B luebird F armstead
Growing Food, Home, and Family
Story & Photography By Bobby and Allison Tjaden
If you have ever been on a house-hunt in the DMV area,
you can appreciate the complexity of our search for our
first home. We wanted to buy a farm, in commuting
distance to College Park, with a move-in-ready house,
and enough room for Allison’s mother to move from New
Jersey to join us. All on a budget. After three years of searching
and many compromises along the way, we found what
we needed. And more. One facet we never considered during
our search has become a cornerstone of our new life in the
Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve: the community.
Our block is full of new parents alongside grandparents, chickens,
goats, and horses. Hidden trails leading to connecting
streams and knowledgeable neighbors willing to tell you how
to find them. Our neighbors are willing to share their expertise,
hands, and stories as well as their homebrewed beer and
homemade goat cheese.
The day we moved, we found out
that we were welcoming one more
to our new home. Our first baby
was on the way. Two years later, our
multigenerational home is bustling
with a toddler, second baby-onthe-way,
two full-time working
parents, one grandmother, twenty
chickens, eight ducks, one goose,
two barn cats, and an old blind dog.
18 plenty I Summer growing 2020