What's the Habersham Hacienda?
The Hacienda is most recent past project, an organic farm to table event venue and wild foraging culinary adventure I started in 2005, in Mt. Airy, GA. A sweet little nowhere town with a train and a post office. I sold the property in 2019. The move was both bittersweet and exciting,
I've been on a journey ever since with my doggo, Brady,
I add to the story here.
I've been on a journey ever since with my doggo, Brady,
I add to the story here.
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I am a chef. Was. Formerly known as. I sold my Atlanta restaurants in 2007 after a decade of brisk business and moved to the mountains to renovate an old 60s estate into a sustainable homestead, farm and natural pollination eden for animals and wild plants. I was a little ahead of my time for the area, but I pushed on for over a decade. I wanted to raise chickens and at the time thought I needed to spend half a million dollars to do that. Blame Martha Stewart and some great photographer from 1992. I worked my ass off and saved a ton of cash to do something that I could have done with about $50. I have been backing into life ever since. I sold everything in 2019 and have embraced life as a nomad. I am currently in Mexico. These are collected stories past and present. A bit of a travelogue and pictures of my dog it seems. ######################################################################## On the experience page link above, I keep a virtual resume for dates and context. Chef, organic farmer, permaculture enthusiast, trainer and teacher, herbalist, restaurateur, dog lover, hospitality pro, ingredient sourcer-ess, building biologist inspector, energy healer, writer. If you have a relevant project and would like my input, I am available for consult. Buying local foods and encouraging natural growing practices that work with the earth and her insects and protecting ecosystems is my life's passion. Teaching the many ways this benefits communities and the culture is my favorite thing. Real sustainable community makes my heart happy. I started my journey as a young culinary writer and travel critic for Travel & Leisure back in the mid 90s. That rolled into opening my first underground dinner party (what you'd call a Pop Up today) in an old Victorian house in Atlanta, GA. I went legit with my first restaurant (The Supper Club 1997-2007) and then another Billy Goat's Cantina 2003-2007. The stories of both are in a couple of self published books Decade of Dish, on Blurb, featured below. I sold both and moved to a property in North Georgia Mountains and started my own farm and culinary wild adventure. Heritage chickens, ducks, medicinal herb gardens, pollinator rain gardens, Guatemalan farm hands, dog rescue, endless renovation, land improvement, guest suites, launching my botanical bug spray and expanding my product line at my new little start up The Practical Mystic Apothecary. Always happy to find my tribe and connect with others doing the good work of tending the land, the animals and sharing the love, if you wanna connect, I'm on Instagram @lolaandthespotteddog The original Hacienda blog is here and there's some good stuff in there back to the farming days, Big Chicken, gentlewoman farming and how (not) to go broke. The first two books in my Decade of Dish series are available on Apple and Blurb below.
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Goodbye to the Grand Dame,
2005-2019 the longest relationship I've ever had was with a house.
villa del mar playa, state of Jalisco I think? I couldn't tell you how to get there. I was deep lost and then finally, this. Pacific Coast Mexico June 2019
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Cooking class with my work buddy sidekick Juanito aka Mowgli the Man Cub featured in my 2009 Essay 'How to Save 89cents' winner of the non fiction prize in New Southerner magazine.
HOW DID I GET HERE? (TLDR, but if you're curious...)
In 2007 I sold a couple of restaurants in Decatur, GA and got a wild hair (hare?) idea to move out to the country and start my own farm. It'll be fun, they said. It'll be rejuvenating, I thought.
Actually no one said that. Most of my friends and coworkers said, "What?! Why??" but away I went. I was pulled to the country lifestyle and peaceful days. Swapping the Atlanta traffic for pastoral mountain views of Northeast Georgia. Harvesting my own organic vegetables and trimming the tops off my ever replenishing sprouting cilantro. My mind conjured up all kinds of narrative about my flock of hens and their bounty of eggs with tangerine colored yolks. Fresh air. The soft pastures underfoot. I'd start a farmer's market in that front field near the entrance. Enjoy the small town chat at the feed store and slowly renovate a big old house and slowly add guest suites, a big central kitchen where I'd harvest my wild herbs and make tinctures and old timey remedies. The stress of being chef owner of 2 busy restaurants had taken its toll on my lifestyle (hello 30s, goodbye 30s) and my health. I needed radical change.
I got it. It just wasn't how I had played it out in my head.
It was not always an easy transition, this bucolic life. But over a decade of many trials (and many errors), I finally got the Habersham Hacienda up and running to the sustainable, magical vision I had always dreamed of. The guest suites, the loft apartment, the cooking classes, the rain gardens, the Apothecary, the wild meadows, the pollinator organic gardens, the wild harvested herbs, the chickens, the rotational grazing pastures, the compost, the soil and eco systems finally balanced. The songbirds, bats, beetles. Snakes, hawks and bees. I had the right crew to help me build, create and carry out my visions. A neighborhood family of endless brothers and cousins from Guatemala headed by Antonio, my work buddy for over 7 years. Juanito, Victor, Pedro, Calixto, Esteban. And one Mexican, my genius friend and muse, Fernando. Everything was coming together.
And then, I ran out of money.
In 2007 I sold a couple of restaurants in Decatur, GA and got a wild hair (hare?) idea to move out to the country and start my own farm. It'll be fun, they said. It'll be rejuvenating, I thought.
Actually no one said that. Most of my friends and coworkers said, "What?! Why??" but away I went. I was pulled to the country lifestyle and peaceful days. Swapping the Atlanta traffic for pastoral mountain views of Northeast Georgia. Harvesting my own organic vegetables and trimming the tops off my ever replenishing sprouting cilantro. My mind conjured up all kinds of narrative about my flock of hens and their bounty of eggs with tangerine colored yolks. Fresh air. The soft pastures underfoot. I'd start a farmer's market in that front field near the entrance. Enjoy the small town chat at the feed store and slowly renovate a big old house and slowly add guest suites, a big central kitchen where I'd harvest my wild herbs and make tinctures and old timey remedies. The stress of being chef owner of 2 busy restaurants had taken its toll on my lifestyle (hello 30s, goodbye 30s) and my health. I needed radical change.
I got it. It just wasn't how I had played it out in my head.
It was not always an easy transition, this bucolic life. But over a decade of many trials (and many errors), I finally got the Habersham Hacienda up and running to the sustainable, magical vision I had always dreamed of. The guest suites, the loft apartment, the cooking classes, the rain gardens, the Apothecary, the wild meadows, the pollinator organic gardens, the wild harvested herbs, the chickens, the rotational grazing pastures, the compost, the soil and eco systems finally balanced. The songbirds, bats, beetles. Snakes, hawks and bees. I had the right crew to help me build, create and carry out my visions. A neighborhood family of endless brothers and cousins from Guatemala headed by Antonio, my work buddy for over 7 years. Juanito, Victor, Pedro, Calixto, Esteban. And one Mexican, my genius friend and muse, Fernando. Everything was coming together.
And then, I ran out of money.
my wild front yard. I cut paths into the native growth over the years to add depth to the postage stamp of the previous flat lawns.
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the carpet of December. Each year the Japanese Maples dropped the firecracker leaves. Magnificent trees on this property, a specimen tree nursery in the 1950s
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