Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to MaryFrancis Benning. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

MaryFrancis, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I’ve always wanted to live in the woods where I can grow and raise my own food, but being from a metropolitan city that was only ever a dream. Until, my partner got a promotion that allowed that dream to become a reality. When we moved to our home in Powhatan, Virginia I saw the endless potential of the property. I knew where the chicken run would go and the duck run in relation to the large sprawling garden.

We’re working on getting our garden to its peak efficiency this year, focusing on our soil quality because if you have great soil – you’ll never have to work hard to grow food. We started with our orchard first because that takes the longest – we planted a peach tree and an elderberry tree. Then we shifted to utilizing what our property could provide so we could start our garden beds, which are built from trees on our property.

Our ultimate goal is to become as self sustainable as possible so that we can lesson our dependance on society’s food system and save money, while having the peace of mind knowing where our food is coming from.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was an educator for 8 years and approach everything from an educator stand point. I want to show people who want to do this how they can do it to, while doing it correctly. I want to demystify everything related to homesteading; gardening, raising chickens, composting, and food preservation.

I think what I’m most proud of is how we’ve been able to overcome the obstacles that we’ve been presented with; like deer eating our entire fall garden and a huge branch falling on our chicken run – requiring an complete rebuild. So many of these things we have figured out as they have come up which has taught me so many valuable lessons that I’m able to share with others.

Once we really get to a place where we are self sufficient as a homestead, I’d like to start offering classes to our community for people to come learn and hone their skills. Companion planting, composting, processing chickens/rabbits, canning and preservation. Sharing these skill to empower others is huge.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We mainly utilize our Facebook page to communicate with our community and update them about our farm stand restocks and upcoming new products that will be available. Instagram has been huge to just share out content related to everyday life on our homestead – though it is a struggle to maintain consistent posting because every day life is pretty routine.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Some of the most helpful books that I have are Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians by William C. Roody, Backyard Farming by Kim Pezza, Let it Rot by Stu Campbell, 40 Projects for Building your Backyard Homestead by David Toht, Useful Trees by Nathan Dickeson.

How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons is my blue print for our 10 year gardening/farming plan.

The Backyard Homestead edited by Gail Damerow has been so helpful as we’ve been planning to add rabbits to our homestead next year and close the loop for meat.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: rosemaryhomestead
• Facebook: MaryFrancis Benning

Image Credits

All images are credited to MaryFrancis Benning