Unlike many writers, I considered selling one of my strengths. If the book business is a biathlon, I might be middle of the pack with regard to prose, but will always surge ahead when ringing the bell.

When I became a Bookman

The irony is that during the summer of 1984, as a college junior, I did sell books - as in the Webster Student Handbook door-to door for Southwestern Publishing based in Nashville. I still remember my spiel. After a week of intensive training in TN our team from Smith College (A WHOLE OTHER STORY) drove the outskirts of Detroit, what would be our territory for the summer. Little did I know I’d received a crash course in human nature: how predictable we are in our objections, how to deflect them early, how to prospect, and always be closing, how each 30 minute pitch was a deposit in the bank of statistics – if I was diligent, I could count on an average rate of conversion every day. I won weekly sales awards! I wish I had a picture from that summer to share - but I learned never ignore “Beware of Dog” signs. Combine that with five years spent in a bankrupted department store industry, and I understand something about managing inventory as well.

So, you won’t be surprised I bring that experience to the farm! In addition to the societal and environmental impetus for starting Flynn Creek Farm, the commercial instinct was just below the surface. Finding a middle ground where we can do the right thing while eking out some profit is the goal. After all, if our farming model cannot be commercially successful, it has zero chance of being replicated in a capitalistic society.

Right out of the gate, our top line was buoyed by a large-volume wholesale account in Forage Kitchens for which we are extremely grateful. However, and what I didn’t truly appreciate in year one, is that profitable small farms must cultivate a variety of revenue streams: wholesale, retail, CSA, farm stand, offering diversified products as well.

I’ve written before about my only-childhood, spending many hours alone and the vibrant imaginary life that resulted. When the occasional playmate did appear, however, I sort of demanded we play store. One day I asked my mother if I could set up a tag sale table on the sidewalk and after the knick knacks she’d given me were all picked over, I sold my father’s favorite Edith Pfaff albums as well as my mother’s foul weather gear. so yeah…..

I finally have a real farm store in which to invest my energy! We sold shares to 75 families over the winter! We are attending the Dane County Farmer’s Market, the oldest continuous farmer’s market in the nation that sets up every Saturday morning around the state capital. And we have partnered with a local technology company to create an app so wholesale accounts can view our availability in real time and place orders really easily. Baby steps on the road to figuring out what works, to finding our niche.

If the kindest thing you can do for an author, in a world where fewer and fewer people read, is to share and review their books, then the kindest thing you can do for the food system is to purchase food at a farmer’ market our directly from a local farmer. It is the healthiest option! Many people are so disconnected from their local food system that they don’t even know what is regional and what is seasonal. Here in Wisconsin, it is time for asparagus, winter spinach, and rhubarb!!

Emerging from the solitary writing life, I love connecting with folks at the markets, predicting what they will say (haha), and getting surprised from time to time. I do love connecting with you all as well…. It’s not just about remaining relevant, it’s often the nice messages I receive in reply that get me back to the keyboard every morning…. (hint, hint)

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What I’m reading

James Rebanks - loved this book. I learned a lot about farming in the United Kingdom as well as other places, and about raising cattle and sheep. This memoir portrays a famer’s nostalgia for the way his grandfather did things, the adoption of modern practices in his father’s generation, and then a return to what felt most right for him. For more good nuggets from Rebanks, follow him @herdyshepherd1 on insta. Gorgeous photos of his Belted Galloway cattle and their calves!!

We created a society obsessed with food choices and ethics, while disconnecting most people from the practical agricultural and ecological knowledge to make those choices. Now people worry about what they should eat but have largely lost sight of how their local landscapes should be farmed and what foodstuffs they can produce sustainably.

Lily King - a favorite New England author. This is a fun, fast, rom-commy type of novel. Perfect for a holiday :)

More John Williams !! Our book club read STONER by Williams and now we are on to the book for which he won the National Book Award. So interesting comparing the actors of the Roman Empire with our current cast of characters….

Heather Hansman - DOWN RIVER should be required reading for anyone living in the west or at least in one of the states drawing water off the Colorado River. This book got me so riled up. I have been fighting the battle with our HOA in Park City about eliminating lawns and sprinkler systems in our mountain desert landscape and replacing with mulched beds of drought-resistant native plantings. I am not getting far, but I will always be the squeaky wheel and wont quit. The hypocrisy and struggle I feel caring deeply for the environment while being a season pass holder at a ski resort that makes a ton of snow…. well I am going to have to reconcile that one…. As a farming friend has often said to me, we all live on the spectrum of hypocrisy - it just depends where you can get comfortable. Folks, after reading this book you should feel uncomfortable.

Thanks for reading until the end!!

Happy Spring and Happy Marketing!!

Love,

Jeannie

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Spring abounds with metaphor and I will spare you the corny ones, but it is a time for setting intentions, “planting seeds,” and ridding oneself of winter heaviness. My intentions, as always, center on writing. Write more, not necessarily more words, but spend more time in it. Achieve flow state, to the point where it is possible to write what scares me. Even to write what I would never dream of showing another person.

When I’m able to do that, writing becomes an emotional spring cleaning. As opposed to the physical cleaning I’m undertaking as I prepare for our journey to Wisconsin. We will drive over three days. People ask why - and I can always name our dog as an excuse, but a day coming out of the mountains, a day crossing the plains, and then a day entering active farmland allows for a much needed psychological transition toward the work ahead. This week I’m saying goodbye to my favorite Utah things and this morning came upon a moose while heading out for one last cross-country ski.

Development in Park City has the moose population displaced and confused, not sure where to be. And although nature can be comforting at times like these, its fragility is ever-present. Wandering moose and this record-warm winter - are they aberrations or signs of things to come?

Nature is usually a salve from life’s worries, but when its health also causes anxiety, a great form of escapism is story. Good books and movies have been there for me this winter! I’ve never been more invested in the Oscars, having watched and enjoyed so many of the nominated films. I credit being ‘in the know’ to Park City Film as well as this town’s Sundance vibe. I must also credit my son and his fiancé who are cinephiles and so in an effort to be conversant, well… I go to the theatre!

I adored Jessie Buckley who won best actress for her role as Agnes in Hamnet, (adapted from one of my all time favorite books by Maggie O’Farrell) who, in her acceptance speech, praised “the beautiful chaos of a mother’s heart.” Amen to that. I also adored Agnes as a character because she is of the forest, of the natural world. People may have called her a witch but she knew the medicinal value of plants and that all living things are connected. She may have seemed different to her contemporaries and to many modern viewers, but to me she is the ideal. #goals

As I’ve written before in this newsletter, human beings relate to one another through story. As CEO of Flynn Creek Farm, I am not only the bookkeeper, the HR department, and the general contractor, but most importantly, I am the chief story-teller. Every grant application, every conversation with a customer, or with the town council involves telling our story. People want to know who we are, and what we are hoping to accomplish - and they need to be reminded constantly, with spoken words, with written words, with photographs, in film, and through design. I’m committed to telling the story of our burgeoning farm, but also the story of the regenerative farming movement, and how we fit into it.

Retelling a story is also what we are commanded to do next week during Passover. We will tell the story of the Exodus four times. In our family we do it through song, visual art, text, and with personal anecdotes – because we are all slaves to something.

In his Breaking Matzoh newsletter about Passover, my friend Andy Goldfarb, wrote: What is freedom? Not the dramatic kind that splits seas, but the quieter kind that reshapes a life. How does freedom actually manifest in our daily choices, our habits, our conversations, our tables?

I’ll be thinking more about this question as we hit the open road, crossing this beautiful country’s great expanse, but lately I equate freedom with creative expression, and the discipline to protect the time it requires. Freedom is saying “no” in order to stay true to my priorities, to flow. My son recently reminded me of the additive nature of subtraction. Freedom is the ability to make change, as the title of this publication Constantly Curating suggests. It is letting go and simplifying in order to focus on what truly feeds my soul - my marriage, our kids, and purposeful work.

I invite you to be a virtual guest at our seder table. Please share what freedom, or even what more light-filled days feel like for you….

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What I’m Reading

WHIDBEY by T. Kira Madden is a smart, provocative novel that examines the impact one man’s crimes - on his victims, his family, the public. I am so impressed by this book because after reading THE TRIBE OF FATHERLESS GIRLS by Madden several years ago, I thought of her as primarily a memoirist. I wondered if she could pull off a novel…. A recent feature on her in Poet’s & Writers dispels that myth - she considers herself first and foremost a writer of fiction. THE TRIBE was a very poignant book for me, the reading of which sparked some major revelations. WHIDBEY is doing the same, as trauma is turned over and over as one of its main themes. I highly recommend all Madden’s writing.

Our FrizzLit Book Club spent over four months diving into MOBY DICK… alas we are done, but never truly resolved the debate as to whether MOBY DICK is the Great American Novel….. The club has moved on to John Williams!! Much easier to read - straightforward and clear!! We are starting with STONER, published in 1965, The New York Times Book Review famously described it as “rarer than a great novel— it is a perfect novel.” It is also a campus novel and readers of THE NINE will appreciate how that genre really resonates with me!! Coincidentally both books by T Kira Madden have themes of only-childhood as does STONER…. and as an only child myself, I feel a connection - reading something of my own experiences in them. ONLY CHILDREN UNITE!!

And some cool films….

The Testament of Ann Lee

Ann Lee was the founder of the Shaker religion - and one word that really describes this film is zeal. It is intense!! Not a relaxing night out at all! But worth seeing, so different than any film I’ve ever watched and incredibly beautifully filmed.

The President’s Cake

Filmed on location in Iraq and locally cast without professional actors, this is such a moving story as well as a rare glimpse into a marshland peasant village. It is fiction, and the main character and her rooster are ones that will stay with you for a while. Such a poignant expression of what it feels like to live under authoritarian rule and how a country’s youth become indoctrinated.

Thanks for reading to the end! I love when you all write back!!

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Given all the time we are spending working on the farm, people often ask, “Are you still writing?” The answer is “yes,” although my manuscript feels like a big hot mess right now. Nevertheless, I’m at it every day, braiding three distinct but related pieces together, all relating to food. I thought writing fiction was tricky, but the honesty demanded by creative non-fiction is challenging, even painful at times, but that’s probably why I’m inspired to keep at it.

