Our Story

We are a young family from Canada who has spent the last year converting a bus into a sustainable home in preparation for the most amazing road trip.  Nicole (the mom) is an author, and for her next book she will be visiting the best organic farms across North America and interviewing the farmers to find out how to did it, their passions, their failures, and their successes.  John (the dad) will be photographing the farms for the book and documenting our journey for Youtube as we travel. 

The book will be an in-depth sourcebook for beginning organic farmers, and also a showcase of the most amazing farms in North America.  It will have hundreds of beautiful photos, and it will give a voice to farmers who have a lot to say about sustainability and organic food.  The book is going to be called The Organic Farmer's Sourcebook and will be published by Skyhorse Publishing in spring of 2012.  

The Farms

Just a few of the farms we are going to visit:

Blackberry Meadows Farm in Pennsylvania 

Duck Creek Farm on British Columbia, Canada

Foxglove Farm on British Columbia, Canada

Applecheek Farm in Vermont 

Mano Farm in California 

Downing Hollow Farm in Tennessee 

Red Fire Farm in Massachusetts 

Gospel Flat Farm in California 

Riverbound Farm in North Dakota 

Walking Bear Ranch in Montana 

Delta Sol Farm in Arkansas

Kootenay Alpine Cheese Co. in British Columbia

La Finca in Minnesota

Clay Bottom Farm in Indiana 

We will be visiting Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, northern Illinois, northern Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, southern Utah, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia

What We Need & What You Get

The trip is a big expense for a family like us.  We've sold everything we have and poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this project to be able to have this beautiful blue bus (The Albatross). We will be on the road for about 5 months, going through at least 28 U.S States and a couple of Canadian provinces.  This equals at least 8,000 miles of fuel and other expenses (like food for three growing young girls). 

We already have the bus, the book deal with Skyhorse, and we have the camera and computers for the photography.  This also means we are running low on cash. The money will help us to finish our last equipment purchases (we need a microphone) and pay our travel expenses for the trip. This includes final bus preparations, fuel, food, and a little savings for anything unpredictable (if our engine explodes or something).  

If this campaign isn't successful, we will still be able to take the trip, but it will be by the seat of our pants.  The risks will be higher and we may not be able to travel as far as we would like.  Your gifts gives us the power to do this the right way, in a big way.  In exchange, you'll get postcards and books and your name on things - you can even have us visit you at your house!

Other Ways You Can Help

Please share this with all of your friends and give them a chance to get awesome gifts too!  Twitter and Facebook and blogging can help us tremendously.