The Real Vermont Housewife

September 25, 2021 / Blog

Growing up in Vermont, you learn how to do certain things, such as: Properly stack a pile of wood, drive some sort of off-road vehicle in the woods, and (if you’re lucky) how to make that sweet maple syrup.

 

Starting a business was not included on my rural road map to life.  Luckily, my chosen partner went to school for just that.  When we started Vermont Farmacy, we knew we wanted to do things the Vermont way; To make clean products that really worked, the kind that people would be proud to tell their neighbors about.  In Vermont, we still rely on word of mouth for everything from where to get the best loaf of bread to the secret leek and mushroom foraging spots.

 

Our business was off to a great start, until the Pandemic hit.  We were fortunate enough to buy our off-grid dream house, just before the housing prices sky rocketed.  But it was still all very expensive, and reality soon sank in.  My husband and Co-Founder of Vt Farmacy had to get a full-time job, and he landed a big one.

 

Colin has always been a hard worker.  So, it was no surprise that he was gone for 12 hours a day with his new job, being the boss man that he is. After said hours, he then comes home and helps me finish whatever task I was focusing on for the day; whether it be canning things from the garden, trimming our hemp, or neatly stacking our firewood.  And I stepped right into my housewife duties.  Of course I’ll have a good meal waiting for us to enjoy and do my best to keep the house tidy.

 

In the words of Beyonce, “Yes I do the cooking, yes I do the cleaning…” But I also feed & care for our farm animals, tend to the garden, hop on the tractor, and cut down trees with the electric chainsaw my family got for my birthday.  Work!

 

What was once a romantic notion (starting a homestead, living off-grid, and working together to grow our business), has become a lesson on independence and how to adapt, in order to keep our dreams alive.

 

During this transition of spending my days alone on the farm, I’ve had to learn how to do things that I didn’t realize I was capable of.  When something would break, I’d often just hand it over to Colin.  Now, I know how to replace the wire in the weedwhacker, fix our leaky faucet, and grade our driveway.

 

Besides my “Vermont housewife duties,” I also teach and record yoga for our Wellness Series and run our four-year-old business.  Yes I do the shipping, yes I do the marketing, yes I label products, yes I answer emails, yes I deliver wholesale orders.  Yes, I’m trying to do it all.

 

So, keep in mind that when you support Vermont Farmacy, you’re supporting a dream that we refuse to give up on.  Because we choose to persevere and adapt. We believe in ourselves fully. We know in our hearts that this entrepreneurial, off-grid, wood chucking, animal raising, do-what-you-gotta-do to survive way of living is the life we were meant to live.

 

We thank you for supporting us and our wildest dream.