One strand of the braid explores my lifelong relationship with food and how it was shaped growing up in 1970’s America. The working title of the manuscript is “Raised on Froot Loops” which pretty much sums it up. However, I also dive into my formative high school years, working in an ice cream parlor, as well as being newly married into a Jewish family where food expressed a lot of things, including love.

A second strand tries to explain how John and I ended up on a farm outside Madison, Wisconsin and the healing nature of the work, the people, the land, and of course the food. The chapters about the farm are contemporary and visceral, however I’m without true takeaways from the last four years because of how new it is. It would be self-aggrandizing to conclude we’ve achieved our purpose of transparency and food accessibility less than four years in. However, I do love describing the wide-eyed impressions of a beginning farmer, but the pages are akin to a sauce that needs more time on the stove, these chapters need to simmer.

The third strand, where I reflect on our culture, giving anecdotes of the many ways in which we’ve been deceived by advertisers, food companies, and our government, is unfortunately very easy to write. I don’t need to go all the way back to the 1970’s when the harmful effects of processed food may have not been truly appreciated. Heck, who thought back then that food wrapped in plastic, or sitting on the shelves in cardboard boxes would become a staple of the American diet?

No, I don’t need to go to the ‘70’s because the headlines in the past month alone have provided enough heartbreaking evidence that greed and corruption continue to rank above the health of our environment and of our population.

On February 18, 2026, the president signed an executive order “Promoting the National Defense by ensuring an adequate supply of elemental phosphorous and glyphosate-herbicides.” How the nation’s defense hinges on spraying our food with toxic chemicals is beyond me.

He said, “Lack of access to glyphosate-based herbicides would critically jeopardize agricultural productivity, adding pressure to the domestic food system.” To me, this sounds like a gift to chemical and big Ag lobbies. It’s always about the cash, it’s never been about our health.

Nor the health of farmers…. who are incentivized with government subsidies to grow corn and soy, using GMO seeds that can withstand widespread spraying. Developing cancer is an all too common occupational hazard.

The EPA’s safety limit for glyphosate exposure from food are twice the levels allowed in the EU. And despite not being truthful about its harmful impacts on our food, its runoff is recognized by the agency as a drinking water contaminant.

As of February 2026, Bayer/Monsanto has proposed a $7.25 billion settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits, aiming to end long-standing litigation claiming its glyphosate-based weedkiller causes non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This new proposal follows over $11 billion in previous payouts and covers current and future claims. Anyone who has ever used “Round-Up” knows it not only kills weeds, but everything it hits, it poisons our soil, our water, and our food.

Even though these policies enrage me, I want my book to ultimately be a message of hope. One thing I’ve learned from other farmers is that when humans get out of the way, nature heals itself. And scientific studies have shown that just three days on a diet of organic food can greatly reduce the amount of glyphosate found in human urine. We can heal ourselves as well.

Some cool news…..

An essay I wrote for ’ ON BEING JEWISH NOW anthology was selected along with 11 other essays to be part of a play being performed by The Braid in locations around Los Angeles. If you are in Southern California, please check it out!

What I’ve been Reading:

Not much because I was glued to the Olympics for two solid weeks!!

The most inspirational athletes of the games, in my opinion were the women. Such grit, admirable mindsets, and role models for laying it on the line.

Speaking of women…. 2026 is the International Year of the Woman Farmer. Land stewards who are especially suited to healing, nurturing, and caring for the planet. Laying it on the line to do the right thing.

If you want….

…something more about how to protect yourself and those you love from the onslaught of poison in our food system, I’ve gathered some tips below:

One of the biggest things you can do is prioritize organic groceries, especially for the foods known to have high glyphosate levels. Filter your water, limit processed foods, take your shoes off before entering your home, NEVER USE ROUND UP, wear organic textiles, and wash your produce well before eating it!!

Buy organic, especially for the foods below:

1. Spinach

2. Strawberries

3. Kale, collard & Mustard Greens

4. Grapes

5. Peaches

6. Cherries

7. Necatrines

8. Pears

9. Apples

10. Blackberries

11. Blueberries

12. Potatoes

Foods with the highest levels of glyphosate:

• Oats

• Wheat and wheat based foods

• Beans and legumes

• Honey

• Soy

• Corn

• Almonds

• Apples

• Grapes

• Rice

Many thanks for reading to the end, sending you wishes for all good things!

Best,

Jeannie

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I write to you from Utah where we are experiencing a seriously DRY January… and I must admit to feeling climate change anxiety. Minimal snowpack is a big environmental concern. But as a distraction in Park City, we’re closing the curtain on our last Sundance Film Festival before it moves to Colorado. I’ve been moved by the poignant tributes to Robert Redford and all he did to promote independent film and storytelling. An inspiring example of giving back. And as an indie author, I say ROCK ON!!

In addition to seeing movies, I’ve begun an online farming course with a spiritual bent. Offered by the Jewish Farmers Network, the emphasis of the first two classes was about measuring time. One of the greatest Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, asserted Jews are a people of time and not space. Living in the diaspora, we don’t gather in cathedrals, we sanctify time instead, usually at home with our families. We say blessings when we lie down and when we rise up, and most importantly we observe Shabbat, the day of rest. The Jewish calendar is alive, it is spiral-linear, combining both cyclical and linear components. It is Lunisolar - the months track moon cycles and years track solar cycles. It is filled with festivals and holidays, while being a tool for tracking Torah portions, yarzheits, Psalm readings and yes, agricultural tasks !!

Stewarding land, I am always thinking about time, a timeline for projects, when and how to accomplish them, but also I see time as a cycle, stretching forward and backward, imagining our duty to unborn generations as well as drawing upon the wisdom of the people who have come before us.

All this thinking about time, brought back an idea I learned in THE ILLUMINATION CODE by Kim Chestney in which the author describes quantum intelligence, including the idea that everything that will happen has already happened, and it is only the human brain that forces linear order on events.

I’ve written before how these early days on Flynn Creek Farm already have me considering time differently. There is asparagus time, strawberry time, tomato time, bird migration time. As I age, I’ve stopped remembering numerical years but use reference points to mark what was going on - the years we lived in Cincinnati, in Boston, in Zurich. There was before the pandemic and after the pandemic. And there will be our Utah years, soon they will be those with Sundance and those without.

Using Sundance as an example of something I know is ending, I am able to experience this last one with a sense of nostalgia and appreciation. But what about the last times of which we are never forewarned? How I wish I had known that my last conversation with my mother was going to be just that. Or if I had known the last Passover seder with my family gathered in our Boston dining room table was going to be the last, how I might have refused to get up from the table.

I have often mused, is it better to know or not to know? (Although the theory of quantum intelligence implies we know everything deep inside. It is a matter of being open to accessing the information.)

Every conversation around the sanctity of time returns to the true (but cliche) expression to BE PRESENT. As I type these words, I am present to the beautiful music my son is playing on the piano, even to the action of the keyboard under my fingers. To my clear nasal passages after a swim, each breath moving in and out of my lungs without effort. To notice, to be aware and to never take tomorrow for granted. A mantra for the writer, the farmer, and for every soul seeking an optimal human experience.

The Best of what I’ve seen and read this month……

Give Me The Ball

I mention this documentary that premiered during Sundance about Billie Jean King first because the message she leaves the audience with is that being present was her secret for not only winning championships, but for accomplishing so much for social change, women’s rights, and creating opportunities for so many female athletes. Her ethos for giving back was compared to Robert Redford’s - both of them people who could have racked up many more awards or dollars for themselves, but turned their energy toward helping the next generation.

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Taylor Jenkins Reid is one of my favorite authors. I listened to the audiobook, which is a must for consuming her earlier novel, Daisy Jones and The Six…. In an eerily similar vein to GIVE ME THE BALL, the Billie Jean King documentary, I was transported back to the ‘60’s and ‘70’s - and even though I was alive then, I sat in pseudo-shock remembering the way women were treated, and the homophobia that people were up against. This is a suspenseful and intelligent read in which I learned a great deal about the space program, and rooted like hell for the main character. Similarly to how I felt writing my first novel, EDEN, ATMOSPHERE, and GIVE ME THE BALL are important for young people to take in for a reminder that it wasn’t so long ago (one or two generations?) that the marginalization of huge swaths of our population was socially acceptable. As Billie Jean said at the end of the film, every generation needs to earn it. Do not take equal rights for granted. We have taken a giant step backward losing reproductive health care access. Stand up for your rights every day.

Tuner

When this film becomes distributed widely, it’s a must-see! Blending comedy, romance, drama, and thriller this is a genre bender that boils down to one primal sense - sound. The composition and sound design are masterful, leaving the audience experiencing the main character’s auditory condition, and most of all, what it means to strive for harmony amongst the chaos.

Thanks for reading to the end.

With love,

Jeannie

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This evening we lit all eight candles on our menorah, celebrating the resilience and hope of the Jewish people. This evening is also the winter solstice under a new moon. All combined, a poignant metaphor of the human spirit choosing to illuminate the longest and darkest night of the year. The new moon’s energy promotes fresh starts and intentions, and tonight that power is amplified by the fact we’re turning a corner, as hours of daylight will increase for the next six months. And let’s not forget the secular new year approaching, a time for making resolutions.

I’ve been in my head a great deal over the past six weeks, while driving cross country, hibernating in the mountains to write, and planning 2026 farm operations. As for writing, I’m attempting memoir which requires looking in the rearview mirror at my life, and, using a metaphor from the farm, COMPOSTING. I’m turning over my sh*t for the sake of creativity. Compost catalyzes growth, and I hope will also sprout art that resonates.

Coincidentally, our Flynn Creek Farm team is spending a lot of time planning our composting objectives. What quantities do we want to spread and where, and how much can we create with waste and inputs from our farm as well from Forage Kitchen? In a nutshell, we mix cow manure, soil, and wood chips in piles and turn it until it achieves ideal internal temperatures. Spreading physical compost replenishes the topsoil with organic matter, sustaining the giant invisible web of underground life which, for the most part, remains a scientific mystery.

