Heading off Farm

Dear Friends,

I have been accepted to Sewanee’s School of Theology to pursue a Master of Arts in Religion and the Environment. I am so thrilled, excited (and nervous) at the prospect. 

Why am I doing this.. And why now.

As many of you know I feel particularly called to the mending work of land care and this entails many different facets. For the past five years the majority of my work has been very much on the ground in the daily care and restoration of Beaus family farm (also known as Laird Woodland Farm) This has been such a learning journey and an opportunity for us to test the things that are in our hearts in the fire of a real place. These last five years have also been really beautiful and also deeply challenging-- for a confluence of reasons (think perfect storm sort of scenario)

This summer I had a wonderful opportunity to do a writers retreat with Estuaries. I spent a delightful week in the redwood forest of Mendocino reading, reflecting, writing and thinking and much of what I was considering is our relationship with land and place. As I rode back down the coast I made a decision--I really want to be having these conversations with others who are also thinking about these sorts of relationships.

I began pursuing several different possibilities but one place consistently stood out from all the rest: Sewanee’s school of theology had a program that was exactly what I was looking for; a sneaky way for a humanities kid to dive into the world of environmental science through a theological lens. In addition I was impressed by the way their campus and teaching were intimately situated in their specific place. And as a bonus that place happened to be pretty close to my family. 

In the meantime, this particular iteration of Laird Woodland Farm will become smaller. This is still our place, and the farm is filled with things that will grow with or without us. Practically what this means is we will not have an Herbal CSA or any herbal products for the 2025 growing season. We will, of course, continue to care for this place and make regular trips back during school breaks, while Beau’s parents will continue as full-time stewards of this place.

Thank you to each of you who have supported us through the years; we hope that this shift will be toward more robust farming systems that support small farms and those that stay and farm them, that this shift will give us new language and imagination for the care of broken land, bodies and communities, and most of all, that in this shift we will continue to be faithful in care towards our particular place.