Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelsey Zaavedra.
Hi Kelsey, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always been a curious person and as you can imagine, curiosities can lead to adventure. As soon as I was old enough to wander I left home and started exploring as far as I could go. Although I was expected to go to college right after high school and get a degree, I found myself in urban metropolises of Asia, the wilderness of Alaska, and eventually in farming communities.
Having the exposure to vastly different ways of life there was a clear urgency to have life skills instead of a desk career. The idea of knowing how to create life instead of generating a dollar seemed like a better fit for me. Besides, you can’t eat money. After seven years of traveling, I found myself enrolling at a small college in the English countryside where I studied Biodynamic horticulture and agriculture. This deeply holistic way of farming is now what I do on my small farm in Chisago county. I raise heirloom vegetables, seeds, and pastured chickens.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There have been many challenges along the way. I thought finding land was going to be the most difficult obstacle to overcome. It took me nearly six years to find land before I could settle in and start building my farm from the ground up – literally. The farm I bought was a scrappy piece of raw land that required installing a well, fencing, irrigation, building greenhouses, and hauling a whole lot of manure to amend the soil. It was incredibly hard labor and many wondered how I managed to make ends meet doing this work. The sweat equity I put into the farm was the hardest work I’ve ever done but nothing was more challenging than fighting to keep my farm. My openness to different cultures, people and ways of approaching the world was scary to some neighbors and they chose to attack me via ordinances in hopes to make me leave.
Who knew that selling my beeswax lip balms on my farm was illegal? After a long battle to acquire a permit that would allow me to sell my lip balms and host the public, I am able to stay on my land. I will never forget how poorly my township and county board members handled this situation and hid behind impossible ordinances because they didn’t want to openly show the discriminatory behaviors we all see.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Heirloomista is a woman-owned and operated farm. I use deeply holistic farming practices that regenerate life and provide food for many. On my farm, I grow heirloom vegetables, seeds and raise pastured chicken for meat. The farm’s mission is to heal the earth through agriculture and inspire people to engage with this planet in a meaningful way.
Most of what I grow is sold directly to consumers in my farm shop and at local farmers’ markets. Cultivating community is important to me and it’s been really fun to use the Farm Shop as a way to share the farm with the public.
Be sure to come to visit in the warmer months!
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I think maintaining the status quo is very risky. When we settle into the comfort of “normal” or “what we’ve always done” it creates no room for change, nor does it allow for those who haven’t achieved the status yet. Being an agent of change in conservative communities has been proven to be risky.
The risks I’ve taken to reveal my values of investing in a more equitable future for others and creating safer spaces for all kinds of people was a challenging space to exist in. However, the risk of Good Trouble is always worth it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.heirloomista.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heirloomista
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heirloomista
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Heirloomista
