Extraordinary Health Magazine Extraordinary Health Vol 25 | Page 34

The Hunolt Family Homestead—
Proving How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet
Garden of Life® associate Jason Hunolt and his wife Branwen are living a dream in their dream
homestead—a lovely historical home with a few acres that includes a 3,600 square-foot organic farm
and more. Here’s a look at their progress—straight talk from the Hunolts about what it takes to build
and live out that dream.

I

t’s been an interesting first few months carving out the framework
of our organic farm that was birthed in our hearts. My wife and
I have ideas that are shared by many and pursued by few, but
we decided to embark on this adventure anyway.
Here’s a bit of a backdrop: I’m an herbalist, and a Territory
Manager at Garden of Life, whose uncompromising commitment
for organic and non-GMO food and products ignited a deeper
passion in me and Branwen to take this even more personally
and live it out daily: we wanted to set up a permaculture/
organic/non-GMO homestead consisting primarily of fruits,
veggies and medicinal herbs. We are avid organic farmers,
and completely embrace the non-GMO movement for many
reasons too numerous to list here. Additionally, we wanted
a new—or renewed—understanding of human beings’ relationship
with their mother, our Earth.
We started with a couple of tasks—outside of learning how
to care for and maintain multiple landscaped acres. Our initial
foray into our organic farm venture was to test the theories
and suppositions we have apprehended over the years
and to provide an empirical structure to judge them against—
a rather daunting task.
Daunting or not, however, Branwen and I are up to the task
because it’s that important to us. We choose to heal, to honor
the Earth, to leave our mark—not only for ourselves and
our daughter, Estelle, but for generations who follow.

How Our Organic Gardening Dream
Became a Reality
After many years of having a handful of small raised beds
growing vegetables, we knew that we wanted an organic
garden—a big one. In short, the variety of vegetables that
we wanted to grow could never fit in three 8’x 5’ plots. Don’t
get us wrong. You certainly can grow a nice amount of food
in that space, but one winter squash plant can take over two
of those, if it wanted to, and we simply wanted more veggies
than just winter squash.

We say that we wanted to have a big organic garden,
but we never had the opportunity to have one until recently,
when we had a chance to purchase a beautiful historical
home with a few acres. As you can imagine, we leapt
at the chance to buy the house and the land—and to start
our mega organic garden.
Our dream was becoming reality and our imaginations
began running wild to turn the most pressing projects
into reality as soon as we moved in. That said, our top
priorities (if not essentials) were to create a 3,600 square-foot
garden and make an 11’ x 12’ chicken coop.
Believe us when we say that it’s much easier said than done.

Our Garden and Chicken
Coop Adventure
Take our garden, for instance. The
garden needed a rabbit fence ASAP.
Why? Apparently, the boxwoods in the
landscaping were home to a little rabbit farm, so we couldn’t
plant anything until the rabbit fence was in place. So, what we
thought we needed to tackle first became more like second and
third. The rabbit fence had to happen first.
Next up, we realized that you don’t just go create a garden
aimlessly, so we also have been putting swales in the garden
because we want to incorporate permaculture principles
to create as much of a self-sustaining and self-maintaining
system as possible.
So, what is permaculture? Glad you asked!
Permaculture is the concept of creating permanent
agricultural systems. This traditionally includes features
that allow natural resources such as water to be captured
and stored to maximum efficiency.
Now for polycultures . . . Polycultures are plants that not only
have beneficial or harmonious relationships with each other,
but also enrich the soil and support the soil and landscape