Welcome to Dirt & Love, our hobby farm!

With a little dirt and a whole lot of love, we are growing more than just food; we are growing ourselves. We are deepening our family’s connection to nature - caring for our planet and our planet caring for us. We are teaching life lessons to our children and building family bonds. We are failing and learning and failing again as we challenge ourselves in new ways. Mostly, we are just a family that wants to be outside. 

Let me introduce us and tell you how we got here. Our family of 4 moved from Arkansas to the Finger Lakes region of New York in 2018. Now most people assume that it must have been a job that moved us half way across the country but not in our case... 

In 2017, Robyn and I had a strong feeling that our family needed to make a move. We started off thinking it would be a short move, remaining close to our home in central Arkansas. At the time, this need was driven only by wanting to move closer to the small Montessori school our children attended, but as we considered what we wanted for our family, we knew the move needed to be a larger change in our lives. 

With the benefit of being able to work remotely, we were not limited by our jobs. So we put together a criteria and began searching the US for the right fit. Yes, Folks, I mean we literally started with searching most of the country for the right town. We wanted a small Montessori school for our children that went as close to high school as possible. We prefer cold winters to roasting summers, and we love mountains more than the ocean. We wanted somewhere that fit our love of being outdoors while having a great culture. Robyn conducted hours of online research and put together a short list of options. Every place on the list was somewhere we had never even visited. It felt daunting to me. This was only a step above throwing a dart at a map. Yet as we waded through that list, one place stuck out: Ithaca, New York. 

With time running out for us to ensure enrollment in a school for our children, Robyn and I flew to Ithaca to check out the town and the Montessori school we had loved online. Ithaca completely lived up to its slogan “Ithaca is Gorges.” It is bordered by Cayuga Lake, one of the Finger Lakes. It has state parks all around it with beautiful hiking trails and waterfalls, terrific community programs for kids and a great college-town vibe. We toured the picture-perfect Montessori school before flying home. There was only one problem… the school just didn’t feel right to me. We talked about it all the way home. Robyn was incredulous that I wasn’t sold because the town seemed so perfect for us. Was there really a problem, or was it just my nerves about this crazy decision we were making? I mean who does this sort of thing! Ultimately, we agreed to take our kids to Ithaca for a couple school visits, and we found a great fit. With the school selected, Ithaca now checked all the boxes, and we had made the craziest decision of our life!

At the end of June 2018, we moved into a rental in Ithaca, and one year later we moved again into our own home. After searching for months for a house that would accommodate our family and two home offices along with our kids’ wish for a great sledding hill, we bought a 2-year old, 2 story house + basement nestled into a hill on 25 mostly wooded acres about 10 miles outside of Ithaca. And that is where our story begins...