it’s a lot of work”.

Indeed, washing just one bag of wool was ‘a lot of work’ – work that I enjoyed, work that I would say I needed. Work that is real and tangible. Work that I can see children doing and enjoying. Work that gives you perspective. Work that makes you appreciate where textiles and clothing comes from. Work that women have done for centuries, to clothe their children, to carry on a form of folk art, and to simply live in a closed loop.

Wool has endless potential and working with it is empowering. I am starting to notice that things we think are not worth doing, we outsource, but surely that comes at a price. When we don’t know where something comes from, we are dependent on someone.

Maybe I am not knitting my own clothing tomorrow (or anything like it) but I can appreciate a slower way of producing a textile. At the very least, I consider myself enlightened, just by trying to start from scratch. Their wool seems worth the work and in the meantime, they can cut our grass for us.

Fall not only came really fast this year, it is leaving us even faster. Western North Carolina has been in a real full-sun-drenched drought, you can see it in the beautiful fall color, but the land is as dry as a bone. Still, we had enough rain during the growing season to be successful with another giant pumpkin harvest!

Our sheep have been surviving on newly-purchased hay, some sweet feed in the evenings, and of course – pumpkins. The flock is still being rotated, and are cleaning up whatever is left in the pasture, mostly cold-hardy weeds and browning grasses. The pumpkins are a welcomed treat the beasts play with, chew on, fight over and roll around. It is fun to watch them tear one apart and gobble the pulp covered seeds.

We grew two different kinds this year – Dutch Fork and regular old sugar pumpkins. The Dutch Fork is an heirloom pumpkin that was historically grown by the Cherokees in upcountry South Carolina. After putting seeds in the ground the first year, the plant has come back as a volunteer every year since. We have no official pumpkin garden bed area, wherever the vine comes up, in the middle of the pasture even, is where we let it grow. It takes up an amazing amount of space, so I am grateful as a gardener that I even have the capacity to experiment with it. The amount of fruit that one vine produces is insane – three of our basement shelves are full, along with pumpkins all over our house, plus what we give away.

Pumpkins are actually just a type of winter squash that stores amazingly well through the rest of the year with its tough skin. Winter squash is just squash that is planted the same time as summer squash, but takes double the amount of time to grow (100 days compared to about 55 days for a typical Zucchini), which explains its tough exterior. I find it odd now to see pumpkins being used as decoration. They are nutrient rich, full of beta-carotene, and packed with fiber. If you cure them correctly before storage, it is a vegetable that will be there for you in the dead of winter.

When it comes to feeding it to animals – pumpkins can help promote digestive health for the flock, boost their immunity, promote hydration and make their wooly coats super shiny. They are also rich in vitamin E, which is beneficial because it helps prevent and repair cell damage.

It is possible that pumpkin seeds can be effective dewormers against intestinal parasites, like tapeworms. This is because pumpkin seeds contain the amino acid cucurbitin, which both paralyzes and eliminates worms from the gastrointestinal tract. We do not deworm here, so natural practices are what keeps us from getting into health troubles. Intestinal worms are one of this livestocks biggest health concerns, and we check their poop regularly for any signs of them.

Processing a pumpkin

The gourds have to be processed to be eaten by humans and this takes a bit of work. It is why I also grew sugar pumpkins this year, which produce nice small fruits that can easily fit on a baking tray. The Dutch Fork was once the premier pie pumpkin in much of the Carolinas, but they are massive and could take several days to break down. We keep them mainly for the animals now.

This year, I went to Chris’ mom’s house to process them into puree because she has a baller kitchen, two ovens, and a working day is just a good way to spend time together. Eloise came along and watched us work, it was her first time at grandmas house.

We got about 4 ounces of puree from each pumpkin and put 2 ounces into one ziplock bag to freeze flat (which equals about one can of commercial puree). The recipe we followed was from the Pioneer woman and can be found here. We were able to get it all done in a couple hours and it turned out to be enjoyable work.

Many people don’t know this but when you buy a can of “pumpkin puree”, it is actually a type of squash called Dickinson squash, not actual pumpkin. The color is much different from the rich orange that I get from something I grow, same with our own eggs. Our chickens recently stopped laying and we have been forced to buy local eggs again. Even the most expensive, local eggs have been really disappointing taste-wise, and just don’t have the rich dark color of our yolks. Once you discover how delicious fresh food can taste, it is very hard to go back to the ordinary store-bought.

