“Dear Farm Journal” is a creative project that connects people to their food and the farmers who bring it to life. We share our daily story to build community, advocate for small-scale organic farming, and appeal to the curiosity of those who want to know what farm life is all about.   

An Evening Walk Around the Farm,Snapping digital time capsules for all to seeWill you hold my hand and walk with me?Big dog...

The End of Summer Cornucopia Dinner with Origin Experiences was a wonderful success. Mother Nature graciously swept the clouds...

It seems as though there was a bit of a mix up with the seeding. Rufus went “seed catalog wild” ordering all different kinds of...

The marigolds burst their sunny colors into the morning air and a magnetism manifests, springing from a sequence of chroma,...

I had to do a double take after shucking back the husk. These kernels are brilliant! The color, the design, the symmetry of the...

I am filled with the deepest gratitude for everyone who made the magic of our first retreat come together. Instructors,...

In planning on-farm events, campouts, workshops, dinners, and now a retreat, I’m learning so much. Today I’m settling into the...

Author Shanna Rodriguez wrote, “The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.” I felt a profound...

I was walking along harvesting pickling dill for the CSA when I came across a plant with yellow flowers I couldn’t identify. I...

I run my hands across the mounds of bosom-like fruit, indiscriminately shaped like ample bottoms and impregnated bodies, heavy...

On Sunday, Julie Joy and I took a hike on the land to harvest some elderberries. I noticed they were ripening on my last walk...

On Saturday, Driftless Curiosity hosted a workshop on food preservation. We had 9 participants, 4 board members, and 2...

In preparation for our upcoming event, The Sister Sciences Retreat: Ayurveda & Yoga on the Land, I’ve been meeting up with...

From upstairs, I hear a rumble down the driveway. Our compost is here, the last load of Purple Cow for the year. Although we’re...

I’d like to take this small space to talk about the not-so-cool cultural phenomenon of “burn out”, specifically farm burn out....

The flower petals beam their beauty skyward. The bees and butterflies land happily in their centers slurping nectar in a...

Farmers need to have a little fun in the summer too, and People Fest at Driftless Music Gardens is our favorite festivity of the...

  One of the reasons I farm and operate a land-based learning nonprofit is to be outside and connect with nature. But now I...

  Today, I’m holding onto this Rachel Carson quote, ““Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of...

  Rufus is working on building a “chicken tractor” for our next batch of meat birds, who are quickly outgrowing their...

8/7/2021Dear Farm Journal,First a heavy rain, then a flash of hail pounds steadily on the farmhouse roof. I stand behind Rufus...

In each season, there is a crop that comes to the forefront, the one that consumes the most of your time, the one you see when...

  Fungus, the ever overlooked fellow under our feet, will continue to teach us as we walk this earth. In Dr. Elaine...

  With the last pack out of the summer CSA comes a laying down of a weight, like the squeezing of the pallet jack handle,...

  Cucumbers and summer squash are starting to pile up on pallets. Ripe tomatoes fill the pack shed table. I sort through...

We joke that August is “nervous breakdown month” on the farm, and maybe we shouldn’t joke about it, but I can feel it breathing...

What if after all the energy to go from seed to bloom, you open your petals wide to the world and want to tuck them back in. The...

I may live on a dead end gravel road, where the land spills forth abundance, where the birds sing sweetly, where the workers...

Pulchritudinous produce passes through palms from gardens to CSA boxes. We pull, pick, pluck, pinch, peel, purge, and pack until...

  Today, I’m sharing a poem by Marilyn Lott titled, “Farm Gate” It is often a simple farm gate But once you go inside You...