We are Jess and Dan; 2 people who fell in love with each other at first sight and share a dream of becoming farmers. It’s our shared vision to live sustainably, minimally, in harmony with the land, and support the health of our communities and the Earth. Jess is a somatic movement teacher who runs her own business teaching people how to move consciously and become more aware of themselves and the world around them. She grew up in Didsbury, and she has been involved in communal living, urban farming, raising egg-layers, beekeeping, and is on a journey of learning the intricacies of how humans and the land are meant to support one another. She is both a fantastic chef and baker, and makes a mean sourdough! Her journey begins with a mysterious illness a decade ago that she was able to navigate by prioritizing healthy food and sustainable growing systems, learning to listen and follow the rhythm and cycles of the natural world, and heal her body somatically. She hopes to continue to explore this network and help farmers develop regenerative practices for their bodies and prevent burnout. She loves her border collie (Finndog), playing violin, writing, snowboarding, and taking long walks. She is an excellent communicator, diplomatic, diligent, enthusiastic, strategically minded, and a visionary. Dan has been a red seal journeyman electrician for over a decade. He now specializes in solar power, and holds a permaculture design certificate. He grew up in Okotoks and He is passionate about sustainability and self-sufficiency. He spent 5 months living off grid at an eco village on Vancouver Island learning permaculture practices, different ways of Natural Building, and how to steward the land responsibly by building a personal connection to it. He is motivated by improving the well-being of the people he loves, and is determined to help foster a more just society by improving our agricultural practices. Dan loves his family, playing with his nieces and nephew, woodworking, snowboarding, and thinking outside the box. He is an excellent problem solver, adaptable, good with his hands, physically and mentally strong, kind-hearted, and visionary. He knows a lot of things about a lot of things, and is very eager to learn all that he doesn’t know yet. We are interested in vegetable farming, soil regeneration, herbs and medicinal plants, flower gardening, food foresting, rewilding, and living in harmony with small livestock like Chickens, Bees, Goats and Sheep. We hope to become self-sustaining over 3-5 years, and ultimately provide for and connect with our local community through CSA boxes and market gardening. We’d like to farm 1-5 acres using regenerative and mostly organic processes like no till gardening, onsite composting, cover crops, crop rotation, mulching, etc. We are also interested in rewilding part of the land and reintroducing some native species for foraging. Our dream is to find someone with a small piece of land and come to an agreement with that person to work independently or in conjunction with them in order to learn that land, regenerate that land, and eventually live off of that land together. We are looking for a place where we could park a camping trailer temporarily and after spending time with the land for a season, acquire and build a semi-permanent 24’ yurt to live in. Ideally, it would be a lease to own style agreement, but we are very open and flexible to other types of arrangements, too. We are passionate, hard-working, able-bodied, realistic, curious, and playful. We see the world differently. We want to challenge and change the “system.” We know there is a different way. A better way. We know we need to integrate old ways, slower ways, with new ways of understanding. We know that more farmers are desperately needed. We know food scarcity is a real threat. We recognize that there is knowledge that needs to be passed on. We believe symbiosis is possible with imagination. We know things need to become personal for things to change. We believe that the work we all need to do is learn how to live in balance by listening to the world around us. This is the work that will change the world. And we are ready to do our part.
Willing to work to regenerate conventionally farmed land through various different practices.