I began gardening at my in-laws many years ago as a way to ground myself in the midst of graduate studies. After school, I apprenticed for close to a year at a nearby local organic farm before going into social work practice in community-based non-profits. Each season, after work and on the weekends and days off, the garden expanded with ambition (and obsession) until my spouse and I purchased land only a few miles from her in-laws and that original garden. After several years of building farm infrastructure on the land, and two young children later, while working a full-time job with childcare costs and out-of-control student loan debt, Full Plate Farm came to fruition.