Growing this vegetable can not only feed our family all winter, but some of the neighborhood. Last year, we put the abundance on a road-side stand for anyone to help themselves. One of our neighbors processed a few for soup and kept the seeds to try growing it themselves. Neighbors have even shared their family pumpkin pie recipe with us, if anything it has been a great conversation starter. I also plan on making it into baby food and storing it in puree bags for when baby can eat solids, but the possibilities are endless – spices, soups, purees, baked goods, pepitas, and smoothies. Pumpkins are for sure not just for seasonal lattes!

Ain’t she cute? She was born in our living room (underwater in a birthing tub) on September 12th, and we haven’t left the house much since. She is a big, healthy baby and we are adjusting to having a newborn all over again, after 8 years.

Thankfully, we have some awesome neighbors and friends taking care of us, bringing us things we forgot to buy, and offering us homemade meals. Grandma has been coming over regularly to hold her, bring us food, and hang out. My mama friends have been messaging daily to see how I am doing. No matter how hard this time is, support and the right kind of advice has made everything feel manageable.

The reason why it has taken me almost 2 months to write this, is because breastfeeding has been an ongoing natural disaster that has taken all of my energy to keep up with. I have been so filled with dread over having to feed a baby again, that I wasn’t worrying about the pregnancy or even the labor, just the postpartum time.

With this pregnancy, I wanted a second chance to do everything over again – I made decisions differently, I asked better questions, I chose to labor in a completely different environment (at home compared to a hospital), I hired an independent midwife – all with the hope of breastfeeding working out.

You’ll be fine, we’ve all done it

That may sound silly to someone that doesn’t understand how difficult it is to keep your baby alive by feeding her with your body, every two hours, nonstop. Being successful at it, can make a mother more connected, more empowered and more in love. Her custom milk concoction can also set this little human up with a lifetime of strong immunity. It is the difference between being able to meet the most basic need for your baby’s survival, and feeling like a complete failure as a woman and a mother.

When it comes to maternal health care – I have figured out that there is a lot of attention on the prenatal and labor part, but not so much on the postpartum part, a period of time that can literally break a new, unassuming mother. Traditionally, that aftercare would be up to the familial matriarchs, assuming you had a big enough house to offer guest space, and also assuming they lived nearby, and didn’t work, and could spend weeks at a time tending to the new mother.

So when the time came to pick a ‘provider’ I went with an independent home birth worker that also specialized in breastfeeding. I was going to have on-call help this time, and I was going to pay for it myself (which ended up costing a fraction of a hospital bill). My mother-in-law is also a scenic 25-minute drive away, which was an intentional move on our part in order to be closer to family.

My first postpartum had been a lonely nightmare. The breastfeeding consultant never visited our recovery room, and I checked out without having the first clue about how to feed my baby. I had hired a doula (for $750) that not only was late to my birth, but never got around to a follow-up home visit when I really needed her. The city in general was lonely and most of my neighbors were bartenders, not new moms.

I also felt wounded by other mothers who instead of sharing their honest experiences and great wisdom I so badly needed to hear, or even to admit that it is a total shit show, just gave me a half-hearted ‘you’ll be fine, we’ve all done it’ kind of response. Breastfeeding failed for us within 4 weeks, followed by round-the-clock pumping, formula guilt, anger, self-doubt, and drinking issues. I felt utterly on my own with the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.

Feeling less alone together

When I am struggling, I ask myself that gets you no where but down – why is it easy for everyone else? What am I doing wrong? Am I broken as a woman? Do I not deserve to be a happy, well adjusted, loving mother?

Self doubt bubbles up to the surface when it goes unchecked in reality. Breastfeeding is a rollercoaster for every woman; one feeding can go great, the next one can end in tears. It is a very personal act, but you can’t take it not going well, personally.

