Surprise Hill Farm
The start of a journey to inspire a new way of living, wisdom from the earth, nourishing community, and beautiful blooms.
I arrived to Surprise Hill not really knowing what I had signed up for - my first stop after leaving NYC. My heart a bit closed off, my comfort level high - but within minutes that all started to change. I was greeted with massive hugs from Ashley and her 13 year old daughter Bella. Hugs that felt like family and expressions of openness and love. Something my heart didn't know it yearned for after spending a few years in the fast paced world of New York City. When I arrived from the train station it was drizzling rain - “a little rain won’t hurt you right?” Ashley asked and set off to give a farm tour before I could share a response. Following her and Bella, both shoeless, around the farm I began to see the wonder of it all. The moment she asked that question was the moment I was to decide what the coming months would hold. Was I going to reply, “actually I prefer to not get my hair wet” and reach for my umbrella, or I was I going to surrender to the experience of it all. But I was ready for a life changing adventure and you can’t change anything when you are stuck in the past.
At dinner that night I met Peter, a Danish eco-architect building straw-bale construction houses and buildings across the Hudson Valley and Ashley’s Husband. Also one of the kindest and sweetest humans I have met to date. There were several other friends and community members that joined for a delicious meal, we all shared our “highs, lows, and buffalo” moments from the day over homeade pie before a sing along session from Bella and Parker (a former WWOOFer who had come for dinner that evening). Needles to say - I was not in NYC anymore.
The following weeks contained many blissful experiences and learnings, harvesting medicinal flowers and herbs, transplanting shrubs around a new pond they were cultivating, caring for the gardens through weeding, debugging, watering, and harvesting, drying and turning the medicinal ingredients into tinctures, teas, and skincare products. Free time spent wondering the woods, reading in meadows, swimming in nearby rivers, and amazing meals with many people gathered around the table. A sense of community was felt that I had never quite seen before. A community that was devoid of judgment, not open to you based on your similarities but open to because the differences are what make relationships valuable.
The time working in the land also brought long conversations with Ashley and the other WWOOFers, “Everything grows better with a little support”, “The difference between a weed and a flower is a judgment”, “Problems are solved at the root”, “Pruning allows for proper growth” are refrains that I heard from Ashley over the weeks as she shared how working with land does not just give you peace through movement, but that if you pay enough attention the earth will teach you all you need to know about life as well.
While I first stopped at this farm only because my Norwegian adventure had been pushed back a few weeks because of logisitcs, I actually can not imagine starting off this journey anywhere else. The lessons I learned here and the sense of community developed in such a short amount of time were the perfect way to prepare my brain for the next few months, a reminder to be open to what the world puts in your way and pay attention to the beauty around … coincidences are few and far between.