A regenerative farm system is often referred to as a closed loop because it doesn’t hide or bury its sh*t, a farm turns waste into a vital source for good. That’s also what writers do. For me, writing is both composting the past while lighting candles on the darkest night of the year, not a lick of moonlight in the sky, turning my pain, joy and regrets over and over. Using maturity, distance, humor and wisdom I also aim for my sh*t to reach an ideal “internal temperature.” Writing a memoir, cultivating a farm, and sustaining my light, my life force, to live each day in service of these efforts, and to never lose hope they might make the world a better place, these shall be my New Year’s resolutions.

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Art inspires art and immersion in story is my greatest pleasure as well as a boost to my writing! Below is a sampling of what I’ve been consuming recently.

Come See Me in The Good Light

The audience favorite documentary at Sundance 2025, this film follows poet, Andrea Gibson, as they confront terminal cancer. Andrea states something I’ve heard before - that a person only starts living and appreciating every day, every hour, every minute after receiving a terminal diagnosis. This made me laugh and made me cry. It was incredibly poignant. I am now older than both my mother and grandmother when they each died, and so I sometimes carry this eerie feeling that I am living on borrowed time. I try to approach each day with intention because I’ve been given time they never had. If you want a film that grapples with life and death, I recommend.

Sentimental Value

Winning the Grand Prix at Cannes 2025 and a top contender for the Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category, this Norwegian production explores a family inhabiting a beautiful home for the better part of a century. Specifically, it is the story of sisters, Nora and Agnes, as adults as they reluctantly reconnect with their famous, movie-director father. He has written a script he would like Nora to star in, and proposes filming it in the family home. A highly charged request, their views on art threaten to keep them apart, but in the end, art is the gateway to their reconciliation. This father / daughter relationship felt very true to me and the happy ending was a shot of hope I didn’t expect.

Fierce Attachments

This classic memoir depicts a mother-daughter relationship. It is a testament to patterns of behavior repeating through generations. Gornick writes about a relationship that will shape her life, her attitudes about men and love, and for better or worse one that can never be severed.

The Phoebe Variations

A favorite author, releases her latest novel with ’ Zibby Books. I downloaded the audiobook on Libro.fm and quickly became hooked. Discovering her true origin story, Phoebe is shaken and clings to people and situations who let her escape her adopted mother’s household at the end of her senior year in high school. This is a novel about motherhood and different types of mothering and, of course, their ripple effects. If you are a fan of character-driven domestic dramas, you will appreciate Phoebe’s struggles growing into a woman in the absence of role models.

Big Team Farms

Recommended by a fellow farmer, this book “is a journey among farm and food businesses that are challenging convention when thinking about growing food, working together, and caring for landscapes. These farms are not obsessing about small scale and family ownership, but instead prioritizing their customers, employees, and success as a business.”

Moby Dick

Reading MOBY DICK for the second time, now over four months in an online bookclub with . I am also enjoying Nathanial Philbrick’s WHY READ MOBY DICK as an accompaniment. Herman Melville was long dead when this novel became a sensation and later dubbed “The great American novel.” He broke so many rules and conventions when writing this - this epic has also been referred to as “The great permission-giving American novel.” It is a wonderful reminder that authors write first and foremost for themselves, in order to manifest their heart’s exoression.

Pluribus

My guilty pleasure, this TV series on Apple TV, is my current go-to. The main character, Carol, is a novelist who is traveling home from a book tour for a book that achieved great commercial success, however not something she was particularly proud of. Coinciding with her return to her hometown of Albequerque, everything in the world has gone haywire. Carol’s caustic and frustrated reaction to the “new normal” is really well done and one I can relate to!!

Thanks for reading!! And Happy Holidays to all.

With gratitude,

Jeannie

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Dear Friends,

Thanksgiving is a time I’m fueled by family togetherness as much as by the meal we will cook. As it happens, my current writing project weaves together reflections on our nation’s food system, impressions of a beginning farmer, and my journey from junk food addict to anorexic to a non-processed local/organic champion. (Sort of a hot mess right now, but hopefully coming together!)

As we enter the holiday season where so much of the celebrating revolves around food and sharing meals, and I’m consumed by the above-mentioned writing project, I can’t help considering how, for the modern day woman, the idea of food and diet is a jumble of mixed messaging.

We bring our families together over meals, but encounter trade-offs between what is convenient and what is healthy. And although feeding others is key to the expectation of being nourishers and caretakers, when it comes to our own bodies, food can feel like the enemy. As a result, we cling to our diets and (appetite suppressing drugs) as religion. “I’m Paleo, I’m Vegan, I’m Gluten Free!” Reading labels and sourcing healthy ingredients can take on the doggedness of a detective on the case. Passing up food can feel rude, while eating can lead to guilt. Before John entered my life, I was very distrustful of food in general. To marry a man who insists on expressing his love with food, well, that was an adjustment. At first it created tension, but eventually a major shift occurred. I’ve certainly gained a healthier perspective with age, but still, why are we the only species that faces such dilemmas when it comes to eating?

I would love to get your take on this topic!!

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Anticipating an abundance spread across our Thanksgiving table, with enough leftovers to last the weekend, I’m giving thanks for the loving energy infused in the meal - for the chefs who preserve recipes and traditions handed down through generations. Given our experience at Flynn Creek Farm, I also have special appreciation for the love with which growers do their jobs- organic farmers are not in the business for the money or fame, they resist the forces of big ag every season to bring consumers pure food not tainted with chemicals. If you still have shopping to do, show your love by shopping local and organic!

And holiday meals make great writing fodder!

EDEN centered around the Fourth of July, but a tense dynamic around a Thanksgiving table inspired a pivotal scene in DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE. Bets enters a charged atmosphere, spending the holiday with her roommate’s family, setting tensions in motion. Writing character interaction with relatable holiday stress as a backdrop is something I actually enjoy. Better the conflict happen in fiction and not IRL !!

Back on the Farm….

November is a transitional time. When Brady and I began our winter migration west, there was a dusting of snow on the ground. I hope we are able to maintain a consistent blanket of the white stuff over the earth. Last winter had very deep freezes but with little snow – meaning many of our perennials didn’t make it. But with regard to what we can control, John and I are very optimistic for 2026. We are in the best shape ever with regard to a business plan, infrastructure and new team members signed on to join us.

Some progress in pictures:

My Roadtripping Play List:

Over the course of a three day, eighteen hour drive…

I’d start each morning listening to the headlines

then a few chapters of MOBY DICK, as our beloved Frizzlit Book Club will spend the next four months reading it together.

and of all the audiobooks I downloaded and toggled between, this one really hooked me. I really loved e. lockhart’s WE WERE LIARS and FAMILY OF LIARS, and WE FELL APART is a stand-alone but also a completion of her trilogy. (Sort of like what yours truly did with her novels :)) Her writing is sharp and concise and the characterizations are wonderful. If you like it, try the other two!

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On the eve of our friends’ departure, we dined at a favorite Madison restaurant where conversation meandered to their impressions of the weekend. They were kind and complimentary, of course, but when the word “weird” was used to describe the “intensity” with which I’ve thrown myself into life on the farm I bristled. Then again, I couldn’t help but chuckle, because oh yeah, we’d taken them to a Biodynamic field day on Saturday afternoon. And well, yeah, it was a little weird.

After driving 90 minutes and parking the car, we wondered if we were in the right place. We turned a corner back behind a shed, and found this scene….

Wait, you might be asking, “What is Biodynamic farming and why are people filling horns with cow shit?”

Combining the principals of organic farming with the idea that the earth benefits from homeopathic remedies, Biodynamics is something we’ve begun to learn more about. It is based on work by Rudolph Steiner in the early 1900’s in Europe. It is described very succinctly by Daron Joffe in his book, CITIZEN FARMER in the following way:

Biodynamic agriculture is a type of organic farming that treats the farm as a self-contained living organism that can provide everything it needs from within. It is a closed-loop sustainable approach that focuses on growing plants, feeding animals, making compost, and replenishing the soil. Repeating this cycle creates a regenerative process that improves the fertility of the farm over time rather than depleting it. Biodynamic farmers also apply homeopathic medicine to the earth by making special preparations to further enhance the quality of the soil, crops, and animals they produce.

One of these is Horn Manure is used for enhancing the downward earthly working forces of lime, which stimulates digestion in the soil. It is made by stuffing a cow’s horn with fresh manure. The horns are buried in the fall and dug up in the spring. A small amount per acre of the resulting humous is mixed with rainwater and stirred in a rotating vortex for one hour, which is a type of homeopathic “potentization”, and then sprayed over the land.

Spurred on by this experience and led by a new partner on our farm, we brought the practice back to Flynn Creek Farm where our team stuffed horns with cow manure from our own herd and buried them in a pit we will dig up in the spring. We made additional offerings along with the cow horns and set our intention to continue the work to heal the soil, creating nourishment for people who will go out and do good work in the world. So yes, a little weird, but it is also an opportunity for our team to come together in a spiritual moment.

The fall equinox, the harvest moon, Sukkot, and making horn manure…. being out on this land and attempting to work in sync with nature, it is hard not to sense bigger forces at play. Not that different from my love of Jewish rituals and observations, Biodynamics’ connects us with something larger as we communally honor the reciprocity between the farmer, the land, and the life within it.

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To further cultivate our prairie as well as to create additional manure and compost to support our veggie operation, we have brought on twenty-five bred heifers into our herd. That is livestock speak for twenty-five young pregnant females. We now have forty cows in our native herd which should turn into about sixty-five in the spring when these girls calf.

What I’m reading:

When Good Energy by Casey Means was recommended recently, I had no idea the author was the recent nominee for Surgeon General. For that reason alone, it is an important insight into the philosophy of somebody who will be holding such a rank. Given that millions of copies have sold, I am late to the party commenting about this book….

I’ve already revealed my predilection for things weird and non-conventional so it will be surprise that I am very aligned with Means’ skepticism around our nation’s health care system. I really liked her message and encourage all to read and adopt some if not all the practices within!

Dear Friends,

September has always been my favorite month - I loved returning to school and getting back on the field… either as a player or as a parent/spectator. The month does, however, carry a lot of weight for me. Not only with the soul searching around my birthday, the High Holy Days evoke introspection as well. The question, “How do I want to live my life?” is one I consider often, but while sitting in services, I am also faced with, “Who shall live and who shall die?” Despite it being a metaphorical question, it’s in the back of my mind that neither my mother nor her mother lived past sixty, the age I turned a few days ago. And so, more than ever, I feel like there is no time to waste.

