Bellingham event + new adventures!
Friends,
Happy summer! I have two big pieces of news …
Join me in Bellingham, August 3!
First of all, I’m heaading to Bellingham, WA next month for a Farm-Raised Kids book event at Village Books on Sunday, August 3! Find more info and purchase tickets/books now here.
This Village Books event is really special to me for several reasons … Bellingham is where my husband Casey and I met and lived before moving to Oregon. It’s also the city where we fell in love with farming, while working at Cedarville Farm in between summers of graduate school. Even before that, we used to regularly hang out at Village Books, browsing titles (walking to local bookstores was our number one “date” activity).
I can still vividly remember sitting on the floor with Casey in the older version of Village (before they built the fancy “new” building): we were tucked into the basement corner where they shelved the farming books, carefully turning pages in books by Elliot Coleman and other farm heroes, dreaming together about our own future farm or homestead. We did eventually buy some of those inspiring books, hoping they’d be useful to us someday. Oh, if only we could have known! How many times did we pull those books off our own farm bookshelves, thumbing through them with dirty fingers, looking for answers to our many questions about making soil mix and growing cabbage?
Keep in mind, we started our farm in 2006 — well before the advent of farm YouTube channels and online farming courses. In fact, ours was one of the first “farm blogs” to pop up on the internet at the time! Those early reference and “how to” farming books we purchased at Village were precious to us, and it brings tears to my eyes to know that my book about farming and parenting is now shelved next to some of the books we have loved for decades, in a store that fed our earliest farm dreams.
Amy Frye of Boldly Grown Farm in nearby Bow, WA will be joining me for the event to have a conversation about the book and farming and parenting in general. Amy is one of the farmers featured in Farm-Raised Kids, and she’s also a kick-ass farmer in general — I’m grateful that she’s going to share her valuable time with us to enrich the conversation. I’ll also be signing books!
So, please: join us! The Village Books event is 2-3 pm, Sunday August 3. Find more info and purchase tickets/books now here.
And, new adventures ahead …
The other big news from this year (and a big part of why I’ve been quieter lately on social media and email) is that last year I went back to school to earn my secondary education teaching license! I completed my program through Linfield University this June, and am now a licensed language arts teacher here in Oregon (see the photo in the header of me celebrating on Linfield’s campus after formally receiving my certificate “cord”).
Teaching in some capacity has always been a part of my adult life — I taught English 101 while earning my graduate degree; I led workshops at farm conferences throughout our years of full-time farming; and, of course, I homeschooled our children here on the farm (which I write about in Farm-Raised Kids!).
To me, teaching feels closely related to my writing and podcasting career — in all these venues, I aim to organize ideas and communicate them effectively to help others grow. Classroom teaching is just a much more relationship-based and dynamic version of this process, but because I teach writing and English, there is still a focus on words and writing craft too.
This year I had the joy of teaching academic writing at our local community college (Chemeketa! Amazing school!) and also completing my student teaching at the local high school (McMinnville! Go Grizzlies!). I brought my farming experience into my college classroom by focusing all our reading and writing on the big topic of FOOD. It was so fun to see what directions my students explored as they took on their own food-related research essays (social media and the risk of eating disorders, the efficacy of livestock guardian dogs, the need for more heat related protections for farm workers, and more!).
Now that I’m done with my teacher training, I’m on the precipice of new adventures — it’s a bit too early to share exactly what’s coming next for me, but I’m excited for this next chapter, where teaching will be a much bigger part of how I spend my daily energy and time than before.
Even with these big shifts, much of what I wrote about in Farm-Raised Kids remains true: we are living and farming (on a smaller scale) at this amazing farm where my kids were born and raised. Although as my children get older, their lives are taking new shapes as well. At 12 and 15, they are becoming increasingly independent and exploring their interests off the farm more, even as they still spend hours here helping and wandering. One loves to curl up and daydream in a favorite willow tree at the end of the field; the other earns extra money by helping us mow and remove blackberries from the orchards. Both still love to graze on whatever is fresh and ripe and bring bowls of green beans to the house for dinner. So much of that farm-raised-kid-sweetness remains, but it feels less of my story to tell now. It’s becoming their story. My children have their own relationship with this place where they’ve played in mud puddles and dug forts. And, so I’m stepping back, and into my own new career, in part to make room for them to grow in new ways.
I will keep writing. I will keep growing things. You will keep hearing from me. But changes abound. That is the way of life, and especially of parenting.
I’ve written about this before, but it’s worth mentioning again: when Casey and I first started our farm in our mid-20s, I imagined that we’d spend a few years building our customer base, infrastructure, and systems, and then … sort of coast on what we’d built for the next few decades, keeping routines and our work and lifestyle mostly the same until we maybe someday retired. I couldn’t have pictured how long life would actually feel (in a good way!) and how many opportunities there would be for us to experiment and try new things, both on and off the farm.
I will admit that there was a time when the notion of such change upset and frightened me. I had a vision for our farm and life, and I really truly did love how it turned out. We have lived all of those early dreams. Our farm and family life has been everything I could have ever hoped for — I have lived with a deep sense of gratitude. But that original vision was perhaps too static — too 2-dimensional, almost like a snapshot of a life. Change (and the accompanying growth) is an inevitable part of an actual lived life, and becoming open to change has led me to new experiences and adventures that have also been delightful and beyond my original vision. There is still a part of me that always wants to hold on to every person, place, experience just as it is, because my love runs deep; but I’m learning (and parenting and farming have taught me) to ride the changes with more openness, more welcome anticipation for what’s ahead.
My wish for you: fun summer stuff 🌞
Speaking of riding, mountain biking with my family has been one of the unexpected joys life has brought. I never thought I’d ride bikes down curvy mountain trails, but that’s some of what we’re up to this summer (albeit pretty slowly for me). Farming taught me to love summer by introducing me to the joys of seasonal foods, and I also love the recreation that is possible this season. I chose some extra summer-y images to share in this email’s opening banner: a trail, a bike by the water, hammock reading … these are just a few of the ways we can get outside and enjoy the glories of this season. Not pictured here are so many others: harvesting (x1,000!), putting up food, visiting new places, playing on the beach, tossing around the frisbee, singing outside with friends on warm summer evenings … What is on your summer list? Now is the time to make the best of it! Channel THIS pure joyful energy of my kids and a friend playing in our “pallet pool” on the farm many years ago now …
Make a big splash! Who needs a swimming pool when you can fill a farm tote with water? #farmraisedkids
I hope to see some of you in Bellingham!!!!! Here’s the information again
With joy,
Katie
P.S. If you’re wondering, all my veggie-themed gear is still available on my website here, and I’ve already begun my 2026 “Around the Green Wheel” calendar for next year! I hope to have it available for download online and purchase in local stores by Thanksgiving.