I never expected this to happen starting a farm

When I spontaneously bought 6.74 acres of rural undeveloped land with a loan last year, I never imagined my life would look like this at the end of 2024.

One-year ago, to this day, I stood at the top of my new gravel driveway that led to… nothing. I had purchased 6.74 acres of rural undeveloped land with a loan from Farm Credit East towards the end of September. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, relying on my experience as someone who had invested in four other real estate properties prior. That was all I had. I didn’t know the first thing about farming, working the land, gardening, and most certainly, working with the Amish.

All I knew was that the land was safe, beautiful, in a growing, business-friendly county close to where I grew up in Upstate New York, and came with a well. It did not have electric at the road, or a septic tank, or any soil tests done.

“Well, here goes nothing,” I muttered to myself as I put on my muck boots to walk out over completely undeveloped land in the beginning of October.

There were many mornings I woke up and wondered if I had made the biggest financial mistake of my life.

Early November (2023), I hired an Amish brother-duo excavating company to install a 400-foot gravel driveway onto the property with two culverts. I had no further plans than that - I just knew it probably made sense for me to be able to actually pull onto my land… right?

I was so impressed by how quickly and seamlessly they installed my driveway that I asked them towards the end of November if they would be interested in putting a structure on the property. They told me they had to discuss the prospect, being an excavation company and not a barn construction business.

December 2023 came and went, and I spent a lot of time looking out over the wild land I now owned. I sat there one day while it snowed, observing one of the red-tailed hawks that still hunts on my 4-5 acres of land I have vowed to leave wild for native pollinators. I watched him tilt his wings to catch different wind gusts so he didn’t have to exert any extra energy while he found his dinner.

That concept stuck with me. What if this whole process could be that effortless? What if going with the ‘wind’ would bring me to a future I couldn’t have dreamt up in my wildest dreams? What if I set aside my ‘plans’ and embraced what was meant for me?

I did just that.

I let the Amish completely direct and control the entire construction project.

I learned more than I can sum up in these articles by being around them for months on end. They changed my life, and by stepping out of their way, they built the most gorgeous barn I have ever seen. I hope, and have a feeling, we will build something together again in the future.

But for now, that brings me to today, reflecting on all that has happened in just one-year by submitting to what’s meant for the property.

The biggest change of all, I would argue, has been me. I knew that farming would be grueling work, that I’d fall asleep earlier, and that I’d enjoy more fresh air. All of that is obvious. But I could have never predicted everything else that would be coming along for the ride.

I fully believe for our country to heal its physical, mental, and spiritual health problems, every single person should engage in some form of farming or gardening in 2025. Here’s why.

Being in nature forces present moment observations

One could argue that you can bring your phone out into nature. You may do this the first few weeks farming. After awhile, you’ll leave the phone inside the barn while you venture into the woods, valleys, fields, and prairies. You’ll be doing so many different odds and ends jobs that it just makes more sense to leave the phone behind.

The first time I stood in the woods behind my barn, without a phone in hand, just after the Amish had wrapped up working that day late in April, I felt goosebumps on my arms. I was listening to the purely peaceful sound of wind rustling through newly developed leaves as spring loomed on the horizon. It was a sound I had never heard before. Sure, I had heard leaves rustle (it’s my favorite sound) - but being in zoned agricultural land meant there was no one else around. No sound pollution. No sirens. It was just me and the sounds of the forest.

I stood there in awe. I realized I had never really heard the earth before, not without background noise, people nearby, or construction vehicles in the distance. If you invest in zoned agricultural land, it’s going to ensure you are outside of city centers and suburbs. The quietness may seem intimidating at first - but when you have that first personal experience with the nature on your land, you’ll realize you’ve been living life on sensual autopilot.

The sound of the leaves then turned my attention to the colors, the smells, and the textures of the plants that I now stewarded. It was a domino effect. I slowly became a more present human, day after day, craving that kind of isolated intimacy with nature. The more present I became with the environment on my land, the more in-tuned I became to what the land needed.

And the more I could hear my thoughts. Scary, I know. But very necessary if people want to live out their divine purpose. You won’t be able to hear that purpose in a high-rise apartment building! Not to hate on travel - I love traveling. There’s a time and place for a city. But there’s also a time and place for complete natural immersion that your body is craving. And boy was my body craving it.