Earlier in September, I gathered with family at a dear aunt’s memorial, then returned to the farm where calves were being born. Our farm family has grown this month with Amos and Kelsey welcoming a healthy baby boy. The birds are migrating south, the tomato plants that we tended so carefully all spring and summer are laden with so much fruit, it is impossible to keep up.

For Flynn Creek Farm’s first retreat, we harvested lamb to be roasted on the rotisserie. I watched through the kitchen window, coffee in hand, as Amos arrived at sunrise to load the sheep in his pickup for slaughter and butchering. I don’t think I had ever been so intimate with the animal I was about to cook and serve. I said a short prayer of gratitude.

I am currently reading RADIANCE OF THE ORDINARY by Tara Couture, in which the author writes essays informed by her farming and homesteading life. After harvesting of an animal for the first time (a bison no less) she reflects:

“That day opened me up to the false narrative around the dichotomies of life. It opened me up to profound truths. And in those truths lived both light and dark, sweet and bitter. It’s not that one exists so the other must too, but that one exists for the other, in the other. Together, one and the same. Joy in pain and pain so that joy may live. All parts in a symphony so brilliantly played that it’s only possible to discern which instrument is playing if we really concentrate.”

Living among livestock has spurred on similar epiphanies for me. To emphasize the message, this morning’s affirmation from Melody Beattie read, “Now life has taken you to a new place, a new place for you, but a place that is ancient. All along, you were not supposed to be getting the answers to what the future held. You were supposed to be learning the magical way of trust and inner guidance….”

Turning myself over 100% to a magical way of trust is still aspirational, but I want to give you a taste of how far I have come:

On a recent afternoon, a foggy haze had settled into the low spots on this hilly farm. Our herd of Black Angus occupied a valley close to the house because the heifers were calving. They were grazing in a safe paddock where the young animals could hide under bushes and trees, and the entire herd could escape the sun or the rain. The palette was straight off of an old oil painting, greens and yellows, light tans and browns, grazing sheep and cattle speckling the land.

We don’t have a social life here in Wisconsin (one reason I love it) but that Saturday evening, we had a party to go to. Still, I walked slowly up the hill from the greenhouse after watering. I was in no hurry to clean up, and meandered closer to the grazing herd in hopes of catching a glimpse of a playful calf loping about.

I had to run to the kitchen for binoculars to be sure, but what had appeared to be a pinkish water balloon hanging down from a heifer’s tail was in fact, her amniotic sac. And while I was fumbling to focus the lenses, it burst. I doubled back to the house calling to John that a calf was about to be born!

We perched on a rock a little ways up the hill in our smelly clothes, passing the binoculars back and forth, just watching. This girl wasn’t hiding under a tree or in the shade, but was on full display on a hillside She paced and then got down on the ground, folding over on her front limbs, and then dropping gently to her side. She let out long, fog-horn-like moans. The rest of the herd kept a respectful distance but were very much paying attention.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw John checking his watch. “We are going to be late for the party,” I said.

“How long do you think it will it take?” he asked.

I had no idea, but given her urgency, up and down off the ground pacing and moaning, I made up the answer he needed.

“Thirty minutes tops,.”

The next time she stood, there were unmistakably two little hooves emerging from under her tail. “Look!” I said, passing the binoculars back to John and a bit smug that my prediction was likely coming true. But inside I was nervous for her, wondering if the labor was going well. Our animals live in natural conditions and we trust them to know what to do. Healthy new-born calves will stand within a few minutes and begin nursing. Those that aren’t strong likely won’t make it, and in the majority of instances we don’t interfere. But watching this girl give birth, my urge to assist in some way rose to the surface and became intense. My first instinct was to call somebody, but it was a Saturday evening and nothing had yet gone wrong, and I wanted to leave our crew in peace. Down deep, I knew keeping a distance was the most helpful thing we could do. I sat on the rock with the binoculars hoping, “C’mon, you can do this. You can do this.”

About ten minutes later, a calf was born, emerging on the grass inside a white mucous membrane, one his mother knew to immediately lick off. She even knew to reveal the babe’s face first. The other mothers in the herd, came over to help and the calves inched a little closer. The calf lay in the grass as the remaining membrane was licked from his slick black coat. He perked up his head and twitched his ears. John and I gave a cheer and a high five before going inside to shower. Before heading off to the party, we checked on mama and calf to see the baby standing up on all fours, we texted Amos that our herd had grown by one. Yay.

We sat and stared at the scene from our driveway. We had just witnessed something quite remarkable, almost as if a higher power revealed this miracle in the most obvious way to a couple of novices who were missing the point. The birthing begged us to slow down, was practically yelling at us in those spare moments between finishing our chores and heading out to a party, “You can’t miss this! This is why you are here! This is what you are doing this for!”

Despite feeling like there is no time to waste, I am slowing down. My current writing is very much inspired by this experience. And I am afraid it will take a long time to write. The farm is a constant reminder that nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

Talking Books:

This podcast also dropped during September too…… I had a great time chatting with Natasha!

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The summer has been filled with good times, but I’d trade some of those for good timing. This has been a season of intense rains flooding our fields in southwest Wisconsin, making it impossible to use certain machinery, and delaying construction on planned improvements. John often reminds me of the founder of Red Bull saying it took his company ten years to become an “overnight success.” Some podcasts I’ve listened to recount similar stories of persistence and innovation. More often than not, they illustrate examples of hard work colliding with good timing. Of course, if the hard work and perseverance aren’t there to begin with no amount of luck will help…. the work sets you up to recognize the opportunity.

What podcasts are you listening to?

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A worn out cliché, but timing is everything. Meeting the love of your life, finding the home of your dreams, even scoring concert tickets when your favorite act is blowing up the internet.

It seems I’ve chosen two industries to work in where timing is not only everything, but laughably so. Successful book publishing depends on striking a connection with agents, publishers, booksellers, influencers, and readers. Congrats to all the “Romantasy” and “Fan Fiction” authors out there dominating the lists right now! Writing what is trending is not what I’m in it for, but with EDEN I did enjoy riding the wave of a viral “summer read.”

And then there’s regenerative farming which benefits from consumer demand for organic, healthy food but also depends greatly on the weather and the economy at large. More on how we’re managing the ups and downs on Flynn Creek Farm, but first a plug….

…. for my September 10 event. 😛 Attending book clubs are more fun than work in my opinion, but continued invitations to share DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE is my definition of success. Click here to register!

Timing and the Food System

We began the season with a well thought out plan based on anticipated demand for crops. Our plan included growing in excess of that demand as to not short our customers.

Our primary customer, Forage Kitchens, has eight fast-casual restaurants between Madison and Milwaukee that provide wonderful, healthy options for people on the go. Distribution through a traditional retail channel like Forage is somewhat of a breakthrough for a small, organic, vegetable operation. This could be ground-breaking if it works because it is not until local, organic food finds shelf space where the masses shop and eat, that 1) farmers will have sustainable businesses and 2) consumers will have access to healthy options that haven’t been transported thousands of miles (ie a more sustainable, resilient food system).

What is keeping most grocery and restaurant chains from ordering from smaller, local organic farms? Traditional distribution channels are consolidating with an eye toward operating efficiency, thus sourcing from large growers and consolidators- dealing with a couple large vendors instead of a dozen smaller ones. This trend coincides with an American consumer who has been trained to expect over-night access to everything. She expects it now, and she doesn’t want to pay too much. She often demands foods that are neither local nor seasonal - for example avocados to make guacamole for the Super Bowl party in January. She is not full of bad will, but has just been so far removed from where her food comes from that bananas from South America are a staple as are berries grown in Chile.

Similarly, Forage Kitchens expects consistency and high quality from our fields. But what happens when BAD TIMING strikes in the form of deluge rainfall washing out beds or disease affecting certain crops? As busy kitchen staff working with a set menu, they might flip the switch and stop ordering from us in favor of a large distributer. Changing the menu in real time is difficult. Flexibity is challenging - not just for Forage but for all companies seeking maximum efficiency - flexibility is challenging for our culture in general. But if we, as consumers, make our preferences known - if we become more flexible and more knowledgable….. just think of the possibilities….

Ways our farm tries to mitigate against BAD TIMING

• Invest in infrastructure that makes us more resilient when rainfall is brutal (ie high tunnels that cover the beds and in-ground drainage systems)

• Planting an excess…

  • If we end up holding the excess we either

  • store what is possible in our coolers or freezers

  • create a preserved product (see below!!)

  • take to farmer’s market

  • sell at our on-site farm store, or

  • donate to the local food pantry

The next time you are about to hit “purchase” on an item you need to receive the next day, take a moment to consider how that decision perpetuates the crazy culture we find ourselves in where products are transported thousands of miles to satisfy a craving. Yes we all love avocados, but is there a regional food in season to celebrate and enjoy? Support your regional food system by requesting your grocer stock local and organic.

What I’m Reading:

Written by a great farmer, architect, a thinker on the topic…..

And as our summer course continues to dive deep into the work of Joan Didion, I began listening to this one as I harvested roma tomatoes last weekend. It is compelling, but I also find it very triggering…. so be forewarned ….

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…..for a long weekend in Park City where I participated in the inaugural UNDERSTORY writers’ conference (thanks to John for covering on the farm) conceived by the incomparable Annie Tucker, the editor of EDEN and THE NINE.

I led a workshop at the conference called “Making Ancient Texts Your Own,” a session on the practice of recontextualizing myths and legends in novels. A great example is my friend Ivy Pochoda’s new release ECSTASY in which she retells Euripides’ “The Bacchae” through a feminist lens.

For me, the pleasure of writing is amplified when I put plots and themes in conversation with foundational or classic texts. Readers of EDEN, THE NINE, and DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE will appreciate how I have contemporized imagery and storylines from Genesis and The Book of Samuel. This is because the human condition, the joy and struggle surrounding human relationships, is timeless. We have invented so much as a species, but when it comes to love, desire, jealousy, and needing to belong, we haven’t changed a bit.

I hadn’t realized how badly I needed a weekend off the farm, (the dry mountain air helped), to deeply reconnect with my writing. I was blessed to spend time IRL with my Park City writing group, as well as my publisher, Brooke Warner, of She Writes Press, and so many “She Writes sisters” in attendance.

