I am leaving The Inn to start a new adventure. I have loved every minute of my time here.  The Inn is a close family and I will be sad to go, our new farmer starts next week, and we will overlap for a month of training.  I’m launching a new project in June called Farmer Seeking Roots. I plan to travel through Europe, Asia and South America for one year volunteering on farms and following the food home with a consumer to cook, eat and share recipes. I will explore many avenues of sustainable agriculture; family farms, cooperatives, school gardens, community gardens, pastured animals, urban farms and many more. I want to labor alongside the multitude of ardent family farmers in both developed and developing nations. I hope to share growing techniques, new varieties, and recipes, but also I want to share their passion.  I want to highlight these farmers and consumers for the important decisions they make about food every day. I want to have a conversation with both farmers and consumers about their choices to support sustainable agriculture from either side of the plate.

I hope that through sharing these conversations I can inspire others to grow/ eat organically and sustainably. I hope to share techniques that I find with other farmers, in an effort to further their food enterprises. I want to encourage others to support their local farmers and food producers, to grow something towards their own nutrition and the nourishment of their community.   I want to highlight farmers that are growing food in such a way so as to rebuild their soils, improve the local environment and engage with their communities. I want to highlight farmers and consumers that are creating and contributing to a movement much larger than themselves. Organic, sustainable, family farming is what is going to feed our world. People that engage with their land, that work to see it and the land surrounding flourish.  Our personal health is dependent on the health of the soil, the forests, the oceans, the animals and people that surround us. We can no longer be insular in our decisions about food.  We vote with our dollars more often and more impact fully than any of our votes at the ballot box. We, as a global community must support enterprises and people that are furthering the sustainable food movement.

I will share this journey; the triumphs, struggles and the people that I find through a photo journal and blog on my website: http://www.farmerseekingroots.com . I invite you to follow me.

I am currently fundraising for this endeavor. You can find my campaign at  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/farmer-seeking-roots/x/5676147

There are a lot of great perks on offer, including prints of my photographs, a gardening guide that I have written, online and in person garden consulting and of course a huge thank you from me.

Joneve Murphy