the Evolution of 328North
Many years ago we were living in a run down section of Pittsburgh, filled with people who seemingly had lost hope and direction in their day to day lives. In our response to being surrounded by negativity and oppression, we started a small garden with the hope we could incorporate healthy organic foods into our community. We wanted to provide an alternative to the processed foods our local supermarkets were keen on promoting to the forgotten community we chose to be a part of.
Surprisingly enough, the soil in our urban garden was nutrient rich and over the next few years we substantially increased the size of our growing capacity. We incorporated a sharing aspect to our garden as it grew more edibles than we needed. It was becoming a wonderful experiment, there were a small number who would share garlic or tomatoes in exchange of green lettuce or apples.
After a few successful seasons building our urban garden, we suffered a terrible loss. On April 2, 2014 our house burned to the ground. The loss of our home, pets and tangible memories was devastating. But our perspective has always been to lean forward. We were going to rebuild in the community we had called home, but the pain was too much to build upon. So our search progressed to look for our own “Good Life” in New England, inspired by Helen and Scott Nearing.
We ended up relocating to a small college town in Massachusetts, surrounded by fellow like-minded people, searching for healthy options to an ever increasing corporate offering of corn syrup filled junk and prepackaged foods. We quickly started our homestead within months of moving into our home. The empty field with a long apple tree in the center presented many possibilities. We befriended local farmers and ranchers in our new town, all were working on organic farming techniques that offer healthy food, a sustainable business model and great friendships.
The same energy we put into creating our abundant garden in Pittsburgh was brought with us as we created a homestead here in Williamstown. Within the first year we planted a dozen fruit trees, built a chicken coop for a dozen hens, and planted perennials like rhubarb and asparagus.
This blog is our story on choices made to live sustainably, simplicity while honoring family, hope and love. We hope our journey will inspire you to grow your own food.
Matt & Tu