Nature immersion healed my body

I’ve struggled with allergies, food sensitivities, and different autoimmune conditions since I was little. I’d be sick and out of school every other month. I’ve gone through some pretty traumatic stuff in my 20s that doesn’t make me wonder why my nervous system is, as I like to say, shot.

But, as I have spent more time outside at my farm than ever before, I’ve had another epiphany: our bodies come from nature, which means nature can heal us. No matter what trauma you’ve been through, being outside every day for 6+ hours at your farm or garden can unravel the nervous system distortion.

For the first time in my life, in the last 12-months, I have only been really sick ONCE. That is remarkable for me, and should probably be studied. I am sleeping more soundly than ever, as someone who has never been a good sleeper. I am so tired (in a good way) when I sit down on the couch at 8PM that I don’t have time to ‘doom scroll’ or concoct some imaginary scenario in my head that gives me anxiety.

Since I am the healthiest I have ever been, I have more energy to do the tasks that a farm demands. If you fear that you are not physically cut out for farming or gardening, I am here to tell you that is false… no matter how old you are. The more I go outside and get my hands physically dirty, the more my body provides an energy for that kind of activity that laid dormant.

Think about it: your ancestors that came thousands of years before you farmed and gardened. They gathered and foraged (and hunted). Those genes live in every single one of us. There is no human that is more genetically cut out for gardening than another. All of the intimidation around gardening that turned me off from it for years was fake. The more I touch plants, observe them, plant them, collect their seed, and observe the soil, the more I can feel something profoundly innate in me taking over.

The secret is being PRESENT with the plants. That’s it! That’s the secret to all of this.

And you will be forced to be present with nature and the plants if you start farming or gardening. You won’t have a choice at some point, no matter how badly you want to bring the phone along at first.

Being outside for hours every day allows me to hear divine messaging

Let’s face it: we turn on Netflix, scroll on Facebook, blast music through Amazon Alexa, and text the people we love simultaneously every single night to numb out. It’s easier to do that than to face the hard things in our life that connect us to our divine purpose. More than ever in human history, we have the means to numb out, which is why I would argue our mental health as a country is abysmal.

The very first time I stood on my land last summer, I heard a voice in my head say to me, “Build it and they will come.” I jumped back.

“WHO? Me?!” I shouted, out loud, like a crazy person.

“Yes you. Build it and they will come,” the voice bellowed from the back of my head.

“But I don’t know the first thing about building, or land, or farming, or any of it. You have the wrong person,” I thought to myself.

I realize now it was God talking to me. You can call him whatever you want, I am not here to argue religion in this article. To me, that was God (or Jesus) taking the opportunity to talk to me as I sat in complete silence looking out over 7-acres of beautiful land. I think he had been waiting for the perfect opportunity to say that to me where I could actually HEAR him.

For you, your dominant sense might be sight or smell. For me, it’s hearing, and God of course knows that. As I sat in one of the most peaceful settings of my life, that voice boomed out of the back of my head and sent me on a quest that has me in awe at what has changed in my life in just 12-months.

Since then, I have heard even more divine messaging from God while I am outside every day. Though it’s freezing cold here now, I ranged anywhere from 6 to 10 hours outside every day this summer, and around 2 to 4 hours outside now in the winter. I realize that the seasonal depression a lot of people feel is linked to our obsession with staying indoors. Notice that people in Finland, Norway, etc. are happy as can be, and suffer from even colder temps and more prolonged darkness. I was shocked when I went to Scotland last year and found everyone to be significantly happier than New Yorkers as the sun set at 3PM with rain whipping sideways outside.

I realized those people spend time outdoors, no matter the conditions. Americans stay cooped up inside and wonder why they feel depressed! I am here to tell you being outside, even if you’re doing nothing ‘productive,’ will change you as a person. The divine purpose for your life will find you. You will perceive the way you were meant to, and be ushered on an adventurous (and at times, of course, stressful) quest that will make you feel alive again.

All by being outside for a few hours each day!

My outdoor observations have taught me how little we know about our planet

Spending just one summer outside at my farm teaching myself gardening has taught me how little we actually know about this planet. It also taught me farming is unique to each plot of land. No two acres are the same. So taking advice from someone online about what to do at your land probably isn’t the best move. YOU will know what to do with your land after spending time outside with it. The birds, plants, and soil will communicate to you subconsciously - trust me on this.

