We have been farming Good Soil since 2017, when we planted our first crop of garlic on this land. Our first CSA season was in 2018 and we are looking forward to our EIGHTH season! We enjoy the work of planning, seeding, transplanting, irrigating, harvesting, and yes, even weeding the vegetables! Raising the chickens, sheep, and turkeys in accord with their God-given nature is also a delight, but best of all we love raising our family on this land and in this community. We make it our aim to give back to this wonderful community by providing the healthiest, highest quality vegetables, chicken, eggs, turkeys, and bread as possible! We see this community as consisting not only of the people who live here, but also of our Sister, Mother Earth, and our Brother and Sister Plants, Animals, and Microorgranisms. So we seek to restore a rightly-ordered community in the way that we farm, treating the soil, water, vegetation, fungi, bacteria, and animals in accord with their natures. And we seek to always remember the God who holds in being this community and the creatures that dwell in it.
As a part of raising our children on the farm, we encourage them to find their own niche in the family business. So far, our oldest son raises and sells cultivated Wine Cap mushrooms and our oldest daughter raises and sells farm fresh flowers.
Good Soil Farm practices regenerative agriculture to glorify God by cultivatingfruitful soil, happy souls, and healthy communities.
Check out Chris Anadale’s nearly hour-long interview of Stephen to hear more about the connection between farming, philosophy, and life!
Click on thislink, then scroll down to the “Catholic Town” series, where you will find the podcast–“Stephen Mc Ginley, C’10: The Philosopher and The Farmer”
Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,especially Sir Brother Sun,Who is the day through whom You give us light. And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,by which You cherish all that You have made.
Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,So useful, humble, precious and pure.
Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,through whom You light the nightand he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,Mother Earthwho sustains and governs us,producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs. Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardonfor love of You and bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,By You Most High, they will be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,from whom no-one living can escape. Woe to those who die in mortal sin!Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm. Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,And serve Him with great humility.
“Praised be You My Lord with all your creatures”
“Oh that farmers understood their blessings!Their boundless joys! A land far off from war Pours forth her fruit abundantly for them. Although no stately home with handsome portals Disgorges on its step a wave of callers Every morning, gaping at his doors Inlaid with tortoise shell, astonished by His gold-trimmed clothes and his Corinthian bronzes,Although his white wool is not stained with dye,His oil not spoiled with perfumes from the East,His rest is sound, his life devoid of guile. His gains are manifold, his holdings broad:Caves and living lakes, refreshing vales,The cattle lowing, slumber in the shade. Familiar with the haunts of animals,The farmer lives in peace, his children all Learn how to work,
