On hearing Barbra Kingsolver promote her new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I thought, “been there done that.” She and her family moved to a farm and vowed that for one year they would eat only food they grew themselves or that was raised locally.  My wife, also Barbara, and I moved to our farm in Maine 35 years ago and have been living close to the land ever since.

I too, wrote a book about our experience of raising the majority of our food — which I titled Gardening for Independence.

We were part of the “back to the land” movement of the 1970s. I don’t know that any of us in this so-called movement knew we were part of any movement. Some say they were influenced by Scott and Helen Nearing — early green living pioneers. We weren’t. For us, it is just the way things worked out.

It was wonderful having essentially a support group of couples who were gardening and farming organically, who cared about the sources of the food they put on the table, and who were learning and sharing. We could get organic whole milk from Stacey and Marilyn and Ed built a smoke house and smoked our bacon and hams. We shared recipes for curing the pork.

We met Stacey, Marilyn, Ed and Gail at the first meeting of the Maine Organic Foods Association. Later the name was changed to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (mofga.org). MOFGA was the first organic organization in the country and is currently the largest. I was the second treasurer and the third president, ultimately serving three terms.

Health was central to much of what we did.  Eating food without pesticides seemed like a no-brainer to most of us but there was also a heightening of self-respect as we became more and more proficient at doing things for ourselves — everything from fixing our buildings and vehicles to raising and preparing our own food and cutting our own firewood.

Doing for ourselves made us feel good, but not to the extent of leading an insulated life. Friends enriched us and friendships were deepened as we helped each other.

Thirty-five years later I am farming organically, raising vegetables for our restaurant, Joshua’s (joshuas.biz).  Barbara is the dining room manager, our son, Joshua, is the chef, and I am the farmer. We literally bet the farm on Josh and it has turned out to be an excellent bet.

What makes me most proud is that, under Josh’s leadership, the restaurant operates under the same ethic that has guided us since before he was born. He seeks the freshest, highest quality ingredients with a priority given to locally raised. It is this ethic from which I write. I hope you find much that will prove useful to you.

[Ed. Note: Mort Mather has been gardening organically for 35 years. He is the author of Gardening for Independence and has founded two non-profits -- one saved a farm on the Maine Coast and the other saved the historic Ogunquit Playhouse.  Mort is a certified organic farmer supplying vegetables for his family-run restaurant (http://joshuas.biz) in Wells, Maine.  To learn more, click here.]

For more great articles like this delivered to your inbox, subscribe to our free natural health newsletter!