FarmStory

Good Life Farm is an ever-changing place.  In October 2008, Garrett, Melissa and Sean hosted a party in honor of the farm’s first investment- a well!  Since then, the farm has transitioned from conventional field crops to a diverse landscape of pasture, orchard, high tunnels and buildings.  The 69 acres that make up Good Life farm are 45 acres of tillable, high quality agricultural soil and 24 acres of sugar maple-basswood-cherry-walnut forest.

At its core, GLF is home and just about everything else to Garrett Miller and Melissa Madden.  Over time, GLF draws in other members of the community, who take up long- or short- term roles in the farm.  Please see our Community page for more on those lovely folks.

Garrett is a carpenter, orchardist, farm-owner, grunt labor, husband, and scheming mastermind.  He loves nothing more than working with animals, trees and wood.  His lifetime goal is to go to bed by 8pm.  Thoughts of keyline design currently fill his day dreaming hours.  One of his greatest pleasures in life is Melissa’s black beans.

Melissa is the current home-full-time farmer for Good Life.  In some ways, she still thinks she lives at home in New Mexico and is merely on a long trip to New York.  So far, this trip has lasted 12 years!  In that time, Melissa attended and graduated from Cornell University and was completely absorbed by the Finger Lakes small farming culture.  After working for other farms in the area, Melissa and Garrett had a last wild ride as “incubees” on New Forest Farm in Viola, WI.  After that, they settled on the 69 acres in Interlaken now known as Good Life Farm.  Melissa focuses her attention on the vegetable and animal aspects of the farm, manages marketing, outreach, accounting and all things office, and loves to collaborate!