“Retellings” on the farm….

Earlier this month, John and I visited THE INSTITUTE FOR SOIL AND SOUL, located north of Chicago, because a great way to increase our farming knowledge is by visiting other farms. Created as a for-profit organic vegetable farm, SOIL & SOUL is now a 501C-3 that donates 10,000 pounds of regeneratively grown produce each year to those in need. They identify as a Jewish Farm, using closed-loop, regenerative practices that parallel principles based in the Torah, the most fundamental of which are to repair the world and feed the hungry.

While retellings from the Jewish Bible are in my fiction-writing bones, it is not a coincidence the ancient wisdom espoused in the Torah lines up with the way we manage Flynn Creek Farm - do not waste, leave the corners of your fields for those in want, treat animals ethically, leave the fruits of young trees, and observe sabbatical years- essentially the same farming principles employed by indigenous people and centuries of small family farms before WWII. Just as the human condition is timeless, so are the components of what makes healthy soil.

I related to more ancient wisdom in Robin Wall Kimmerer’s THE SERVICEBERRY, which reinforces a landowner’s ethical responsibility, striving for biodiversity as well as sustaining a healthy environment for future generations. The author emphasizes nature’s abundance and reciprocity and wonders whether a “gift economy” might be better when it comes to land management. Because our nation’s capitalist mindset encourages commoditization of the land and its output, creating an impulse to extract instead of regenerate.

After WWII, the US government’s policies consolidated production on large-scale farms that specialized or mono-cropped, using chemical sprays and fertilizers in order to feed a growing population. Before the war, small farmers who propagated microbial life in the topsoil by spreading compost and manure were in the majority. And today, a widely accepted measurement of a regenerative farm’s success is the percentage of organic matter in the topsoil..

Our goal is to increase the organic matter in the topsoil at Flynn Creek Farm to 6%; however, our early testing shows our fields at between 0.5% to 2.0%. Improving that metric means adding compost and incorporating livestock for their manure and ruminant behavior.

In addition to increasing the quality of the topsoil, we are in the business of maintaining or adding to the quantity or depth of our topsoil. Without human or animal land stewardship, it takes 500 to 1,000 years to naturally form 1 inch of topsoil. With good land management, this process can be accelerated, but it is still very, very slow.

When land is left bare, during a conventional farmer’s tilling season, for example, there are no roots in the ground to stabilize the topsoil and during rain events run off occurs very quickly. The 1 inch of top soil that took 1,000 years to develop can erode into our waterways in an hour.

When John and I got into farming, we hardly knew a thing, but the concept of preserving and improving the topsoil was something that made basic sense. Sometimes wisdom is gained or affirmed through ancient practices and texts, but sometimes all it requires is listening to what we all know deep inside. Wisdom is as simple as returning to the fundamentals: cover the topsoil, preserve water, keep the animals healthy, and acknowledge the earth’s abundance and ability to heal.

What else I’m reading:

This summer the Frizzlit Book Club is studying Joan Didion. We have read two collections of her short stories: THE WHITE ALBUM and LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN. Soon we will be on to the one-woman play version of THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. Fun talking about a whip smart woman with a whip smart group.

THE BLUE PLATE in which author and ecologist, Mark Easter, paints a detailed picture of how the foods we love to eat impact the planet. Published by Patagonia.

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Just as I was formulating thoughts for this newsletter, I received an out-of-the-blue call from our architect. Something about kids, a school bus, a last-minute cancellation. And then the request I could hear him working up to.

“Of course,” I said. “Come to our farm.” He was calling at a difficult time, but how could I say no? One, because he is a great guy, and two, because education is a pillar of Flynn Creek Farm’s mission. It was such a challenging morning, however, that I was only half listening when he went on to describe who would be attending and what their organization was all about.

It wasn’t until their visit that I understood Project Pipeline hosts summer day camps for middle school-aged kids from Madison and Milwaukee with an interest in architecture. The day’s theme of ‘creating space’ perked my ears, but it was their guest speaker, with his generosity and graciousness, who really blew my mind . A co-founder of Unfragile Farm, he spoke to the group about being incarcerated between the ages of 17 and 50 for a crime he did not commit, as well as his years spent in solitary confinement, confined to a cube the size of a small closet. Leaving solitary and eventually prison (with the aid of the Innocence Project) left him with, among other things, an uneasiness with expansive space and an understanding of how important transitional spaces are in order to heal. Unfragile Farm was born from this need.

Although my experience is 100% different, I could relate to how intimidating expansive space can be. There is tremendous responsibility that comes with being a steward of this land, making 420 acres productive while not marring its beauty is something we struggle with all the time. Where to even begin? The architect mentioned above played a crucial role in helping our team begin to plan.

It is a human need to delineate space, creating organization where, if left on its own nature would do its thing. It’s a human need but also a requirement to farm. We must install irrigation and buildings, plan fields for growing and fencing for livestock. We enter agreements with the county and the USDA to conserve and preserve certain acreage, and so they are marked with their own colored sharpie on our big master planning map.

It was only four years ago that we sold our home, letting go of many possessions on the journey toward purchasing this farm. Afterwards, I loved feeling minimalist and the freedom it offered. This clutter-free side of me often competes with the frugal farmer’s voice that says “Better hold onto that, it could come in handy someday.” Nevertheless, as new spaces come to life under our master plan my belief that clean spaces ignite creativity and fill us with a sense of opportunity is reinforced.

We also need to move easily between spaces- both buildings and sections of land - connecting them with paths and farm roads. These byways invite us to walk the land often, the best thing a land steward can do. Alas, the proverb “The best fertilizer is a farmer’s footprints.” To that end, John and I have spent many hours pulling a trail mower behind a UTV, enjoying sunsets and music, navigating new fence lines, and making notes on various things. Being attentive to the changes taking place is extremely important while also giving us great pleasure. It is with the utmost humility, however, that we do this work, trying to move forward without making too many irreversible decisions. I am grateful to our recent guests for reminding me of the varying human relationships to space, taking me out of the weeds and reinforcing the privilege it is to be here.

Writing News:

I will be leaving John on the farm for a few days beginning July 24 to teach at Understory in Park City. Many authors I admire will be attending and participating, including Dani Shapiro! Please come, space is still available!

What I’m reading:

I confess that this farm season along with an addiction to the NYT crossword puzzle have eaten into my reading time. Right now I am enjoying Wallace Stegner’s ANGLE OF REPOSE. I am sorry I don’t have a longer list of recommendations! Maybe you will let me know what you are reading??

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Before I jump into happenings on the farm, two writerly announcements. First, a plug for a podcast that recently dropped where I talk about DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, writing, and life in general.

The second is a plug for a writing conference called Understory at which I will be teaching July 24-27 in Park City. It is founded by my good friend and editor, Annie Tucker with Dani Shapiro as keynote and promises to be a writing getaway like none other, for many reason, but hey it’s Park City!!

In the past I’ve concluded my newsletters with books I’ve enjoyed recently, but I’ll mention THE SNAG right off the bat. Narrated by author Tessa McWatt, the audio version was mesmerizing as I raked bare earth, spread seed, and spent many hours coaxing said seeds to germinate, moving hoses, rotating sprinklers and using the good old hand nozzle.

The book provided a haunting backdrop to my chores as I began to relate to it on a deep level. This memoir is a meditation on grief, a lament for what the author has lost but also what we all are losing. THE SNAG is a call to action, to care for what we still have. In forestry, the term “snag” refers to a standing dead, or dying tree often missing its top branches. At the end of their lives, trees remain connected to and in communication with neighboring trees and plants through the mycorrhizal network. They also contribute to the greater forest ecosystem by offering a habitat for much life.

With poetic prose, McWatt likens her aging mother to a snag, finding metaphor and solace while walking among trees. The book references the rather modern term “Solastalgia,” which is a sense of homesickness or melancholy experienced while still residing in a place after it has been altered or damaged. It is the first I heard this word, but I am sure many people can empathize, as in returning to the Pacific Palisades after it burned to the ground or Asheville, North Carolina after the great flooding post Hurricane Helene.

I may not have experienced solastalgia personally, but I do suffer climate anxiety. (Today, the air on the farm in southwest Wisconsin was filled with smoke from Canadian wildfires and my mind goes right to the fact that the world is coming to an end.) Mental health experts agree that climate anxiety is not a disorder as much as a normal response to our ecological crisis. It is characterized by feelings of being out of control, overwhelmed, stressed, and depressed. I am about to turn sixty, but young adults are disproportionately affected by this condition, feeling worried, sad, and afraid about the future.

Ironically, I come from a long line of people preoccupied with the weather. My grandfather and mother went to bed really early and even rose pre-dawn, making me think farming was already in my genes. The weather obsession has even been passed on to my son who tracks weather from his skyscraper office in Manhattan, uses his vacation time to study snow science and avalanche safety, and follows THE POWDER BUOY on Instagram to be prepared for the next big atmospheric river that might hit the Wasatch back…

Thirty years ago, my mother would open her daily call to me with a synopsis of my weather. I lived in Boston and she was waking up in Dallas, with her sole source of information being Al Roper on the Today Show. Her commentary on my relative humidity had me chuckling inside, or more likely rolling my eyes. I like to think my weather obsession is loftier, as my chosen life outdoors requires knowledge of temperature, precipitation, wind speed. But it’s not just me… farmers are at the mercy of the weather!

My farming nightmares feature deluge rain with our crops floating away. Our produce manager emphasizes that no rain causes certain problems, but there is nothing worse than too much rain - don’t even mention 2018 to him - the summer it never stopped raining. Talk about trauma. There isn’t a day I am not refreshing multiple weather apps in order to plan or prepare, or possibly to just give credence to my worrying. Not enough rain, too much rain. Wildfire conditions? Tornado warning? Hurricane? I was looking at the headlines in Salt Lake City yesterday and although northern UT is not in drought conditions, seventy percent of the state is dry as a bone heading into wild-fire season.

Doing our small part for the environment and combating climate change was a major reason we embarked on this farming adventure. Not for the faint of heart!! Let’s just say I regularly consume a sleep aid :)

Or I hang out with these guys. They know how to just “be” and when lambing time came around, all the ewes knew exactly what to do. No drama. No help needed. Very impressive. Thirty moms, thirty five babies. Nature, while it threatens powerful destruction at times, is also incredibly soothing.

