12 minute read
Heirloom Springs
from LAND Summer 2023
Heirloom Springs
Life Aligned on the Land
STORY BY LORIE A. WOODWARD | PHOTOS BY HEIRLOOM SPRINGS
I am passionate about my family, Pilates and fresh, organic, nutritionally dense food," said Rachael, who is a classical Pilates instructor, entrepreneur, mother of two and first-time landowner. "When COVID shut the world down, I had the chance to sit still for the first time in about 20 years. As I envisioned the future, it became clear that my three paths could align."
The alignment—in the form of a sustainable organic farm that offered wellness retreats with an emphasis on Pilates, farm-to-table food and big doses of nature—would require big changes. At the time, Rachael, a native Texan, and her family were marking year 13 of living in Dallas, which according to her was "not my favorite place to live but good for our careers."
Her husband Russell worked in finance. She owned and managed Pilates Methodology, her third studio to build, open and operate. The couple, who met in Austin where Rachael had moved as soon as she graduated from Boerne High School, had returned to Dallas after Russell earned his MBA from the University of Virginia.
"I left nail marks in the asphalt when we moved from Austin to Charlottesville in 2006," Rachael said. "I never expected to fall in love with Virginia, but I did, so there were nail marks on the return trip, too."
As COVID persisted, Rachael threw herself into converting her urban lawn into an edible landscape. The undertaking was a natural extension of what she calls her Food Revolution. On New Year's Day 2017, Rachael resolved to "go to the grocery store as little as possible." Her goal was growing what she could and sourcing the rest from local urban farms and nearby ranches.
By eating fresh and locally sourced, she "accidentally went on an elimination diet." As the amount of processed food that she consumed decreased, her energy, focus and overall sense of physical well-being soared.
"My career involves performing at high physical and mental levels, so it just makes sense to feed my 'operating system' at the highest level," said Rachael, who is also a sought-after international presenter and teacher of Pilates instructors. "It became my life goal to learn how to cook the most delicious, nutrient-dense foods using the old, time-tested methods of preparation."
Even as the early stages of COVID temporarily silenced a bit of the unrelenting chaos that is life in a metropolitan center such as Dallas, it was a far cry from Rachael's childhood in the Texas Hill Country. She and her siblings were reared on a 200-acre ranch in the vicinity of Boerne when Boerne was still a small town. As the Bryces' son reached adolescence, she began to sense that he would benefit from the lifestyle she had enjoyed as a youngster.
"We had horses, chickens and cows," Rachael said. "We had 200 acres to explore where we could be wild and just be kids."
As she dug in the soil and contemplated the best road forward for her family, the pull of Virginia became stronger and more persistent. In late summer 2020, she announced to Russell that they should move back to Virginia, and he agreed. (Their 24-year-old daughter lives in Austin.)
"We've been married 17 years, so he knows I have two speeds—go and stop," Rachael said. "When he said yes, I got busy."
The Impossible List
First, she created the "Impossible List," enumerating all the must-have features for their new home. Rachael wanted: plentiful water, both pastureland and forest land, a circa house that was not a fixer-upper, outbuildings, an existing retreat space—all ideally located 30 minutes from Charlottesville, but absolutely no more than an hour and 15 minutes away.
When the real estate agent saw this list, she suggested that Rachael prioritize.
"I told her that everything was a priority," said Rachael, laughing.
Next, Rachael took the list and began "googling like crazy" using the features as her search criteria. By Labor Day 2020, the family had four Virginia properties to consider including Heirloom Springs. When the Bryces set foot on Heirloom Springs, it was love at first sight.
The adults could barely take it all in because their son was zooming from place to place, exclaiming, "Look at this! You've got to see this!"
The property checked all the boxes, plus one. The circa 1905 farmhouse had been updated in a manner that honored its history. The 100-year-old barn had been outfitted as a retreat space. Creeks and springs flowed from the forested uplands through rolling pasturelands. The drive from the farm's front door to the Charlottesville city limits was exactly one hour and 15 minutes. And the county school system had programs ideally suited to their son's learning style.
"It was absolutely perfect, except for one thing," Rachael said. "It was out of our price range."
Her real estate agent suggested Rachael write a letter to the current owners making her case. Rachael seized the opportunity and told her family's story, encompassing everything from her Food Revolution to the life they hoped to give their son. The letter was in the mail before the family arrived at the Texas border.
The Three Miracles
“Some things, even the wildly improbable ones, are just meant to be,” Rachael said. “We experienced three miracles that allowed us to make Heirloom Springs our home.”
First, the Bryces received several above-asking offers for their Dallas house within 36 hours of listing. Second, one of the instructors at Pilates Methodology offered to buy the business just 24 hours after Rachael let her staff know that she was relocating. Third, the farm’s current owners not only responded to Rachael’s letter but asked her to submit her best offer, which they then accepted.
By mid-November 2020, the Bryces were unpacking boxes in their Virginia farmhouse.
“My husband was very tired,” said Rachael, laughing. “I was too, but I had a vision of what Heirloom Springs could be so I couldn’t sit still.”
Life on the Land
The entire enterprise rested on the foundation of a thriving, sustainable, organic farm. Rachael used the winter to install the gardens that would be used to produce heirloom-variety vegetables and herbs in the summer and fall. She planned the stone fruit orchard that would be planted in the spring.
“The farm was a beautiful, blank canvas for an edible landscape,” Rachael said.
She oversaw the construction of a duck condo, a chicken mansion, a goat playground and acquired the residents for them. She also found a beekeeping mentor with a decade of experience and arranged to obtain two hives during the appropriate season. Guinea fowls, known for their voracious appetites for insects and watch-dog alertness, also became part of the menagerie.
