Our Home

In fall of 2019 Dylan and I moved out of Madison to rural Brooklyn, Wisconsin.

We wanted more outdoor space to enjoy, space and opportunity to grow a wider range of plants, and wanted to be able to expiernce a more initmate relationship with nature. We also wanted this to be our forever home, or land really. We wanted to know that we would be able to watch the trees we planted grow to maturity, and be able to be caretakers of the land for as long as we are able. 

We found the perfect place in the rolling hills of Green County, tucked far back from the road, surrounded by farm fields and woods. Since we moved we have been working hard to transform the sparse land into the homestead of our dreams. We feel very lucky to have found this place, it really feels like we were meant to be the current caretakers of this land.

Together we make a great team. I’m the dreamer, the planner, and the plant geek, and Dylan is one who makes my dreams into reality and keeps us laughing through it all. He builds all the infrastructure, is able to solve any problem and fixes the many things that break around here. Over the past few years we have worked together to install a large raised bed kitchen garden, added a flock of chickens, planted a native plant pollinator garden, a diverse fruit and nut orchard, and a large culinary herb garden. We’ve also planted many wildlife habitat trees, and have started a conservation plan for the "wild" part of our property. While we have worked to cultivate the two acres surrounding our house into our gardens and orchard, we’ve left the other seven acres alone to leave habitat for the other creatures that call our land home.

I start nearly all of the plants for my gardens from seed, either inside during the colder months or directly sown into the soil. I am a seed collector, and I love to plant an excessive amount of variety in my garden. In 2022 I planted 120 unique varieties of tomatoes and 130 unique, rare and heirloom beans…and with that, my friends tell me I’ve officially crossed the line from gardener to farmer. I love to save seeds from the rare and heirloom things I plants, and I trade them with other seed collectors to maintain each seeds unique story.

I like to grow new, weird and unexpected things in the garden. It brings me a lot of joy to when people visit the garden and get to taste something they’ve never tried before. I also love to push the envelope on what I am told I can grow in my climate. As a scientist by trade, I see everything as an experiment.

Another place we make a great team is in the kitchen. We both love to cook, and really love to make and enjoy creative meals together. Those meals are even more delicious with our homegrown food.

We eat something that we grew ourselves every day of the year, including during the winter. Over the past three years we have been successful in growing food year round in our Wisconsin garden, despite the frigid winters. Dylan built cold frames to cover some of the garden beds, and I selected and experimented with what plants best survive the cold. We particularly love being able to enjoy a fresh picked homegrown salad with our winter holiday meals.

The process of growing food adds joy and satisfaction to my life more consistently than anything else I do. It blends my love of nature, of science, of food, and of creativity. I love every facet of the process. From dreaming and planning in the winter, to nurturing the thousands of plants I start from seed each spring, to watching the garden grow like a piece of living artwork in the summer, to then enjoying and preserving the harvest. The garden is a place to focus my energy, to quiet my mind, to live in the moment, while my hands tend things that will later nourish me.

We currently share and sell our garden harvests and colorful eggs with friends and family, and we are working towards different ways of sharing our love of homegrown food with others.