I don’t think I’m alone with this climate anxiety problem… How is the weather affecting you?

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What else I’m Reading:

A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway (talk about rain) John and I are studying Hemingway’s short stories as well as this classic novel. I have mentioned ‘s bookclub in the past but another plug because after Hemingway we will be reading and discussing works by Joan Didion from July 7 to September 8. It would be so fun to see you in the Frizzlit ZOOM room which is filled with really smart and funny people.

And lastly:

Flynn Creek Farmers are nerding out over soil health and nutrition. Click here to learn about our worm casting and biochar soil mixes. Perfect for folks potting their vegetable containers this month!

Now back to the Farm…..

Planting seeds is a well-worn metaphor apropos of this moment, underneath a new moon, a time for setting intentions. Spring is the season for planting actual seeds. The video below provides a concise visual of the process at Flynn Creek Farm, specifically in our veggie operation, beginning with inserting seeds into trays in the greenhouse in early March. As of this writing, some have been transplanted into outdoor beds, but I can’t emphasize enough the art behind finding suitable varieties and coaxing those seeds into young plants. It is a feat not to be glossed over (thank goodness for Kyle, whom you’ll meet in the video below!) Some seeds germinate in a chamber, some sprout on heat mats, some like dry conditions, some like wetter conditions, and the amount of water they receive depends on the style of tray in which they are planted. That is to say, their daily care and watering are core to a veggie farmer’s work. Tending to young starts continues all season, because we need to replenish and rotate the beds.

I learned how tricky this is the hard way, as John and I take responsibility for watering on the weekends. At first, I did not appreciate all the nuances and failed at my job. VERY HUMBLING and HEARTBREAKING…

For more updates from the farm, please subscribe to its Substack newsletter!

Globally….

Seeding is happening in real life all over the northern hemisphere RIGHT NOW. Although I am focused and present for what is happening on our acres, this is an important and controversial topic, one that city-dwellers removed from the food system need to understand.

The trend in US agriculture over the past 50 years has been toward supporting the growing human population on a steadily diminishing variety of key crops. Our ancestors used a great variety that offered solutions and options when inclement weather, pests, and disease arose. Today, the average American diet depends on just a handful of the more than 350,000 species of plants on the planet. Within each crop species, our modern varieties are connected to a narrower and narrower genetic base. I learned much on this topic from the following book:

The seed vault project is one of hope (and also doomsday survival), necessary because big seed breeders and chemical fertilizer companies have directed our global food system toward using a much smaller variety of GMO seeds. These are seeds in which the DNA has been intentionally altered for traits such as pest resistance, fast growth, drought tolerance, and resistance to glyphosates.

In another important book, EATING TO EXTINCTION, Dan Saladino asks us to consider:

the source of much of the world’s food - seeds - is mostly in the control of just four corporations; half of all the world’s cheeses are produced with bacteria or enzymes manufactured by a single company; one in four beers drunk around the globe is the product of one brewer; from the USA to China, most global pork production is based around the genetics of a single breed of pig; and, perhaps most famously, although there are more than 1,500 different varieties of banana, global trade is dominated by just one, the Cavendish, a cloned fruit grown in monocultures so vast their scale can only be comprehended from the view of an aeroplane or by satellite.

A real-time anecdote you may see in the news….

92% of corn grown in the US is with GMO seeds of which Mexico has been attempting since 2020 to restrict imports. Their attempts have been unsuccessful because restricting imports violates the US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement. The issue has flared again recently, given our new administration's threatening tariffs.

Incentives in the US food system, bolstered by the lobbying efforts of ‘Big Ag,’ have resulted in a glut of subsidized GMO corn to be used for animal feed, ethanol, and processed ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and corn starch. The same lobbying efforts have kept these products from being widely understood by the US population as being problematic. GMO-dependent and not much of an outcry of protest has taken place domestically.

However….

….in Mexico, maize is central to their diet, culture, and identity. People fear the unhealthy side effects of US-grown corn and the potential loss of small farms and regional corn producers unable to compete in a market flooded with US supply. We should all be concerned about the loss of corn diversity—it is this very diversity that agriculture once depended on to hedge against pests and drought.

Corn is one example, but Saldino emphasizes:

We are losing diversity in all the crops that feed the world. Yet diversity was the rule for millennia; thousands of different types of wheat have been recorded, each one distinctive in the way it looked, grew, and tasted. Few of these varieties have survived into the twenty-first century. Instead, all over the world, from Punjab to Iowa, the Western Cape to East Anglia, wheat fields have been cloaked in a blanket of uniformity, and the same is happening to all our food, at a faster and faster pace.

Another thinker on this topic worth reading is Alicia Kennedy, whose newsletter, contains weekly provocative essays. As one of her fans and dedicated readers, I am thrilled she has agreed to keynote the Seven Acre Dairy dinner during our (almost sold-out) Flynn Creek Farm Retreat in September!

In Kennedy’s book NO MEAT REQUIRED, she makes a not often heard case for eschewing the industrialized animal protein industry. Millions of acres in our country are dedicated to GMO corn, which is sent to feed lots for industrial beef/chicken/pork production. Kennedy wants us to visualize a different possibility. She asks, What if the land used to grow GMO corn for animal feed was used to grow a diverse array of plant food for people? The point is, our current food system is leading us down a road of extreme vulnerability, one of ‘having all our eggs in one basket,’ one that will be a huge problem under numerous crisis scenarios.

As an act of resistance, Flynn Creek Farm will plant her non GMO, heirloom seeds underneath this new moon, hoping every day for a better future. That being said, I will still suffer science fiction like nightmares featuring a team of humans who must scramble their way to Svalbard to find the combination to the vaults in order to ensure humanity’s survival during the apocalypse……

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What I’m reading:

If I could encourage you to read anything, it would be the books I referenced above…. because I truly believe our food choices are political acts. In a capitalist system, how we spend our money makes a difference!

For lighter fare, our bookclub just completed A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster and THE GREAT GATSBY which celebrated its 100th anniversary earlier this month. Did you know that THE GREAT GATSBY, considered one of our “great American novels” was a big flop during F. Scott Fitzgerald’s lifetime? Again, imparting my reminder that our creations will outlive us and probably surprise us.

For more contemporary reads, I was blown away by THE TELL. It really struck a nerve because it is one woman’s self-discovery into the deeply buried reasons she strove for perfection. As a hard-driver myself, I found it very compelling and sparked a desire to unearth some of my past (if I have the courage). GO AS A RIVER is a beautiful novel set on a peach farm in Colorado - so boom, it got me right there. The writing and narrative structure are so well conceived and I am truly enjoying listening to the audiobook and Read’s language while walking the land.

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The diverse landscape is magnificent and demands appreciation. To fly over would be to minimize, even ignore what the land has to say. We begin in a mountainous landscape, the Wasatch Range of Utah, later entering the Rockies of Colorado before the monotony of the plains. We traverse Nebraska, then Iowa farmland where fields are tilled and chemicals are sprayed, sending clouds of white powder into the sky, and making me ever more determined to produce organic food in a transparent manner. Eventually, we cross the Mississippi River into the Driftless region of Wisconsin. Our migration to Flynn Creek Farm is well-timed to greet the sparrows, bobolinks, and meadowlarks.

More mind space for the farm is inevitable this Spring, because this time last year I was launching a novel!!

Although it was a privilege to be invited to speak about DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE at bookstores, festivals, and on panels, I am looking forward to the uninterrupted time in Wisconsin to witness birdsong, veggies sprouting in the fields, our barn raising, a lambing, and the arrival of our cattle. In addition to the marvel of new life, I will continue my morning writing practice. I’m fleshing out a new novel and also drafting a work of creative non-fiction in which I explore my dysfunctional relationship with food as a girl and young adult and the desire that sparked to grow and share honest, nutritious food in my late fifties.

What I’m Reading …. and why it’s relevant to the farm

The latest installment of the book club features the short stories, poems, and critical writing of Dorothy Parker. Chris Frizelle referenced Dean’s book, SHARP, during an early session which explores the lives of equally outspoken women, important members of 20th Century New York’s literati scene, from Dorothy Parker and Susan Sontag, to Joan Didion, and Nora Ephron.

In their honor I’m using this modest platform to talk about the current administration’s devastating impact on farmers and the food system. Not only have funds promised by the USDA to local food producers been frozen, there are no longer any food safety inspectors employed by the Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce in Wisconsin. As Flynn Creek farm is trying to get a value-added food business off the ground, we have now hit a hurdle that is not impossible to jump but expensive to jump and leaves me asking the bigger question - who will be inspecting producers for food safety? In addition to tariffs, the loss of export opportunities, uncertainty around a new farm bill and a generally unstable economy put an extra burden on farm families who already produce under the pressures of debt.

That is my brief political rant, I know everyone has their own anecdotes of loss right now, but the security and well-being of our food system is more vulnerable than ever. People complain about the price of eggs, but they are missing the bigger story entirely.

That is one reason I am urging folks to come learn about regenerative farming! Come get your hands DIRTY !! Spend time in an agricultural community - it is mind expanding ….. September 24-28, 2025. Click here for details, but also feel free to reply to this email with questions.

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We put aside the star-gawking for the first Saturday of Sundance, and John and I attended a full day of FOODTANK screenings and panel discussions. A beautiful integration of my loves - storytelling and regenerative farming… FOOD TANK is an organization that recognizes the power of story and visual media to educate, inform, and propel change in the food system. With so much of the population living in cities and detached from agriculture, it’s important to show people what is happening on the front lines! Check out the trailers of the following powerful films that were showcased: “Common Ground,’ “Generation Growth,” “Strange Little Fruit,” “Farming While Black,” “Café Y Aves,” and “From the Heartland.”

Most of what we buy and consume is wrapped in story – either the ones told by the media, our communities, or the ones we tell ourselves. I’ve always realized the importance of telling Flynn Creek Farm’s story not only with words in these blogs and other essays, but with film. We aim to give an honest accounting of our failures and successes and to be very transparent about what starting a commercial farm takes. Who knows, maybe somebody will watch and become inspired….I may have mentioned that viewing “Kiss the Ground” one evening during COVID is what pushed John and I over the edge. This is a recent video showing the January/February mood on our farm…… but as of this writing, the barn and silo have come down!!

