From Backyard Chickens to Regenerative Communities

Judith’s journey did not begin with a master plan to build an agrivillage. It began much more simply—as a business executive who cared about healthy food, organic gardening, and doing more herself.

That curiosity led to raising backyard chickens, until local regulations made it clear that what she hoped to create no longer fit within suburban life.

Rather than abandoning the idea, Judith and her family chose a different path. In 2013 they left suburbia to establish their own family farm in central Ohio, beginning a long process of learning what regenerative agriculture actually requires in practice.

Seeing Differently

Years of farming gradually reshaped Judith’s understanding of food, land, and community.

The COVID-19 pandemic became another turning point. What had previously felt like competing identities—corporate executive and farmer—became a clear choice. She left corporate life to farm full time and devote herself to helping others build more resilient food systems.

For Judith, regeneration became more than an agricultural practice. It became a way of understanding how healthy communities, healthy land, and healthy local economies reinforce one another.

From Individual Practice to Community Stewardship

As her experience deepened, Judith’s work expanded beyond her own farm.

Today she designs regenerative agriculture projects, supports farm start-ups, mentors new regenerative farmers, and helps plan agrihoods and farm-centered communities such as Hickory Run.

Her work reflects a belief that resilient communities emerge when people reconnect with the systems that sustain them—not simply as consumers, but as participants.

Passing the Learning Forward

A growing part of Judith’s work now involves teaching.

Through workshops, public speaking, mentoring, writing, and her podcast, she shares what she has learned with people considering similar transitions.

Rather than presenting farming as a technical profession alone, she encourages others to see it as a lifelong process of stewardship, learning, and participation.

Learning Through Participation

Judith’s journey illustrates several themes that appear throughout reEarth:

• Learning often begins with personal experience rather than abstract theory.
• Responsibility grows as our understanding of living systems deepens.
• Regeneration includes people and communities as well as landscapes.
• Wisdom develops through participation and is ultimately expressed by helping others learn.

Her closing invitation captures the spirit of that journey:

“The sustainable food system of tomorrow needs your participation today.”