I just sent in my business license application and registered a domain name! I am so excited to start a small farm! So far, it has been a blast to watch the farm grow and transform from a place where horses lived to a place where food will grow. I have ended up in a place that I never imagined for myself and I am so thankful for all your support in this journey! I thought for my very first blog post I would recap how I got here!
After completing my Masters in Social Work, I took a job working for the State of Washington in child welfare policy. I was quickly promoted and doing well, but the job was emotionally very hard on me. In addition to the difficult work, I found it challenging to sit at a desk all day long. I grew up on a Christmas Tree Farm in Arlington, WA and ate many meals from our family garden. I missed working with my hands and doing work that I could see concrete results from. I began spending all my free time gardening and raising chickens in the backyard of my house in Ballard. To better understand plants and growing food, I absorbed all the information I could from classes offered by Seattle Tilth and the Horticulture program at Edmonds Community College.
After seven years of working for the state, I took a job with a residential landscape company. Although I really enjoyed the work and was thrilled to be outside, I decided that I was really passionate about growing food. I wanted my next job to be related to urban farming in Seattle and felt that spending a full season as a farm intern would give me the experience I needed to get that job. I moved into a cozy cabin on Hogsback Farm on Vashon Island and spent the season immersed in a small scale farm. As I completed my farm internship on Vashon Island, it became clear that I needed to keep farming and was ready to move out of the city! I was curious about larger scale farming and interested in living north of Seattle, so I sold my house and moved to Whatcom County where I completed a second full season farm internship at Cloud Mountain Farm Center.
After much thought and discussion about what I wanted my next steps to be, I decided to look for some land to start my own farm. My dad helped me find a beautiful piece of property on Camano Island. It fit perfectly my visions of starting my own farm and I look forward to becoming a part of the community here!
Check back to see my progress and for updates on my farm stand that will open Spring 2015!
Island Harvest Farm 