If a woman doesn’t have other close women friends in her life, she doesn’t hear the honest experiences that can reassure she is doing everything just fine. When women rely on hospitals for maternal healthcare, like it is everything they need in a neat tidy package, they are assuming they have all the tools they need already for later. I realized recently that I had never seen another woman breastfeeding, not until I became a mother myself. How are you supposed to know anything about it? For something so natural, it is strange that it requires so much outside support. The amount of information I needed (and still need) turned out to be months of texting my midwife and friends, often frantically and while crying, in the middle of the night. I needed other veteran mom-friends to offer me their story, only then could we trade notes and feel less alone together.

For me, postpartum depression was being stuck in an individual analysis, and thinking that I was having this totally isolated experience. It was how I justified drinking, because I thought we had it harder than other new parents. Women, especially mothers, are still privately experiencing a feeling that our problems are ours alone. We are undermining how important women talking is, how life changing motherhood is, and how much there is to share about it. Generic phrases like ‘you’ll be fine, we’ve all done it’ really doesn’t help anyone, even if it’s true.

Every single Thank You note I have sent out, has been for a woman. It is only women that have asked to hold the baby. It is only women that have gone out of their way to make and bring me food. It was a woman that got me through the birth I wanted and helped me until breastfeeding worked out. It is grandma who is coming over to take her from me as my back goes out. Considering I have always surrounded myself with male friends and trust issues, realizing I need closer female friends, has been major for me. Having a baby is a great equalizer that can bring with it so much connection. It is a shame the only thing most women have to say is ‘don’t worry, it gets easier’.

Garden derives from an old Germanic word that means yard or enclosure – so a gardener is someone who manages a specific space. There’s nothing wrong with that term, but … the sense of limitation contained in the word may not be the one we most want to convey now.

The word farmer however, derives from the same root as form – from a word for creation, and in old Anglo-French it meant to strengthen, to mend. And right now we truly need to be creators rather than consumers, and people whose work is the repair of the world.
In this sense, farmer is preferable to gardener.

– from the book A Nation of Farmers

Next month I graduate from a year-long program through the Organic Growers school called Farm Beginnings. The school educates and supports people to prosperously farm, garden, and live organically. OGS is here in the Western North Carolina region, so the information is very specific to my climate and culture. My experiences have been invaluable – from attending the yearly conferences to forming relationships with other local folks and touring their farms – and I am absorbing more than I realize most days. The Farm Beginnings program explores the business side of farming, from record keeping to finding your niche market.

For my last assignment, I have to present my learnings from the year, mentorship experience, and some proposed enterprises in a few slides. But how does one go from experimenting in a garden to growing produce for the people or creating a product for market? It is a big leap, one that maybe takes years.

What we are working with: assessing possibilities

Our family lives and farms on a small 1.6 acres. We are on a walkable road in a neighborhood filled with health conscious retirees, transplants and young working families. We look more like an urban farm than one in a rural town, but it is a good example of how much you can do in a small space. We live in a small 1952 brick ranch whose former owner used the land to raise and sell guard donkeys. Even though we had to take down the dilapidated interior locust-post fencing, a few handmade outbuildings that he built are still standing.

We are surrounded by neighbors in newly-built homes under HOA restrictions, which means they can’t own livestock or grow straight-out vegetable gardens. Our neighbors walk along the frontage of our property daily and a roadside stand would offer a perfect way to connect and off-load some extras. We can choose to host classes here, like on growing food in a landscape or animal powered gardening. There is also a large amount of homeschoolers in our county and caregivers are always trying to find child-centered activities. We have a vintage Shasta camper that Chris is fixing up to host a farm-curious friend or family member. Farmer and artisan markets are thriving in towns around Asheville and there is a hungry population interested in real local food. We also have tourists coming from major Southern cities throughout the year for rural farming experiences.

What can I get started doing right now?

In one of our lessons, we learned about building on an MVP idea. MVP means minimal viable product. Start with a skateboard version, being that the eventual goal is to end with a fully-built car. All the iterations in between are also things people can use, not just pieces of a larger part. Ask yourself: what can I do right now? Not in 10 years, or when you win that grant, or acquire more land, but right now.

We are getting started by subsistence farming for ourselves and neighbors. Our time is spent figuring out what we eat first, and then planning what we will grow each year, season after season. I get feedback every time I share or sell, helping me understand who else gets excited about eating what we eat. Simultaneously, we are also learning tool names, soil amendments, different plant needs, local climate knowledge, how the sun comes up over our land in the summer and winter, what the rainiest month is, how to stop a pest naturally, etc. I have been a gardener for most of my life, but the learning curve to be a grower for market, comes with its own challenges.

