GREENSONG FARM
A Place To Grow Into
Green Song Farm is 64 acres tucked into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, with forests, springs, ponds, pastures, a terraced orchard awaiting its transformation into a food forest.
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We came to this land with dreams of growing food and medicine, restoring soil and water, tending animals, tending habitat, gathering in community, and building a place for learning.
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But before we decide too much about what Green Song will become, we are taking time to understand what is already here.
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We are observing and interacting. Following water. Planting cover crops. Tending the orchard. Growing food and medicine. Welcoming the horses.
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We know much of what we imagine here will take years to grow. For now, we're beginning with stewardship—learning this place, caring for what is already here, and letting that relationship shape what comes next.
The Project Team
Many hands, one shared vision.
Green Song is a collaborative project shaped by seven people who bring different skills, experiences and passions to the land.
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We are farmers and gardeners, educators, artists, designers, facilitators, herbalists, permaculturists and horse people. Each of us came to Green Song by a different path, with our own ideas about what might be possible here.
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What we share is a commitment to caring for this place and creating something that can grow beyond any one of us.
Gabriela Masala
Expressive Arts · Wellness · Nature Connection
Gabriela is an expressive arts facilitator, educator and author whose work brings together creativity, movement, ritual and nature connection. At Green Song, she brings this experience to the emerging vision for arts, wellness and experiences that deepen our relationship with ourselves, one another and the natural world.
Caroline Riley
Plants · Permaculture · Community Herbalism
Caroline is a community herbalist and permaculture educator with more than 15 years of experience teaching and tending gardens as living classrooms. At Green Song, her work centers on growing food and medicine, building healthy soil, developing the food forest and creating opportunities for people to learn directly from the land.
Carol Jacobsen
Architecture · Design · Community
Carol is an architect and community developer with a background in designing spaces with people and place in mind. At Green Song, she brings her experience in architecture and community-centered design to the evolving vision for the land.
Timea Chemez
Horses · Equine Wellness · Project Development
Timea is an equine specialist whose work centers on the relationship between horses and people. Through horse-guided experiences and equine wellness, she brings a deep commitment to compassionate animal care and to the role horses can play in connection, learning and healing at Green Song.
Solomon Masala
Facilitation · Community Development · Conservation
Solomon is a facilitator and organizational development practitioner with decades of experience helping groups work, learn and make decisions together. His background also includes conservation and environmental education, which he brings to Green Song's work around community, stewardship and collaborative development.
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Marc Poland
Strategy · Land Stewardship · Project Development
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Marc brings decades of experience in organizational development, leadership and project strategy to Green Song. He has worked across nonprofits, government, education and business, and brings that big-picture perspective to the planning and long-term development of the project.
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Michael Carberry
Education · Community · Stewardship
Michael is an educator and community builder whose work has long centered on creating meaningful learning experiences for children and families. At Green Song, he brings his experience in education and community development to the shared work of building a place where people can learn, participate and connect.
The Vision
A regenerative sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Green Song Farm is a place where caring for the land and living well on it go hand in hand.
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A place where forests and water are protected, soil is restored, food and medicine are grown, and animals are cared for with compassion. Where people can come together to learn, grow food, make things, share meals, create, rest and spend time in relationship with the natural world.
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We want Green Song to be a living example of what regenerative community can look like—not something separate from nature, but a way of living that participates in the health of the land.
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There is a long way to go, and we expect the vision to change as we learn more about this place. What we hope will remain constant is our commitment to leave Green Song healthier, more diverse and more abundant for the generations who come after us.
REGENERATIVE DESIGN
Observe. Interact. Then begin.
We came to Green Song with plenty of ideas, but the land already has its own patterns and its own history.
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Water moves through springs, streams and ponds. Forest meets pasture. Wildlife moves through the fields and wild edges. A young orchard stretches across terraces cut into the hillside, with fruit trees that were planted but largely left untended. Some have survived, some haven't, and we're learning what can be restored and what needs to begin again.
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So we are taking our time. Watching where water moves. Learning the soil. Paying attention to what thrives and what struggles. Growing food and medicine. Welcoming the horses onto the land. Trying things, learning from them and adjusting as we go.
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This is the beginning of regenerative design at Green Song.
LAND
Start with what is already here.
Green Song holds forests, pastures, springs, ponds, streams, an established orchard, cultivated fields and plenty of wild edges.
Our first job is to understand and care for those existing systems. We are following water, rebuilding soil, protecting habitat, increasing biodiversity and learning where cultivation makes sense—and where leaving things alone may be the better choice.
Over time, we hope to restore the orchard, establish a diverse food forest, expand perennial food and medicinal plantings, improve pasture and continue protecting the forests and waterways that support the larger ecosystem.
PRACTICE
Learn by doing.
We can observe and design all day—and we do plenty of both—but eventually we have to put seeds in the ground.
We are growing food and medicine, planting cover crops, making compost, propagating plants, tending fruit trees, and experimenting with ways to build healthier soil.
Some things will work. Some won't. What happens next will be shaped by what we learn along the way.
Our goal isn't to create a farm that requires us to constantly work against nature, but to develop systems that become more diverse, productive and resilient with good stewardship over time.
COMMUNITY
People are part of the ecosystem too.
Green Song isn't intended to be a place we simply care for behind closed gates.
As the farm develops, we will create ways for people to participate—through workshops, volunteer days, growing and preserving food, herbalism, equine encounters, the arts, shared meals and time spent together on the land.
We are also thinking about what it takes to build community for the long haul: shared responsibility, useful work, local relationships, access to food and land, and ways for people with different skills and resources to contribute.
Much of this is still ahead of us. For now, we're building the foundation.
RIGHT NOW AT GREEN SONG
The work in front of us.
Green Song is a long-term project, but the work happens one season at a time. These are some of the places where our hands and attention are right now.
Orchard + Food Forest
The young terraced orchard needs a lot of love. We are clearing around the surviving trees, figuring out what has made it and what hasn't, and beginning to imagine the understory of perennial food, medicine, flowers and habitat that will eventually turn these terraces into a food forest.
Soil + Growing
Our first field at the base of the orchard is planted in cover crops to begin building soil. From here, we are developing spaces for vegetables, herbs and medicinal plants while experimenting with what grows well in this new climate and soil.
Water + Habitat
Springs, streams and ponds move water throughout Green Song, and understanding that water is some of our most important work right now. We are tracing existing systems, watching what happens after rain, and looking for ways to protect water, soil and wildlife habitat as the farm develops.
Horses + Pasture
The horses are becoming part of daily life at Green Song. Alongside their care, we are working with fencing, pasture and grazing systems and thinking about how horses can be integrated thoughtfully into the larger life of the farm.
FIELD NOTES FROM MUTABLE EARTH
by, Caroline Riley
Follow along as it unfolds.
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Green Song is a legacy project, and much of its story is happening in the everyday work of tending this place.
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Field Notes from Mutable Earth is where I share observations and musings from along the way—documenting what we're growing and building, celebrating what works, sharing what doesn't, and offering glimpses into the process as we learn.
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There will be plants and medicine, gardens and animals, questions, experiments, mistakes, discoveries, photographs, little videos, and whatever else feels worth sharing along the way.
