After eight seasons with us, Kayleigh Boyle has moved on to Gibbet Hill Farm in Groton. We’re grateful for her many contributions here and wish her well in her next stages of growth.

Gaining Ground has been part of my life since I was 22. It is hard to believe it’s been eight years. I remember so clearly meeting the farm coordinator, Verena Wieloch, for the first time and taking a walk through the snow-covered March fields. She reassured me that it didn’t look like much at the time, but just wait until the fields were in full bloom.

I will be forever grateful that Verena took a chance on me, as I had no experience. Later she would tell me that she never received my resume. I must have been very persuasive, or she just didn’t have any other applicants. Either way, I think I can say it worked out for both of us.

It is easy to say that Gaining Ground has changed my life. It is here that I learned that I love to farm and will keep doing it on some scale for the rest of my life. Also that I love working with people, learning from them and sharing the joy and wonder of the garden. And somehow now all my hobbies are farm related, too! Cooking, preserving, herbalism, dyeing with natural plants, it all began with learning how to grow and forage these plants at Gaining Ground.

When I look around, my closest friends and mentors are people I met through Gaining Ground. Thank you all so much for taking me in. I feel so incredibly lucky to have been a part of this community, to have a connection to this land, both of which I will carry with me always.