ABOUT ME
My father grew up in the house in the forefront of this picture. The largest greenhouse in New England at the time. Growing up I heard eccentric stories of an alligator in the greenhouse, how my dad caught large snapping turtles to sell to local restaurants when he was 10, before the installation of Route 120 which now encircles Boston; and how he arranged the gardens of Betty Davis’ summer home in Sugar Hill, New Hampshire, during his teen years on the family farm in Lisbon, New Hampshire that provided dairy to be shipped back to Massachusetts. I grew up hearing these stories while I was instructed to weed the large garden at our Vermont home that would sustain us, along with a locally harvested ½ a cow and ½ pig, through the winter. My parents would go to the grocery store for bread and butter, milk and cereal, and the occasional treat of shrimp or fish, but our family of 6 mostly ate what came out of the garden on our 1/3 of an acre property holding the small suburban-style 70’s ranch. My dad used what he knew growing up not out of idealism or any goal to better health. He was no hippie seeking an alternative life. He would be more in line with the chauvinistic Mad Men seeking the American Dream. But he used his knowledge of cost savings on food to ensure our house was a home; for the fortunes of his family had long disappeared through various devastating hardships, and we were now the kids with Wonder bread bags in our boots to prevent water from getting our feet wet.
So, like many children of the 60’s, contradictory to the nontraditional compost pile in the backyard, I grew up with the understanding that my ‘successful’ life would be realized by working for a large corporation and obtaining a bank account, retirement fund and a house to hold many possessions.
Following a nontraditional path, I landed in the planning industry, which offered both continuous opportunities for personal growth, and connections with others who challenged the status quo. While I excelled at running organizations, and have a beautiful home, there always seemed to be something tugging at me that I could not define. In 2015, a dear friend of mine who had been dappling in many alternative work options, was rolling out her first Permaculture Design Certificate course. I joined her inaugural course the next spring, somewhat out of curiosity and equally out of support as there were only 6 enrolled in the 4-month course. This led to me and 4 colleagues to start a nonprofit in 2018 to provide Permaculture education.
Over this same time, I was struggling with chronic pain resulting from four broken vertebrae from a car accident 20 years earlier. I found myself drawn to yoga and working with a local holistic nutritionist, as traditional western medicine was not offering relief or support. It has taken the past five years to learn that there is a different way of being in the world, that success is not measured by the car that I drive or the house that I own. Reaching back to what has always filled my life with joy, maintaining a garden, working the soil, and feeling the sun on my face as I cultivate food and contribute something beautiful to the world, I ponder this picture often with conflicting curiosity.
I am excited about the Nutritional Therapy program because it intertwines and makes sense of my life experiences. I see my future as one that blends my love and history of agriculture with my desire to understand how food can be used to heal both soul and soil.