Over the farm’s first three years in our care, we have documented many impressions as well as changes to the land. We’ve interviewed our team members because the farm’s story is unique to each of us. Each one of us, for various reasons, is searching for meaning in this place and trying to make a difference.

If you want to be part of the story… mark your calendar :) I wrote more about it in last month’s newsletter….

Recent Read:

Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks:

One of those books that is both wonderful and gutting at the same time. To read Brooks' recent release documenting the loss of her husband of thirty-five years at the age of sixty was like a cannonball to the stomach. I am fortunate to be in a long marriage and approaching the age of sixty, and this very concise memoir drove home the message to not take tomorrow for granted, to prepare for death and to get one's story down in whatever form has meaning for you. It is a beautiful tale of loss while chronicling a true and deep love. I am grateful for Brooks wisdom in capturing what our society shuns - death and a permission to grieve. So much for a culture that expects mourners to "get over it and get on with it," Brooks allows herself time and space to wallow and in so doing offers the reader the same opportunity. For lovers of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion....

Tortoise or Hare?

For much of my life, I’ve operated at two speeds: either 1) diving full force into a project or 2) in a state of exhaustion and needing to recover. This does not always feel like an ideal pattern. I’ve written about seeking the middle path - avoiding extremes in order to maintain stamina and keep an even keel, an approach I’ve tried to adopt into my life lately. But I’m interested, which approach best describes you?

Going full speed and then receding into hibernation is a pattern familiar to the writer who is either drafting and revising in isolation our out on the road hustling. As a community, we are barraged with opportunities to retreat, to escape the madness, to bond with other creatives (making friends not always easy for introverted writers), get inspired, not to mention carve out time to write.

Farmers would scoff at such man-made contrivances, as a farmer’s life from the beginning of time has been dictated by the seasons. They work with a sense of surrender to the natural rhythms of the sun and moon. Farmers in Wisconsin are forced to quite literally “make hay” before the earth’s rotation renders the northern hemisphere dormant. Any farmer will tell you these cycles are ingrained in their mental and physical beings. Winter is widely accepted as a time for rest.

After the end of the 2024 season at Flynn Creek Farm, and a month of planning and budget meetings, even John and I, newbie farmers, felt the pull to retreat. We packed the car and drove to Utah, confessing a shared desire to hunker down and cut ourselves off. Listening to our bodies, we cancelled a handful of business commitments and turned our attention inward. We even enrolled in a five-day cleansing program through Aro Ha in New Zealand.

After a week we felt back to ourselves and physically prepared for the approaching demands of hosting Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and New Year’s. With the holiday season behind me, I find myself, once again, in a state of mental “retreat,” not just from social activity, but from the news cycle of politics, natural disasters, and war.

• re-treat (noun)

  The act of moving back or withdrawing

Contrary to my middle path mantra above, where I aimed to avoid an all-in / all-out cycle, I’m wondering whether withdrawal isn’t necessary to catalyze meaningful personal growth. On the farm, we disrupt the land, ideally with grazing animals or through prescriptive burns, to stimulate deep root establishment and the healthy growth of prairie grass. I wonder if humans benefit from something similar? Are we built to expend great amounts of energy and then go inward? Do we need to disrupt our status quo with a metaphorical prescriptive burn, in order to make meaningful progress forward? Wellness coaches as well as current science suggests that extreme activities such as fasting stimulates important regrowth of cells that effect brain and gut health.

Even if I’ve curated my lifestyle to include everyday components of retreat - waking rituals, health remedies, journaling, and meditation - I’m not sure whether the two-speed approach of my younger days wasn’t more effective … My intuition tells me there is no perfect path, rather ones that suit our varying personalities and stages of life.

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And yet, with a writer’s sense of IRONY I’m inviting you to join me in retreat! Many people have expressed an interest in visiting our farm. And this is your chance, as I’ve booked out a lovely, boutique hotel three miles away in the cutest little foodie hamlet of Paoli, WI. Come, experience our bounty with all five senses. The concluding party on Saturday, September 27 will be a humdinger, a community-wide harvest party with live music and dancing. Not to be missed! Reply to this email with any questions!

What I’m reading….

Our book club has moved from the classics of the Victorian era to reading DUNE. Not something I would have chosen on my own - I have not even seen the movies. This epic work of science fiction was published in 1965, and is an early example of environmental fiction…. It is an intimidating world created by Frank Herbert, one that is a little confusing, but I am enjoying more than I thought I would. It helps to have an amazing teacher and classmates to discuss with each week!

And I just completed listening to:

I am a huge fan of Elizabeth Strout and her novels that have sprung from characters in her Pulitzer Prize winning OLIVE KITTERIDGE, however, TELL ME EVERYTHING relies heavily on the reader’s familiarity with the characters from previous novels. The plot revolves around solving a local murder and it is replete with themes of human frailty, however, it is structured as one of storytelling by the residents of Crosby, ME. As a result, it sometimes had the effect of eavesdropping on small-town gossip. I enjoyed the novel, but more like three out of five stars than the home run I’d expect from this author.

I’m sending warm wishes of light – both internal and external – on this darkest day of the year. Even though the news has been full of drone sightings in the night sky and people taking notice, I would argue we don’t look up enough. That includes me. In prior years, it was because my night sky was diffused by ambient city lights, but possibly more-so because I wasn’t in the right mindset. Similar to a disconnection from my food source, I was oblivious to the power of the moon, chalking up early civilization’s reliance on moon phases to guide activity and to create our first calendars as primitive.

Now that I’m living in the Wasatch mountains of Utah during the winter and on our farm in Wisconsin during the summer, much has changed. First of all, it’s easier to admire constellations and the moon against a black night sky. But it’s more than admiration. While researching the different facets of holistic farming, I’m getting enlightened as to the importance of the moon’s pull. Once only noticeable to me by the extreme tides we experienced in Rhode Island, I now appreciate the moon’s effect on everything containing water, ie all living things including the soil.

Performing farming activities in sync with natural forces and the phases of the moon is said to improve outcomes. On a personal level, opportunities for creativity, productivity, and well-being also vary with the phases of the moon. Simply put, the new moon is a time to reflect and set intentions, energy builds during the waxing moon with opportunities to forge relationships and accomplish tasks, culminating in peak energy at the full moon (as well as peak emotion), and during the waning phases of the moon, it is time to let go, regroup, and purify.

To pay better attention to the moon, I’ve begun drawing its phase at the top of my daily journal entry. I also check in with apps that both suggest where farming efforts might be best spent each day as well as personal opportunities. Our culture likes to type-cast the moon as dark and spooky, associated with fear, superstition and danger. A bum rap…. Consider the following list of all the Moon influences by seventeenth century astrologer William Lilly:

Body, emotions, moods, changeability, memory, ethereal, habits, rhythms, down bearing, cold, moist and phlegmatic, organs with contained spaces, feelings, basic needs, your mother, mothering, yin, astrological sign of cancer, stomach, breasts, lungs, meninges of brain, all bodies of water, the stomach and linings of internal organs, the moon rules round things, figures, like our bodies. Moon is related to Sulfur, Pluto, Monday is Moon Day, round vegetables, cabbages, pomegranate, coconuts, trailing plants such as melons, cucumber, corn, salty things, milk and dairy products, sweets, pearls, emerald, moonstone, ducks, cranes, herons, silver metal and white color, Frogs, the Otter, Snails, Midwives, Nurses, Queens, Countesses, Ladies, all manner of Women; as also the common People, messengers, The Moon holds memories, even lifetimes ago, imprinting on mothers, the subconscious, our emotions, and psychology.

Despite not looking to the night sky as often as I should have, I love the moon as a metaphor in literature, even tapping it to symbolize feminine cycles in my 2017 novel, EDEN and ever so slightly in its sequel, DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE. I am currently in a literature class studying JANE EYRE by Charlotte Brontë. This classic novel uses multiple moon references and imagery to represent change, the maternal spirit, and (sometimes irrational) feminine power.

But I digress. Back to farming… because I sense many of you are more interested in this new adventure of mine :)

….Since 1818 the FARMER’S ALMANAC has been a staple in agricultural homes. Its list of ‘gardening according to the moon’ includes categories such as: plant aboveground crops, plant root crops, transplant, plant seedbeds, plant flowers, kill plant pests.

…. And in the introduction to her wonderful guide (above), THE CELESTIAL GARDEN: GROWING HERBS, VEGETABLES, AND FLOWERS IN SYNC WITH THE MOON AND ZODIAC, renowned Wisconsin herbalist and medicinal plant grower, Jane Hawley Stevens writes, “Timing is everything. Celestial gardening …. is a tangible practice that can help us engage in the larger energy that supports life. When there is too much to accomplish in a day, practicing celestial [farming] guides you to the open doors so you don’t waste time bumping into the closed ones. The idea of making choices based on the phase of the Moon may seem a little irrational, but [farmers] throughout time and across many cultures have found that [working] by the Moon is a practical tool that can improve our [yield] as well as our daily lives. There is much guidance from Nature that we simply overlook. The Sun and Moon are two of the most direct and accessible natural forces that we can consult to help us experience greater ease and joy in everything.”

A similar philosophy founded in Austria a century ago, Biodynamic Farming, can be incredibly prescriptive with regard to working in concert with nature and celestial activity, drilling down to even the time of day best suited for certain activities. Maria Thun, an early adapter of this movement, was full of pronouncements such as “…plants of which we eat the leaves should be sowed, hoed and cultivated on leaf days, that is, on a Water sign (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) and that onions should be sown on leaf days if they were to be eaten fresh in the summer and not stored. Leaf development is stronger with plants sown when the Sun is in Pisces, that is February 19 to March 20. But for later crops of greens, planting when the Sun is in Cancer, June 21 to July 22, when the Moon is also in a water sign.” WOW….

I’m curious about your thoughts on these philosophies? What is your favorite phase of the Moon? A crescent moon? A full moon? Do you try to live in concert with the moon?

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Recent Reads:

RENTAL HOUSE which I reviewed in New York Journal of Books

I have become a great fan of Miranda July. Her latest novel, ALL FOURS, is a big hit. after finishing it, I wanted more and read her debut, THE FIRST BAD MAN. So original, hysterical characters, and premises.

