A Missouri native, I (Lindsey) moved to Colorado to pursue my passion of Environmentalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009. There, I met my husband, Cliff and that was that. We spent a couple of years traveling around the west in a 1974 camper in the bed of a truck. He, competing in the Freeskiing World Tour, me taking the gap years I longed for before college. With an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and a minor in geology, I was searching up and down for a job in the non-profit sector to no avail. After an internship at the state capitol and one for an outdoor education non-profit, I shifted focus. My love of science and children led me to pursue a teaching degree. I received my graduate degree in secondary science education from Regis University in Denver in May 2013 and started teaching middle school science in August of that year. It was a dream science teaching job in Longmont, CO. I taught all science disciplines to all three grade levels, and even co-led a citizen science program in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Meanwhile, Cliff built his life and career around skis and trees. He spent the winter competing in Big Mountain Freeride events in our early years together, and later coaching. He was the head coach for the Big Mountain Freeride Team at the Winter Park Competition Center for 8 seasons. He grew the program five fold, and spent winters traveling all over the west and even the world coaching his junior athletes in the event he loved. In the summer he spent his days managing forests, primarily in a rural setting, but eventually that led to an urban forestry job in the City of Longmont and a transition away from ski coaching.

As they do, our first child changed everything. After our oldest daughter, Mabel was born in 2018, our little downtown house with a big back garden didn’t feel like quite enough. We spent all our spare time in the garden, hosting friends for dinner, preserving our harvests, and urban foraging all of the fruit trees we spied each year. We yearned for a deeper connection to our food, to each other, and to nature. Our lives felt backwards. Working away from those we love to afford to buy food from far away places, and prepare it in the moments between places we had to be and things we had to do. We started looking for property and the search was wide. Tempted to go further West, we eventually entertained the idea to swim upstream back East. To a place where the land is underrated, and often under appreciated. To a place where we had a big family support network, even though at the time we had no idea how much we would really need them. To a place that felt so familiar yet so alien. A wild, untamed jungle in comparison to the high desert where our gardening journey began.

In November 2019, we sold our first home in Colorado, and bought our 16 acre historic farm in Missouri. The remnants of a 100 year old, 100 acre farm. The farmhouse, barn, and outbuildings and sliver of land that remained a part of it. The shell of a dairy farm from the 1920’s. The first few years here were spent unveiling what once was, planning, pivoting, planning again. A full home renovation, fences mended, torn down, and replotted. And we’re only just beginning.

After a couple of years focused on growing vegetables and raising sheep and laying hens for profit, we decided our passions really lie in connection. In living a sustainable life ourselves first.

Homesteading. growing our food, raising our food, learning the art and science of pasture management and working every year to close those circles a little more. To build our own little ecosystem, to reduce our footprint, to reduce the distance our food travels to our bodies. To become increasingly connected to our terroir through eating seasonally and locally. This is our dream. We eat three meals a day: each one an opportunity to know ourselves in this moment, in this place. We all deserve to feel a sense of belonging and I believe we all can through connection with our food. The direct bond from the land to our bodies.

In what I have come to call my accidental sabbatical, the birth of my second daughter Ada, I realized the direction we’d begun with our farm and business wasn’t sustainable for our family’s longterm well-being. A two year pause to evaluate where we were and where we want to go was vital.

This is how the recipe blog was born. A tangible way to share with you my complex passion. Remembering who we are, living in balance of body, mind, and spirit, through our food. Knowing that these choices have a powerful impact on ourselves, our families, our communities, and our planet. A beautiful, delicious lifestyle that I can share with you. Seasonal, scratch food, using fresh ingredients, for families. Simple, nourishing recipes designed to grow you as an instinctual cook so you don’t need recipes every day to prepare perfect meals for yourself and your family.

The recipe blog pairs with our Mercantile which sells all natural, all local goods. We are passionate about living as close to non-toxic as possible and the goods we sell reflect this. You can purchase a small selection of these items online and a wider selection in person. Many recipes include ingredients that can be purchased at the mercantile.