Farmer Erin's Story

I grew up in the Rochester suburb of Fairport, where I didn't know a single farmer. But I knew I loved plants, so I pursued a degree at Cornell University in Landscape Architecture. I then moved to San Francisco & got a job working for a corporate design/planning firm, but found quickly that I was not made for sitting behind a computer all day. I spent a winter volunteering on organic farms in Florida and realized one chilly morning picking spinach as the sun rose that farming was the life for me.

But not knowing anyone my age following that as a valid career pursuit, I moved back to San Francisco to spend the next few years "figuring stuff out"... meanwhile working for an organic landscaping crew. I bought a biodiesel pick-up truck and started my own business designing and installing native plant gardens in city backyards. I was growing beans & potatoes for myself in a small community-garden plot, lived in a vegetarian cooperative house, and had chickens in my backyard. It took me a few years to realize that I needed more land and less concrete around me.

I took the plunge and left the city. I committed to a one year internship at Full Belly Farm, near Sacramento. This 300-acre organic farm had everything. A 1,200 member CSA, peaches, walnuts, almonds, citrus, pomegranates, figs, grapes, sheep, and all the vegetables you can imagine. I learned how to milk a cow by hand (and a goat), kill a chicken, and speak broken Spanglish in the fields with the mexican workers. I got a half acre for my own project: trellised pole beans, all different varieties. I was hooked.

As the permanency of having a sustainable, community-based farm really sank in, I began to wonder why I was living way out on the west coast, when my whole family lived in upstate NY. California really is the garden of eden. But it wasn't home. So I decided to return to my home state, for good.

With the goal in mind of trying to make a living out of full-time farming in Rochester, I searched all over New York State, into Pennsylvania & Massachusetts, for a mentor who could teach me how to grow really good vegetables in this climate. I found David Hambleton, an incredible grower in the Hudson Valley, near Poughkeepsie. The farm is called Sisters Hill Farm. He was everything you could ask for in a mentor– worked alongside me in the fields, showing me how to do everything from tractor work to crop planning, to thinning beets by hand. He was notorious in the Hudson Valley farmer circle for having miraculously weed-free fields (which is hard to come by among organic growers). But he claimed it was easy- with simple planning, the right tools, and good time management. We also worked 8 hour days and got weekends off, also unheard of in most farming communities. And yet we fed 200 families, just the 3 of us working full-time, with some help from a few wonderful volunteers. I fell in love with the CSA model of farming.

Mud Creek Farm is a synthesis of all the lessons I've learned in growing things: horticulture, permaculture, biodynamics, ecology, community gardening, and more, but it is most importantly based on a proven-successful model of a simple "alternative food economy." I am dedicated to treating the land with respect, fostering a sense of community, and using sustainable methods that ensure we will have a healthy planet for our grandchildren.

So here I am, back in Rochester, on a mission to save the world from certain melt-down, one rutabaga at a time.

I look forward to working with you all in the upcoming year as we embark on another season's adventure of growing food!