thank you for writing this beautiful piece. I grew up on a farm in NE Iowa, and like you, went away and explored the world, often living in warmer places. I went to grad school in Ann Arbor, though, and lived for many years in Cologne, Germany. Both of those places have so-so winters compared to the climate I grew up in, and I learned that I prefer a true winter, during which the snow doesn't (usually) melt and the days are full of sunshine. Now I'm living in Sweden, and rediscovering the joy of true cold. Nights are long here, but days are often sunny, in a sideways-shine sort of way, since the sun only comes about a fist over the horizon during the darkest times! I live as a volunteer at Ängsbacka, a course and festival center. We have about 12 hectares here and part of my work here in the next years will be regenerating the land and growing more of our own food.
My mother still owns about 400 acres of farmland near the Minnesota border that I will eventually inherit with my two siblings. I wonder what will unfold there...I'd love to see the land farmed regeneratively, the way my father began to do back in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, he died of cancer at only 55 and the land was put back into "conventional" farming. The folks renting from Mom now have a connection with Indigo Ag so I'm hoping they're going in that direction. I love what the Farmer's Footprint movement (Zach Bush's initiative) is doing to help family farms make that transition. I was also inspired by Charles Eisenstein's latest blog here on Substack about visiting farmers in Kansas, and finding many of them open to the economic, ecological (and thus) health benefits coming from this shift.
Please keep writing, as I'd love to follow your story ♥️
Dear Nicole,
thank you for writing this beautiful piece. I grew up on a farm in NE Iowa, and like you, went away and explored the world, often living in warmer places. I went to grad school in Ann Arbor, though, and lived for many years in Cologne, Germany. Both of those places have so-so winters compared to the climate I grew up in, and I learned that I prefer a true winter, during which the snow doesn't (usually) melt and the days are full of sunshine. Now I'm living in Sweden, and rediscovering the joy of true cold. Nights are long here, but days are often sunny, in a sideways-shine sort of way, since the sun only comes about a fist over the horizon during the darkest times! I live as a volunteer at Ängsbacka, a course and festival center. We have about 12 hectares here and part of my work here in the next years will be regenerating the land and growing more of our own food.
My mother still owns about 400 acres of farmland near the Minnesota border that I will eventually inherit with my two siblings. I wonder what will unfold there...I'd love to see the land farmed regeneratively, the way my father began to do back in the early 1980s. Unfortunately, he died of cancer at only 55 and the land was put back into "conventional" farming. The folks renting from Mom now have a connection with Indigo Ag so I'm hoping they're going in that direction. I love what the Farmer's Footprint movement (Zach Bush's initiative) is doing to help family farms make that transition. I was also inspired by Charles Eisenstein's latest blog here on Substack about visiting farmers in Kansas, and finding many of them open to the economic, ecological (and thus) health benefits coming from this shift.
Please keep writing, as I'd love to follow your story ♥️
Love, LeAnn