Beginnings

I’ve been farming for just about a decade now. When I was young, I never would have imagined that I would one day become a farmer. I don’t exactly have that sweet origin story of playing with lots of plants and flowers when I was a child and helping my mom in the garden. We didn’t have a garden then. There wasn’t much time for that. I did however spend those years exploring every magical corner of the forest, lakes, and mountains near my house. I knew all the ferny pathways to get from one lake to the next, the biggest pine trees to climb, and whimsical windy hills to ride my bike down. I loved watching the evolution of the flora and fauna over the months. Each new season brought a welcome excitement of change, yet that familiar feeling and smell in the air, like an old friend who never changed their perfume. As I’ve gotten older and I reflect on my childhood, I realize how deeply an impression this has made on me. How it helped create rituals and traditions of my own. How this anchors me, and continually teaches me to have the deepest respect for, and to explore the natural world.

But before we get to the those profound life realizations, I was a teenager and a twenty year old first. Like every kid who wants to be in the art, music, and fashion scene, I dropped out of community college and moved to NYC when I was 19. I managed fashion designer Betsey Johnson’s flagship Soho store. I learned to play cello and played and sang in friends’ bands. I graduated with a BA in History from Hunter College. I started a successful hand pie business and was featured in Hester and New York Mag‘s Grub Street Food Festivals. I worked in, and managed an amazing small group of restaurants for a decade. I traveled all over the world for months at at time. I fostered and rehomed multiple NYC rescue dogs. I met some of the best friends and people I would ever come to know. I met my true love, my future husband, and we did all of these things together and more. But after 13 years of incredible and deeply life changing experiences, as well as exploring every inch of the city on my bike, my heart was calling me back to the steadfast rituals of living by the rhythms of the seasons.

An opportunity was presented to me and my husband in the summer of 2013, just a month after we got married. Our boss from the restaurant where we both worked for many years, asked if we wanted to ditch the city and move Upstate to start a farm for the new restaurant he was opening. We mulled it over, talked to friends and family, and in just a few weeks, we were driving around Columbia County looking for this future farm. And by the following summer, we had Midwinter … a 2 acre veg plot, 20 pig, 200 hen, 200 broiler, new pup named Sunny, hundreds of carpentry projects, farm house renovation, and years worth of experience to learn in a season… Farm up and running! As it grew and grew, this became some of the most beautifully, anxiety inducing times of my life. The next 5 years brought so many waves of challenges in every facet and form, but we learned and grew. We were lucky to have our crew, a new community of some of the deepest friendships we’ve ever had, our families, and each other. I remember writing this and finally feeling like I understood what I was doing, and why I returned to a similar place where I grew up:

The season is winding down. The garden is taking a long still breath, but the cover crop grows strong into the night and protects the unseen and mighty that dwells in soil. The farm animals will soon be tucked away into warm, winter shelters. The quiet of winter will give us the space to reflect upon the loses, the bounties, the battles with Mother Nature, each other, and ourselves. But every season gets better. These battles lessen as our intention, understanding, and gratitude guides us. Our hearts grow with each walk in the forest, each creature and plant we tend, and as we care for each other; this journey.

And so here I am. Deeply rooted in childhood memories and curiosity. Wild and boundless young adventure. Continued growth and empathy as I move into midlife. A culmination of all these deeply held experiences; of Midwinter Farms, of Lu-Na Blooms & Herbs, and everything else I’ve had the luck, the privilege, and the desire to share in…The Edge of Wild Farm was born from.