Why I Chose Innisfree Farm for My Practicum Placement

Innisfree is a budding Community Supported Agriculture farm with a holistic perspective. Its goal is to nourish the body and soul. Although proprietors Chanchal Cabrera and Thierry Vrain plan to operate Innisfree as a full-functioning and (somewhat) profitable organic farm, they also want to share their farm with the community. Chanchal, a respected medicinal herbalist with a focus on treating people with cancer, is also a certified horticultural therapist and master gardener. Thierry is a nematoligist and molecular biologist who now devotes himself to working within the community. According to the farm's website, Innisfree is "intended as a living example of healing through Nature." Having spent just a brief week there, I can testify to that statement.


What initially attracted me to Innisfree was its horticultural therapeutic approach. I am currently studying horticulture, continuing on to study horticultural therapy and hopefully find a career in this field. However, what also drew me to Innisfree was something more deeply personal. Like so many, I have been affected by a loved one dying from cancer. As a child, I spent time in a foster home in the country where nature was one of the only venues of comfort, stability and reassurance in my otherwise tumultuous life. The connection I found and continue to find with the natural world affirms who I am, where I come from, and where I belong. I find every experience I have in life there is an equal parable in nature I can relate it to. And for me, whether that experience is "good" or "bad," tells me that everything happens for a reason and that it is all a part of some mysterious and divine plan. And that nothing ceases to exist it simply changes. That it is all a part of the dizzying and awesome spiral of life that I am a part of, whole-heartedly, half-wittedly, resentfully, reluctantly, painfully, wonderfully, and beautifully. Simply.

On that note, when I discovered Innisfree, I felt I related to the work they were doing and hoped to achieve there. I also felt witnessing the birth of a hort therapy influenced farm would prove invaluable to my future career. When the time came in my horticultural technician portion of my hort therapy program to choose a place for summer practicum, I knew I wanted to spend my time at Innisfree.


How does Innisfree design itself around therapy? Creating wheel-chair accessible gardens with wide paths and raised beds for easy access by those with physical limitations is one example. Another example is how Chanchal plans to have an "apothecary garden," growing the medicinal plants used in the treatments of her patients on site. A garden growing the plants used in Bach Flower remedies is also in the works. Chanchal intends to have hort therapy programs at Innisfree once the foundations of the farm is established. One such program she would like to see is the pairing of youth with seniors in various garden and farm related tasks. Furthermore, operating the farm as a CSA means respecting the soil and seed used in the growing of produce and offers an opportunity for growers and consumers to work together in food production. A healing labyrinth is also planned for the near future. Innisfree is host to "Gardens Without Borders," a non-profit organization dedicated to horticultural therapy. And these are just some of the therapy-related activities at Innisfree.