A visual journal of labor and landscape on Gardens of Eagan, Farmington, Minnesota.
Martin and Atina Diffley, founders of Gardens of Eagan, were among the first in the Midwest to dedicate themselves to the principles of organic farming. Cultivating their land in harmony with nature, their quest was to produce an abundance of delicious food utilizing natural practices that enriched the earth, encouraged biodiversity and avoided the use of dangerous pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
On my first visit to the farm one spring, Atina plucked a small, leafy stem out of the ground and impelled me to try it. She called it green manure– a cover crop grown in early spring that adds biomass and nutrients to the land. She wanted me to taste for myself the abundance of life-giving energy already present in this soil. From that point I was hooked on Atina’s intensity and the dedication of all who worked on the farm.
Granted free reign to explore and photograph, I experienced the ever-changing landscape as directly as I could and witnessed a cycle of activity, from early crop preparations to the remnants of life left in the fields after harvest.
