The Backstory

Those of you who know me well know that I’m very leery of all things internet related as I dislike the thought that strangers can learn personal details about me. So it may be a surprise to you that I’ve actually started this blog! Admittedly, I am starting very cautiously, with access currently restricted to people that I know. But if you have friends who you think would be interested in following my farm quest, please email me their email addresses so I can give them access. And perhaps after I get more used to publicizing my life in this way, I’ll eventually make access to this completely public.

I’ve decided to join the world of public (or at least semi-public for now!) diarizing so that I can keep you all up to date on my journey into the world of sustainable agriculture. Since I won’t have the luxury of seeing or speaking with you all as regularly as before, this blog will help me keep you all in the loop on where I’m at in the quest for my farm.

In case you are a newer acquaintance and haven’t yet heard, ad nauseum, about my dream to run a farm, the following are the influences (in mostly chronological order) that have brought me to this point:

• Watching David Suzuki on The Nature of Things for most of my childhood in Edmonton every Sunday night
• Being read Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles in elementary school
• Reading almost every book written by Madeleine L’Engle, starting with A Wrinkle in Time
• Mme. Boisclair’s science classes in junior high which I remember (accurately or not) as having a heavy environmental focus…I learned about insulation R-values in junior high!
• My first trip to Scotland where I learned that black lambs in white sheep flocks were culled because they were unwanted for their black wool, and their meat was unsaleable due to the bluish tinge in their skin
• A growing understanding of what my Christian faith actually meant, especially in considering the Kingdom of God and what that meant in terms of social justice and stewardship
• Reading David Suzuki and Holly Dressler’s book Good News for a Change and Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer
• Joining my current small group where we share our thoughts and struggles in trying to live lives that reflect love, mercy and justice, in all their sometimes paradoxical confusion
• Finally realizing that it was time to take the leap from my safe life of financial security in Toronto

While my environmental conservation sensibilities were cultivated from an early age, the idea of having a farm didn’t appear until after my first trip to Scotland one spring when the fields were full of little lambs. After learning about the culling of black lambs and reading Prodigal Summer, I joked that I would have a farm of just black sheep. But as the years went by, the idea became less and less ridiculous to me. I have spent the last few years both reading about farming, as well as keeping an eye out for affordable farm land. But this year, following increasing dissatifaction with my work in the financial industry, I finally realized that instead of continuing to just research and save money, I should just take the plunge and get out there.

I left my job at a company I had been with for seven years, took one last overseas trip to Japan, and am now preparing myself to move into a tent at Everdale farm (www.everdale.org) and volunteer with them for the month of June. Thus my farm quest begins!