I want to reward readers who make it to the end with a holiday gift!! The first three readers who reply to this email with the word “MOON” will receive a signed copy of DaUGHTER OF A PROMISE. I will let you know if you are a winner and get your mailing address (US mailing addresses only).

After a flurry of bookish and social activity in Boston, John and I returned to Wisconsin and huddled with our team to discuss 2024 accomplishments as well as priorities for Flynn Creek Farm’s 2025 growing season. We have many exciting initiatives in store! I have taken the lead coordinating construction projects and infrastructure installation - and one I’m particularly excited about is the restoration of our barn.

A barn is a critical component of a farm’s setting. Readers of my novels know how much I love to write setting, and I’m sensitive to its importance in real life as well! I treat setting as I would a character. Whether a swanky summer cottage dubbed EDEN, the campus of Dunning Academy in THE NINE, or even the island of Manhattan in DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, my settings are more than a backdrop for the action. They contribute to the underlying themes of the book by interacting with the human characters in a way that impacts their psyches. You may have a home or a place in your life that functions as such … At Flynn Creek Farm, our old red barn greets people as they first pull off the road and she has been crying out to be spruced up in order to play a more integral role in our operations (and our story).

Barns are iconic structures in agricultural landscapes, especially those with rich dairy heritages like Wisconsin’s. They traditionally represented prosperity, steaming with the livestock that constituted a farmer’s wealth, literally housing a farm’s most valuable assets. Sadly, while driving around our region, I’ve observed many barns in disrepair. Now, they are more of a symbol of endurance as they age and list, even sag. Our neighbor’s was white and very large and beautiful from a distance, but it had become a hazard and this summer he finally tore it down as mandated by his insurance company.

Once a dairy barn, ours was converted with stalls for horses. She had been used most recently for storage although overrun with rodents, barn swallows, bats, and wasps. In 2023, our crew tried to reclaim the space and began cleaning her out, only to discover the interior stalls were coated with lead paint.

This winter, we plan to take her down to the foundation, creating a structure that both honors her past, while accommodating Flynn Creek Farm’s specific needs. Fingers crossed all goes as planned, but if I’ve learned anything in this life, it’s that construction comes with surprises. With a heart full of faith and a wonderful construction team, we hope to be raising a new barn in early 2025!!

I’ve been taking a class on Flannery O'Connor’s short stories and I imagine the barn in “Good Country People” where Hulga and the Bible salesman climb a ladder into a loft and lie against a hay bale, “a wide sheath of sunlight, filled with dust particles slating over them” to be just like the upper story of our barn pictured above. That got me thinking about other barns in literature… obviously, most of CHARLOTTE’S WEB is set in a barn, and John Steinbeck uses barns in many of his novels, OF MICE AND MEN coming to mind first and foremost. Are there stories or novels that you’ve enjoyed that feature barns prominently?

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What I’ve read recently with links to my reviews:

DAYS OF WONDER by Caroline Leavitt

THE MIGHTY RED by Louise Erdrich

I WOULD MEET YOU ANYWHERE by Susan Ito

And check out a recent interview with me on the Resilient Writer Podcast

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and may we all experience peace and rest in meaningful settings with people we love!!

JEANNIE

I’m returning to Boston on October 26^th for the Boston Book Festival. I am on a panel will at 11:45am at Old South Church. Hope to see you at what will be my last 2024 East Coast appearance!!

While presenting DAUGHTER OF A PROMISE, I’m inevitably asked what I’m writing next.  I’m juggling several ideas, actually. While Bets, my recent novel’s protagonist, was gutted by her work on a deal to expand an agri-business client, my newest fictional heroine travels from New York to Nebraska, finding an unexpected sense of place on a farm. No surprise? Fiction aside, I’m drawn to describing eye-opening moments on FLYNN CREEK FARM, the broken food system in general, as well as my historical relationship with food…. So, who knows?… maybe a memoir is in my future.  

As for the Farm…..

Speaking of finding a place on a farm, a key part of our mission is to provide career opportunities for young farmers. The average age of a farmer in the US is 60 and trending higher. That statistic combined with the fact that the number of farms are on the decline, paints a picture of a consolidating industry where opportunities to work on the land are disappearing.  Not only are small farms vanishing from the landscape, when they are for sale, their cost is prohibitive for most people starting out.  

John and I obviously aren’t traditional small-farmers, out in the fields ourselves or with scads of kids performing chores before school. We are blessed to have recruited a team of young people who believe in our mission and want to work alongside the land, or at least give it a try. We are investing in the professional development and growth of each person who works here.

We didn’t solely set out to regenerate the soil, but also the humans who tend it. Although regenerative farming works in collaboration with natural systems, theoretically requiring less human input, this is still freaking hard work! Farming in general is not only hard, but sometimes tragic. Our current food system, which places an inordinate financial burden and risk on farming families, has led to the highest rate of suicide among all professions. I highly recommend viewing Kiss the Ground’s most recent film COMMON GROUND for a heart wrenching and succinct explanation of what farmers are up against.

Although our farm’s mission is multi-faceted, getting the people part right feels most urgent. We’re entering the time of year when budgets and plans are being made for 2025. As CEO, my most important job is designing a paradigm to serve our teams’ needs, one that allows individuals to flourish while taking into account the economic constraints of an early-stage start-up. It’s a balancing act. To be a leader of a regenerative enterprise means working toward a system that values each team member’s essence and creating opportunities that will unleash their potential. It means listening to what each person wants from this experience, and tailoring roles and incentives that fit the unique individual.  

I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that over the past few weeks while attending various farming seminars, I’ve been seated next to consultants who specialize in building high performance agricultural teams. Do we need one more consultant, I’ve wondered?  Possibly. When I mentioned our dream to one of these consultants he remarked that, “Developing our people” was a phrase not typically heard in farming. Another, whom I met at a Kiss the Ground at Climate Week in NY, suggested I listen to Carol Sanford’s THE REGENERATIVE LIFE which has been helpful in shaping my mindset. Oh, and did I mention we also want to ensure Flynn Creek is a fun place to work!?!

A different type of system with a fun culture doesn’t just happen. It takes thought, intention, and presence, following the adage ‘what you pay attention to grows’.  So, while not driving a tractor in the fields, John and I are confident we are doing a most important job on the farm.  

If you have thoughts or advice for us, please leave a comment!!

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One last plug….

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Processing… aren’t we always? Whether it’s information, experiences, or vegetables we are faced with infinite raw data - and the decision whether to synthesize into something usable, or hit the proverbial “delete” button. I am afraid when it comes to my email inbox I am guilty of the latter these days, but in real life I generally process, or should I say, attempt to make meaning. Finding the space to make someting, to create, well that is the magic.

Although an abundance of anything is a blessing, with these tomatoes (and now peppers and squash) I am infused with an urgent sense of panic to process, hoping to strike the right balance between what we should preserve and what goes onto the compost pile. This is hard for me because I was raised on the notion waste is evil.

As I write, I’m going into my third consecutive weekend of freezing. and dehydrating, the slicer tomatoes, making sauces and savory jams with the Romas, and blistering the skin off Italian fryer peppers over a flame. I’m channeling a little Barbara Kingsolver - not at the writing desk, but because she is also a role model for us September tomato mavens!! I have to take deep breaths and remind myself that what can’t be preserved will be donated (already sent 40 pounds to the local fire house) and the rest will contribute to our beautiful, rich compost used to promote next year’s growth….the beauty of a regenerative system.

Processing and making meaning is also what I attempt do as a writer… These days I am having an internal debate over what is more satisfying… canning 32 oz jars of tomato sauce to be enjoyed in the mountains on snowy winter evenings or writing the next chapter of my work-in-progress…. hmmmm

The drive to and from Chicago provided an opportunity to think about some challenges we are facing on the farm.  As usual, I was kept company by an audiobook. This time it was LAND RICH CASH POOR by Paul Reisinger. Narrated by the author, this memoir describes the perils faced not only by his family farm, but by our nation’s food system in part because of the gradual disappearance of mid-sized family farms.

It concludes with observations I could relate to even at our early stage of the game.  Many mid to small sized farms have problems finding markets for their products.  Organic vegetable farmers routinely set up CSA’s or sell food at a farmer’s markets but those are not the most reliable and consistent source of revenue.  How many times have you gone to a farmers’ market to really stock up on what your family needs for the week? If you do congratulations you’re in the minority. For so many it’s a weekend stroll or curiosity where one might find something unusual for a special meal. It’s not a dependable way for small organic farmers to count on revenue. The CSA model in which consumers buy shares in a farmer’s crops at the beginning of the season has many shortcomings as well. So, what excited John and I so much about the opportunity with Flynn Creek Farm was that being vertically integrated with a fast-casual chain of restaurants in Forage Kitchens meant a steady and stable customer and thus revenue stream. It was also a distribution model that would get our nutrient dense food into the mouths of average people.

Unfortunately, we are learning how difficult this is.  Number one is price.  Farmers have historically been price takers instead of price makers and the true cost of local organic vegetables is proving hard to pass on. That’s even before getting skittish about passing on the true price of food in an economy where so many are grumbling about exploding food prices. Consumers in the United States have been trained to expect cheap food as is demonstrated by campaign promises to lower food costs by both Presidential candidates.  

The second obstacle is logistics. We are realizing that grocery stores and restaurants are set up to order conventional produce from the likes of the Sysco truck with Amazon-like ordering the night before.  Anything taking more thought is a hoop most restaurant managers don’t want to jump through. Especially managers of fast-casual. In addition, their kitchens are small with limited cooler space, their inability to store food for more than two days becoming another reason they order “off the truck.” John and I have learned so much about the planning and timeline that goes into growing our crops, it’s no wonder that the management of a fast-casual restaurant chain isn’t up to speed yet, even a restaurant chain based on the values of fresh, healthy food.

We are making progress, but it certainly feels like we spend as much effort educating our partners and customers as we do growing outstanding product. My prior two newsletters have centered on my personal growth on the farm, but I want you to hear about all the challenges too! Don’t worry, we are pressing on with this important work. And I will continue to PROCESS what comes my way as if it is my prayer, my primary expression of faith in a crazy world, my belief in the promise of tomorrow.