On New Ground

After moving to West Marin, I was eager to start exploring my surroundings. Here are a few of the favorite organic, sustainable farms and ranches I’ve visited and recommend checking out! Tara Firma Farms There is so much great stuff happening at Tara Firma Farm s. I first visited as part of the SonomaCounty Farm Trails tour weekend, but the farm is very accessible, and visitors can stop by any Saturday and Sunday for a free tour. Tara Firma is a 260-acre, certified organic farm that raises cattle, pigs, chickens, and turkeys that are antibiotic/hormone free, pasture raised, and non-GMO. They do also grow fruits and vegetables. Although, it doesn’t seem those are available to the public just yet. Since I visited on a bustling day, the owners of the farm were mingling about, and I spoke with Jen, who was in charge of the goats.  She told me that she and her husband, Mark Squire, owner of The Good Earth Natural Foods in Fairf

It’s been almost exactly one year to the day that we bought our house in West Marin. (Our offer was auspiciously accepted on Friday the 13 th .) After that momentous event, a few things quickly became clear: we were going to stay put in the Bay Area, which felt like a big accomplishment, but we were not going to start a neighborhood farm , which felt like a bit of a bummer. While the latter idea still felt awfully unclear, there was an excitement in the plan that quite frankly was not the same as suddenly having a hefty mortgage payment and zero savings.  But you will certainly not hear me complain.  We moved to a semi-rural area where nature abounds and the schools are innovative and we ticked off many of the boxes on the list of what we wanted. Despite being situated on a somewhat small lot, the house has opportunities for garden projects, which I’ll write about as I go. But for now, the main reason that any of this seems relevant, is that the whole reason we ended up in