Meet Laura Fredrickson-Gosewisch of Vital Ground Farm

Laura, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
One day I got desperate because it was so hard to afford basics like groceries and planted some seeds in makeshift containers outside my apartment in Chicago. I didn’t grow much, but that experience helped me feel like I could do something about my circumstances. Tending to these plants felt like tending to myself, too. One day I signed up for a trade school and started a massage business. Connecting with myself through bodywork helped me see how deeply trauma affected me physically and emotionally. I started taking college courses one at a time and after fifteen years graduated with a degree in Supportive Leadership from Metropolitan State University. I worked all kinds of jobs over the years just trying to make it and my daydreams kept going back to this incessant desire to grow food. So in 2016, I left my “good” job at a credit union to be the only farmhand on a small vegetable farm in Wisconsin.

When I first set out to farm, I wanted to someday buy some land and start my own operation. Then I saw how many farmers around me were struggling – financially, physically, and emotionally. I had to get real about my financial position wondered if I could ever purchase land, which led me to wonder if another farmer tied to another farm was really what was needed. I knew I wanted to ease the burden on my friends and colleagues, so I started to share my farmers market stand with anyone that wanted to come to market with me.

I used my massage experience to help support my farmer friends and visited any farms that wanted support. Then started speaking at farming conferences about caring for ourselves while farming, but conferences are a privileged place to be. Not all farmers have the funds or time to attend conferences, and I wanted to reach more farmers in need so I brought it to the internet.

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?
Struggling helped me find my way to farming, and I’ve been grateful for all the obstacles. As a white woman, I have also had an amount of privilege that allowed me to survive more easily. I feel strongly about honoring and exploring the depths of our own difficult things, whatever they are. I’ve battled against other people’s expectations and my own low self-esteem, and being as honest with myself as possible has helped me do my business better. I am committed to getting real about how hard it is to care for ourselves and that it takes work, persistence, and grace to get out of our own way and stop expecting perfection. Doing work on ourselves is needed now more than ever. My therapist shared a poem by David Whyte with me called “Start Close In” and that summarizes my approach to my life and work.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Vital Ground Farm?
Food is something we choose to gather around to address issues around labor, justice, agriculture, scarcity, relationship with the earth.

We like to say we are “cultivating connection, soil to soul”. We are a farm but also much more – we want to share the joy and struggle of farming while educating and empowering non-farmers to participate in the food system and their local food economy. Food is a powerful tool for social and environmental justice. EVERYBODY needs it!

Many of us yearn for connection with nature when we feel run down; whether we are urban or rural we are all working harder than ever. We want to help folks tap into their own relationship with the earth, themselves, and their communities so we can ALL be thriving instead of just trying to survive.

Rich soil grows healthy, nourishing plants, and is alive with activity between organisms. We are creating opportunities for people to connect around food and farming, compassion for self and others, community-building, and solidarity. All of us are just trying to manage in a world that can feel unmanageable. We come together online and in person to connect and reflect on what matters, support each other, and do whatever we can. Our members contribute a monthly fee to participate in our online community and access exclusive content, which also funds our work supporting farmers with wellness resources for free. This is the very beginning of this idea, but we believe there is power in small things.

I started farming because I was personally familiar with the difference access to food makes in a person’s life. Everyone deserves to eat. Solidarity with each other is so important, and that starts with taking responsibility for ourselves. We believe in the power of people, and that small things CAN make a big impact – we get to choose what to build and hope others will choose to build it with us. Connection and compassion are what we need to move forward, and it starts as simply as offering compassion to yourself. In case YOU haven’t heard it today, you’re doing your best and that IS good enough – keep at it and give yourself a break.