There are a lot of restrictions and laws against the home producer or small farmer, and every time I get a good idea, I am finding that idea will come with its own set of complications. For example: I can bring baked goods, freeze dried foods, tinctures or jellies to market, but not frozen or refrigerated food stuffs, nor any acidic canned foods (this requires a different license). I can’t process in my home kitchen if I have an animal in my house. I have to be able to open my workspace to inspections or rent a commercial kitchen space in order to process any value-added food items. If I want to sell meat, I have to go through a USDA processor, unless it is poultry or bones for broth or a candle made out of animal fat. You need to also provide a plan for proper storage of your overstocked items, which would also need to be inspected by the state from time to time.

Some solid enterprise ideas

Right now, we sell pastured-raised eggs (without an egg handlers license) and whatever other fresh produce abundance we have. I have sold livestock (without a livestock sellers license) to folks looking to get started owning a small sheep flock. A small-batch hatchery operation is one of my good ideas – growing chicks or ducklings out to be coop ready. I don’t need a hatchery license (granted by the Veterinarian division) if I keep it to under 500 babies a year. I can process poultry on my own farm with the right equipment, if I keep it to under 20,000 animals a year and only sell within the state lines, this includes ducks and turkeys. Beauty products, like herbal salves, are also easier to get started with and are shelf stable.

The main crops I grow are heirloom pumpkins, potatoes, winter squash and garlic. My goal is to eventually process these into value-added products such as garlic butter or infused oils, pumpkin puree and other products like spices for baking, frozen hash browns or fries. For everything other than the spices, I will need to grow enough and rent a commercial kitchen space and provide refrigerated storage that can be inspected. I can surely sell my (edible) pumpkins on a roadside stand or through another general store or farm come Labor day.

Community education or a roadside farm stand are both realistic possibilities, as long as I can provide adequate parking. I have neighbors asking to be part of our chicken processing or sheep harvest days, which could turn into a workshop. Service offerings like farm sitting or livestock boarding are also good ideas for year-round income.

What do I want my day to look like?

Giving yourself a job from scratch is tough. Where does one start? What do I want my day to look like as a small business owner and farmer? Do I want to operate a retail store? Do I want to make deliveries? Sell product through collaborating with another more established farmer? Stand at a farmers market every week? Work a few days a week or 6 days a week? See my customers or just work behind the scenes with restaurants? Do I want people coming to pick up on-farm? If I sell live animals, this is definitely a real consideration.

What kind of routine do I want to create for myself? How many hours a day can I dedicate to farming during the season? Are we busy only in the summer months which would allow us to pick up more design work in the winter months? How much can I functionally do along with a crazy school schedule?

For me, I am simply happy to work for myself, wear many hats, and not have every day be the exact same. When I was a salaried employee as an in-house designer, every single day felt the same and it was incredibly depressing. What I love about farming is being outdoors, being my own boss, and to be constantly working on what is possible. Farmers are some of the most creative people in the economy.

The informal economy is a place to test out ideas

To get started farming without a bank loan, I do a whole lot of business under the table. Start small, grow slow. Most small farmers are just breaking even and they have to be careful when investing their time and energy. We wanted to do this debt free, so that means slower progress, and every penny goes right back into the business to pay for itself. All of these enterprises ideas may not work out, so I may be going back to the drawing board several times, for several years. I am not trying to do a little of everything to see what sticks, I am trying to do one or two things really well and then bring in other offerings later. Every week, I make my way to the farmers market to do research and figure out if there is a need not being filled.

Subsistence farming means that I sell to neighbors and friends with cash, or more publicly on Craigslist. This is simply utilizing the informal economy, and it is how everyone lived before Capitalism (motherhood and care taking are also part of the informal economy). Selling abundance to neighbors allows me to get a realistic understanding of how much extra yield I will need to plant next year and to practice supplying something regularly. Then can I do the math, start ordering or saving more seeds, and create more productive gardening space. Only then can I get a clear view of a sort of business plan and actual numbers. There is no start or easy button. This is me learning and growing slowly, year after year, feeling like a gardener but possibly calling myself a small farmer.