West Glow Farms Partnership with The Heimerdinger Foundation

I have often heard that our lives make sense only when we look backwards. In each present moment we make choices that we hope will be good ones for our future selves, but it’s only in looking at the past that we can see how people and events were woven together to make our lives what they are today. My farm, West Glow Farm in Kingston Springs, TN began a relationship with the Heimerdinger Foundation in 2020 when so many things seemed to be falling apart. Our head farmer needed to leave the farm to move closer to family to have childcare during the Covid shutdowns and a dear friend was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. I had an unbelievable number of peppers in the ground and dozens of eggs that I didn’t know what to do with. As I was staring at the eggs and peppers, grieving the diagnoses of my friend Tallu Quinn, the woman who inspired me to start West Glow Farm, I wondered what to do next.

My own four children were home indefinitely from school, and I knew I couldn’t attempt farmers markets and sales when so many things were unpredictable in that moment. Years prior, one of my best friends, Karen, loved the food she had received from The Heimerdinger Foundation before she passed away from cancer. I remembered the love HF had shown Karen and I wanted to make a positive impact for my friend Tallu, who was receiving food from the organization at the time. I reached out them to see if they could use the eggs and peppers that I desperately didn’t want to see go to waste. In that moment West Glow Farm and the Heimerdinger Foundation began a partnership that has continued to deepen over time. This partnership has strengthened our commitment to the way we farm and allowed us both to move forward. As we enter our sixth season of farming, with a new, incredibly talented farm team, Heimerdinger has beens the one retail relationship that has remained consistent for West Glow Farm throughout our history. What once was a way for us to give back to something that we valued as an organization, has now become a partnership that we depend on financially, and even more a legacy of beautiful friendships that remind us of the importance of our work.

The Mayo Clinic defines clean food as “foods that are as close to their natural state as possible” and the benefit of eating clean food as gaining “nutrient dense, rich in vitamins, improved heart and brain health, stronger immune system, increased energy levels and flavor.” I have learned over the past 6 years of farming that clean food starts with healthy soil – the literal root of all good healthy food. Our head farmer, Geoff Hartnell, is focused on growing food free of chemicals and pesticides by implementing natural farming techniques. Natural farming utilizes the already occurring natural processes in our environment such as decomposition and ferments the cells which makes them bioavailable (also known as easily digestible and readily available). We also seek to harvest microbes from our current ecosystem that have existed for thousands of years and therefore they have a resiliency to the environmental pressures to further the resiliency of our soils and plants to disease, pests, and infertility! Natural farming is so powerful because our guts are made to be connected to the soil micro biome and natural farming enhances this aspect of life on our farm and for our farm members (one of which is HF).

The great thing about our partnership with The Heimerdinger Foundation is that we know they are preparing the foods we give to them in a way that honors the integrity of the nutrition coming from our soil and provides the very best flavor at the same time. A return to an observation of nature and a partnership with what is already going on is another way that natural farming takes shape. When we eat foods that are in- season, we not only get the best flavor from food since it is consumed days within its harvest, but we also eat what our bodies are needing for that season. In the fall and winter, our climate allows for root veggies and hearty greens for roasts and stews, while spring and summer provide produce like arugula, strawberries, and tomatoes – cool foods that match our need for cooling agents in the warmer months. Farming has taught me to pay attention to what mother nature is saying. And I’ve learned that the more I listen to her knowledge the better I feel, the more energy I have, and the more I look forward to what I get to eat throughout the day. It is an absolute joy to consume the highlight crops each season. Much like fashion and seasonal habits, I have learned to look forward to the seasons’ best produce in the same way that I look forward to my favorite pair of jeans and cozy sweater by the fire in the fall.  

I am incredibly thankful and proud of the partnership we have with The Heimerdinger Foundation. Together we are educating and feeding our local community into a healthier future, and remembering our loved ones who lost their battles with cancer. In their honor we recommit each day to learn more about natural farming and delicious recipes to share, and we also remember that our time here is finite. May we all commit to sharing more time around tables eating healthy, delicious food with the people we love and celebrate the bounty and glory of each season in front of us!