A couple of years ago my husband and I watched a food documentary that scared us out of our minds. That night I vowed never to eat another chicken nugget, drink another can of soda, or purchase anything from a grocery store. It was going to be all about farming and farmer’s markets, effective immediately! The next morning as the horrific images of CAFO’s and GMO food faded, I realized my expectations for change were perhaps a bit drastic. Nonetheless, the seeds of change were planted that night. Over the course of the next months, those seeds were nurtured by more research about our current food chain as well as how we interact with our environment. The idea of a more sustainable, healthy way of life was very appealing to us. We put all of our spare time and energy into researching–reading and gathering information on all sorts of topics related food, food production, farming practices, and environmental issues related to those things. Researching–we are good at. We thrive on endless internet and magazine articles, documentaries, and YouTube videos.
Armed with all of our newfound knowledge, we began going to farmer’s markets and paying closer attention to things we purchased in the stores. We loved buying local and having the assurance that the food we were consuming wasn’t slowly poisoning us to death. However, the idea of growing our own food didn’t really happen immediately. For starters we were living in a two bedroom rent house, on a tiny lot, in the middle of town. A small garden didn’t even occur to us, much less farming and all that entails. We had recently purchased a 3/4 acre lot on the outskirts of town and construction on our new house was set to begin soon. Over the course of the next year, as our house was being built, we began to envision a small vegetable garden, flowers, and a yard full of soft green grass. Over the past few months, that vision has turned into something much grander. What if we could produce enough food to feed our family of 5?
That’s where we are today–embarking on journey to turn our urban plot of land into a Micro Farm. Unlike my well-intentioned, over zealous proclamations early in this endeavor, my husband and I both know we can’t make this happen overnight. Inevitably, it will be a process filled with many trials, triumphs, and more than few laughs.
Lillyfield Farm 