Our Family, Our Business...
We are husband and wife Ed Bowser and Amy Knisley. We met in spring 2004, at an organic farming conference in New Hampshire. We were both reviewing successful professional careers in two very different fields, envisioning more gardening in our lives. In spring 2006, we launched Betsy's Farm on land free-leased to us by Betsy Giberson, our friend and neighbor. Late that first season, our daughter Phoebe was born.
We have gradually grown into bringing our family and our business together, in a way that reflects and expresses our values and interests. As with many farming families, we blend gardening for market with other income streams--Amy's work in higher education, and Ed's pursuits as an electrician specializing in renewable forms and sources of electricity.
Amy, Chief Assistant Farmer (sometimes)
Amy has been an on and off gardener since she was very small. But the call of the mind proved louder than that of the dirt, and she pursued her love of philosophy through to a PhD. That tends to wind one up as a philosophy professor. Eventually, Amy left her faculty job for full-time college administration. In 2011, she and Ed decided to leave her position as a college vice president in Maine and return to Amy's home region of western North Carolina, and the gardens.
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Ed, Chief Farmer
Here's Ed in his element, the pea patch. Because we use an intensive bed approach to gardening, we "go vertical" with some regularity--growing "up" is a great way to get more out of the same tilled area. This reduces tillage and makes great playspace for kids. We chase each other in and out of the "pea jungle," "tomato jungle," "bean jungle," "cucumber jungle"...you get the picture. In 2005, after a long and successful automotive career, Ed left his corporate job and set out on to attain that pinnacle of livelihood: being a farmer.
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...and Phoebe
Phoebe has been with us in the gardens since she was born--riding on bellies or backs in snuggly-packs. We have been fortunate in having the option for Ed to be at home full-time. Having an at-home dad who's also the farm manager has given Phoebe the chance to learn about growing food from the ground up, literally. Here she is at a little over two years old, planting garlic in Maine during fall 2008....
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...and here she is in fall 2011, cleaning garlic grown on our North Carolina land, garlic directly descended from those bulbs she planted just a few years earlier and so many miles farther north. We are a garlic-loving family, so can strike "vampires" from the list of things to worry about, at any rate.
We are Betsy's Farm. |
