Natalie Cordon | Isabelle Farms – Dozens of summers spent on her cousins’ dairy farm in Switzerland ignited Natalie’s passion for farming at a young age, but growing up in Manhattan’s shadow made it seem unlikely that she’d ever farm professionally. And so, for the 20 years following her college graduation, she worked in magazine and book publishing, first in New York City, then in Colorado. Throughout those decades, she fed her farming jones by spending lots of time and money digging up her backyard and shopping first at the Union Square Farmers Market and then at the Boulder County markets. It wasn’t until she met her husband (a fifth generation Boulder County farmer) that the farm dream started to seem possible. Fifteen years later, Natalie and Jason own and operate a 110-acre USDA Organic produce farm in Lafayette, Colorado. “In this age of commoditization, growing produce sustainably and figuring out how to do it without going broke isn’t easy, but it’s the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.” To learn more about Natalie, Jason and their farm, visit www.isabellefarm.com.
Articles written by Natalie: Growing A Dream, The Trial and Error of “Farmer-hood”