"This is going to be our last vacation ever together, AND I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT IT." We were lounging on the beach at an all-inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, a plate of nachos and numerous mixed drinks between us. The water was exquisite and our schedules were empty. A few rare days of total self-indulgence laid ahead of us, but all Ian wanted to talk about was farm animals. I speak in hyperbole, but only just. If you've followed this blog for any period of time, you already know that the two of us are terrible at delayed gratification, and acquiring new animals is our ultimate weak ..read more

It’s taken me a while to decide on a theme for this blog post. That’s not for lack of options. I’ve toyed with topics like the decision to invest in solar panels as our first major home project, the rainwater-fed irrigation system Ian and my dad designed for our garden, and even the hay business my dad is establishing on our open acres which resulted in First Roots Farm’s very first revenue. But for one reason or another, I haven’t taken the time to put these events into words. That’s partly because they have flowed so smoothly through our time on the property that I never pulled myself away f ..read more

It’s been my longtime ambition to maintain a massive garden. Despite being raised on a tiny city lot, I always looked for ways to keep my hands in the dirt. Landscaping jobs and organic farming internships made up most of my adolescant summers, and as a child I was a ruthless pest when permitted to descend into anyone’s garden to “try a snap pea or two”. And apologies to all the u-pick berry patches I likely cheated out of literal pounds of fruit in the past decades! Needless to say, a big appeal of buying our rural property for me was the potential for an INDULGENTLY MASSIVE GARDEN. I want al ..read more