21: Growing a Garden (and a Writing Life) with Kate Spring

Did you know what you wanted to do after college? Neither did writer Kate Spring. My guest today took a winding path to becoming a farmer in Vermont, and today she’s running a farm, raising a family, and figuring out (through trial and error) the grounding practices that make it possible for her to return to the soil and the page year after year.

MEET KATE

Kate Spring is a writer and organic farmer at Good Heart Farmstead. She’s here to help you grow the organic farm or garden you dream of, and cultivate a flourishing creative practice. Because creativity is as essential as food.

Connect:

• The Good Heart Life
• Harvesting Words writing course
• Instagram

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Journaling as a conversation with the world
• The book that inspired Kate to change her relationship to food
• How a bad breakup and a summer internship set her on the path to farming
• What “mud season” in Vermont teaches her about getting out of life’s ruts
• The hardest parts about running a farm, and how burnout led to making some big shifts
• Why Kate and her husband schedule writing retreats, rock climbing trips, and other self-care practices in advance
• Reframing what “productive work” means, and why taking care of herself lays the foundation for all the other productive work
• The power of starting the day with silence, tea, candles, and meditation

LINKABLE MENTIONS

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• Kundalini meditation with Sally Hope
• Harvesting Words: an online writing course for farmers and gardeners