I discovered things in nature this summer that when I Googled them later in the day, I found out not a single other person or scientist had reported on it yet. I used to think we had it all figured out. We have pretty much nothing figured out, which should make this feel less intimidating to you.

And to the people descended from farming families who get online and bully those (not all farmers, of course) trying to get started without their tractors or tilling machines - I am here to tell you that farming via stripping the earth of its nutrients, breaking down the mycelium, and applying pesticides to plants has removed many farmers from all of the divine connectivity points I am sharing with you in this article. We can farm AND maintain the integrity of everything around us. We don’t have to attack nature to benefit from its fruitfulness.

In fact, we are just getting started with a new dawn of regenerative farming. There is so little we know… just take mushrooms for example! I am finishing up a course at Cornell called Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation - and it has blown my mind how little we know about fungus. It’s estimated we have discovered only 5% of fungus biodiversity on this planet. That is insane to me!

We know so little, which means those without gardening, or growing, or farming experience should not feel turned off from this. To the contrary, there is room for millions of people to make discoveries and advancements that protect the environment. I didn’t know how to plant pumpkins this summer and I was still able to figure out biodiversity setups that helped the monarchs thrive on my property.

As I keep saying: it’s innate TO us.

We have just scratched the surface with monetary potential running a farm

Farms of the past relied on crop production and sales, solely. Many still do. Unfortunately, this business model results in monoculture farming and maximizing yields on one or two products. This is what’s killing the planet, because we were never meant to farm this way.

Farmers need to think outside-the-box with the monetary potential at their farms. We live in an attention economy today. Commanding people’s attention, whether online or in person, results in earnings. This is only made possible by the technology at our disposal - but it’s here, whether people want it to be or not.

As I embark on experimenting with this myself, I can confirm the following:

• farm stands have more monetary potential than people realize

• posting about your farm online will drive visitors to your farm stand or farm

• agrotourism is going to explode in popularity soon

• hosting in-person tours and workshops at your farm will familiarize the community with your operation and bring in more sales

• live-streaming your farming activities will win you an online audience

This is the solarpunk future I envision - the perfect combination of technological streaming with old-school environmental protection practices.

I understand farmers are tired. They have been monoculture farming from sun-up until sun-down for decades. I am determined to prove it doesn’t have to be this hard. Scale back how intensely you monoculture, and instead, pursue polyculture farming, on less land, and spend the time you get back on setting up livestreams or establishing ‘nature walks’ at your property. Communities WANT to support local farms. I see it in my content on here! The desire is there - but the farmer has to make the bridge for people to cross (this is a topic I think about daily and would love to write an entire book about).

All I know is that as someone with very little gardening experience, I was making anywhere from $35 to $65 per day at my farm stand thanks to my social media videos I occasionally post. The posts got me my first buyers. But then something amazing happened: word of mouth. Once people discovered where I was… now they come back regularly. I have a reliable local clientele that WANTS to shop at my farm stand. All it took was a few online videos about me sharing my story to get them there.

Being outside has made me dream bigger

I will sign off with this: being outside, in God’s expansive creation, experiencing the fungus, the plants, the animals, the air, and the sounds around me, has made me a more aware, present, and grateful person than ever before in my life. I just donated my plot of land in Florida to burrowing owl habitat. Why? Because why the hell not! Who cares about white-knuckling every last dollar that comes your way? Everything is energy, and monetary energy will find its way back to you if you steward the environment and give to the people and entities around you, first.

Watching my story play out has made me someone that operates on unwavering faith. The divine has provided, and the things I have heard in my head have come to pass. Every single time. Why NOT dream big, then? The plans I have for my farm are so big that at times, I am not sure how I am going to make them happen. But then I realize I don’t need to be the one worrying about that. Being outside, taking care of my land, and being grateful to own it is actually enough. That’s the secret!

Energetically, I believe 2025 is going to be one of the best years we’ve ever endured as a collective. I could be wrong, but it’s just a hunch of mine.

Buy the farm! Buy the land. Save the environment. Help the animals. Support local farms. That’s the message for 2025.

And if you have no idea HOW to get started doing this, I do believe that’s one of my main purposes on this planet right now. Here is how I was able to get a loan for my 6.74 acres of rural land.

I have so much more content to share on here, covering everything from my own experience starting a farm, to the $24 trillion dollars worth of farmland that is going to change hands over the next 20-years. It is an exciting time to be alive, don’t you agree?

Cheers.