from the ground up
PHOTO : ariellebaderphoto . com
Roots of community grow deep in living soils
It ’ s Co-op Day ! A caravan of minivans eagerly crunch down the long tree-shrouded gravel driveway of our homestead for a new adventure . Nestled between two Darnestown subdivisions , its history predates the old farms these neighborhoods were built on . Complete with a fieldstone carriage house and a hand-dug well , the property earned a spot on the
by bridgette downer
As I witness and experience the liberation , healing and empowerment of living in relationship with the land , our roots and each other , I feel a exhilarating sense of coming home ; a modern-day manifestation of the balanced , regenerative life our ancestors enjoyed .
historical map in the Gaithersburg Community Museum with the family name Higgins . After half a century of inhabitants who favored its proximity to Washington , DC over tending the land , we had a different idea that started by gently teasing out a plethora of invasive plants and rusted 1900-era farm implements from its gently sloping silt loam soils .
My husband Jesse and I were raised in the suburbs of Northern Virginia . Through endless hours of unsupervised forest romps and creek play , we naturally gained a deep respect for the delicate balance of reciprocity between living beings and their ecosystems . Today we have painfully witnessed this lost component for too many children in our Western world . So after unraveling the hidden costs of our daily living , we embarked on a drastic change of lifestyle to benefit ourselves and our two young boys . In 2014 , after a few attempts to find the perfect place to bring this vision into reality , we settled on a five-acre tract of land with an 1890s home that oscillated between “ tear-down ” and “ fixerupper ” on Realtor . com for months . We were not swayed but probably should have been !
For the next four years , we submerged ourselves in grueling , do-it-yourself green renovations
plenty I Spring sowing 2021 13