April 17, 2014 | by Brooke Hatfield | in Farming

Joe Reynolds and Judith Winfrey of Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens.

As told by Joe Reynolds of Love is Love Farm at Gaia Gardens.

Naming something is an intimate and sacred endeavor, whereby you hope to articulate all of your meaning, intent, and action into a few letters or words. When Judith and I first began our farm business, we were farming at the Glover Family Farm, one of the first wave organic farms in Georgia. Our first name attempts sought to convey a reverence and gratitude to Skip and Cookie Glover for allowing us the opportunity to care for their land and included references to the location of the farm and even a sign that hung on the Glovers’ front door. However, the Glovers thoughtfully and wisely encouraged us to choose a name of our own to distinguish ourselves.

We were coming up on a sharp deadline to present information to a group of folks at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation about our new CSA and needed to make a swift name decision to include in printed materials. As Judith and I have done often in our lives, we dove into the wealth of words in our record collection. A few beers and several strewn out record sleeves revealed lots of good ideas, but no solid gold. Judith turned down a reference to Rancid’s “Roots Radical” song on And Out Come the Wolves and a riff on favorite band Rocket from the Crypt’s name to Rocket from the Fields Farm.

A little exasperated, we put on a Bonny “Prince” Billy/Tortoise collaborative record of cover songs. The last cut on side one is a rendition of Lungfish’s “Love is Love.” We thought this name beautifully captured our spirit, philosophy and endeavor to live holistically.

Just as a clarifying point, Love is Love Farm is not a place that we have ever farmed, but rather our farm business name and the heart-work of Judith and I. We have had the honor to farm at the Glover Family Farm and now at Gaia Gardens. Our success has been really premised on the gift of caring for these two different farms at two different times. “Love is love in the shape things take…”