Although they keep poultry and dairy goats, all the family’s protein, other than eggs and milk, is acquired from other local farmers.
“Our son loves all of our animals and has an uncanny ability to connect with them—and animals of all kinds,” Rachael said. “He’d never forgive me if we ate meat from animals we raised.”
As winter changed to spring, she planted and began tending the land and animals. Other than being reared in rural Texas, Rachael had no direct experience farming or managing land. Curiosity and passion aflame, she attended workshops on beekeeping, greenhouse gardening, mushroom growing, and began searching for an intensive course on becoming an herbalist.
“I worked and watched it thrive and flourish,” Rachael said.
Rachael also cultivated relationships. One of her most treasured is with her closest neighbor lovingly nicknamed “Stan the Mountain Man,” who lives a mile away. He has a pet raccoon.
“He is a treasure trove of knowledge,” Rachael said. “When he comes over, I get my notebook.”
From him, she’s not only learned how to best coax a bounty from Amherst County’s soil, but how to identify the best firewood from standing deadwood in the forest and how to forage for native plants such as the spicebush. Rachael has incorporated its berries into a custard and is now perfecting a recipe for an olive oil tea cake featuring the tiny fruits.
“Expressing myself through delicious, nutrientdense food that nourishes the body and souls of people I care about is deeply satisfying,” Rachael said. “Cooking is almost a meditation and feeding people is my love language.”
Retreating from the World
After the farm was up and running, Rachael turned her attention to establishing Heirloom Springs as a business. She began offering Heirloom Springs Signature Retreats in the fall of 2022 with the goal of offering four to six each year. Because the farm doesn’t have a lodge, Rachael forged a partnership with nearby Sweet Briar College, allowing her guests to stay at the school’s Elston Inn.
While each retreat is unique, they are all built on common elements. Pilates indoors and in a gazebo in the forest, yoga taught by a guest instructor, time in the gardens learning, working and harvesting, farm-to-table food, hiking, and a meditation walk in through the property’s labyrinth. At night, participants sit around the fire pit wrapped in blankets as the flames turn to embers and enjoy quiet stargazing.
In Spring 2023, Rachael added Pilates Pedagogy at Heirloom Springs, a Signature Retreat designed for aspiring Pilates teachers. She is also developing a workshop that will help participants discover their intention and another on active listening that involves spending quiet time in the forest soaking up the sounds of nature.
“I want our retreats to facilitate what Joseph Pilates called a ‘return to life,’” Rachael said.
Changing Seasons
Rachael’s own return to life on Heirloom Springs is inextricably linked to her reconnection to nature that has occurred there.
“I’m utterly committed to what nature provides,” Rachael said. “We moved into the forest, so that means I have to respect the animals that live there and their role in the life cycle of this land.”
The family has lost feathered friends to predators.
“We’ve suffered some hard losses, but I need the predators around,” Rachael said. “I need them to eat the moles, voles and to keep the rabbit population in check. I need birds to eat insects and earthworms to enrich the soil. Everything plays a part in the circle that is life and death.”
She continued, “As a steward, you have to humble yourself, let go and let nature take over.”
In a storyline that could’ve been taken from a fairy tale, a mother rabbit nested under the cabbage patch near the carrot patch. The doe and her kits ate more than their share of the gardens’ bounty.
“I just had to sacrifice it,” Rachael said. “As the saying goes up here, ‘You have to plant enough for yourself and someone else.’”
She is keenly aware of her family’s footprint on the land. Outside of her gardens, Rachael tries to only plants species native to the area. She doesn’t use pesticides for many reasons, including their potential to contaminate water. The creek on their property flows into the James River, which eventually empties into Chesapeake Bay.
“The choices that I make on our land ripple far beyond our property,” she said.
Rachael isn’t the only one who has found herself more grounded. Russell, who still works in finance and calls himself a “gentleman farmer,” finds his center by hiking in the forest. With access to animals, quiet and elbow room, their son is thriving.
“The first months here were just incredible,” Rachael said. “Our son spent hours in the creek and roaming outside. I watched the stress and noise in his life just fade away.”
While the first harvests at Heirloom Springs have yielded an abundance of herbs, vegetables, fruits and other edibles, the land has provided a host of other benefits that Rachael treasures.
“The land’s true gifts are peace, joy and purpose,” she said.
Rachael’s Best Advice FOR FIRST-TIME LANDOWNERS
1 Be specific with what you want and know the reasons why. In addition to Rachael’s “impossible list” of property requirements, she was adamant about the neighbors. She did not want to abut a commercial corn or chicken farm because the chemicals that many of those operations use, which are prone to drift, were not compatible with her plans for an organic farm.
2. Understand what responsibility you will have to the land. Operating a farm or ranch is not a passive undertaking that can be left untended for long periods of time, especially if it involves crops or livestock. Rachael encourages first-time landowners to be realistic about the amount of time and effort they are willing to put into their land and to be clear about their operating philosophy when it comes to management decisions such as chemical inputs.
3. Find a good mentor. Land stewardship is a multi-faceted undertaking. While the lessons are enjoyable, Rachael suggests finding a mentor (or several) to help shorten the learning curve and provide feedback and guidance along the way.
4. Make sure the infrastructure you need is available. High speed internet is ubiquitous in cities and suburbs, but not in small towns or in rural areas. If anyone in the family requires a high-speed connection for work or school, ensure that the service is available or determine the work-around before signing the contract. The Bryces had overlooked this crucial detail until Russell tried to connect for work only to find the service was not adequate. In miracle four, their farmhouse just happened to be on a sight line with a tower on a nearby mountain, so they were able to secure the necessary service.
