Episode #1 | Kristin Kimball

Land and

Food and Love

Farmer, Essex Farm & Author “The Dirty Life”

and “Good Husbandry”

Kristen Kimball was born in 1971, and grew up in central New York. She graduated from  Harvard in 1994, then moved to New York City, where she worked at a  literary agency, taught creative writing, and freelanced for magazines  and travel guides. In 2002, she interviewed a wingnut  farmer named Mark, and took more than a professional interest in both  him and his vocation. They founded Essex Farm together in 2004 – the world’s first full-diet CSA, as far as we know – and she’s been  professionally dirty ever since. She and Mark have two daughters, and Kristen has three great jobs: mother, farmer, writer.

Resources

The Dirty Life, by Kristin Kimball - https://www.kristinkimball.com/
Good Husbandry, by Kristin Kimball - https://www.kristinkimball.com/

Essex Farm - https://essexfarmcsa.com/
Kristin’s Farm Note (Essex Farm’s Newsletter) - https://www.kristinkimball.com/farm-note

Moutoux Orchard Farm - https://www.moutouxorchard.com/

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver, Steven Hopp, and Camille Kingsolver http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/book.htm

10 Questions excerpt:
Questions to help readers reconnect with the agricultural basics of their own regions —>
1. When do fruits and vegetables come into season?
2. Which ones keep through winter, and how to preserve the others?
3. On what day will autumn’s first frost likely fall on your county?
4. When should you expect the last frost in the spring?
5. Which crops can be planted before the last frost?
6. Which crops must wait until after the last frost?
7. Which grains are Autumn planted?
8. What does an asparagus patch look like in August?
9. What animals and vegetables thrive in one’s immediate region?
10. How to live well on what thrives in one’s immediate region, with little else beyond flour, salt and coffee?

Approx. 1% of the US population grows food in the US - Source —> https://www.trustinfood.com/2024/04/18/the-one-percenters/

Problems that we face - Source —> https://www.choicesmagazine.org/choices-magazine/theme-articles/transitions-in-agriculture/drivers-of-agricultural-transition

Resources for Eating Locally
https://www.localharvest.org/organic-farms/ | https://www.localfarmfinder.com/ | https://www.usdalocalfoodportal.com/

5 Fingers of Food - the five parts of every meal

  1. the soil where the food is grown

  2. the conditions that the food was grown in like the weather and season

  3. the farmer and the skills brought to the raising of that thing

  4. the cook and how skillfully can you turn that food into a thing on a plate

  5. the eater and their ability to approach the plate mindfully in a way that they can be fully nourished by it

Double rainbow beauty from ferry ride to Kristin’s Essex Farm.