My last name is Hayward which means “keeper of the fields”. The Hayward family has been heavily involved in our nation’s agriculture since some of the first settlers came from Europe. One could say that farming is in my family’s blood. My experience in growing food started in the garden with my father as a child. He always had a large vegetable garden that provided our family’s needs throughout the summer and fall seasons. But, his history in farming goes back to his childhood in Western Massachusetts. He was raised on a commercial farm, providing his community with a wide variety of crops, meat and animal products.
 
Upon college graduation, I was hired as the crop manager on  a 10 acre organic vegetable farm in Massachusetts. Then, I went on to work in the “urban agriculture” startup industry in Boston for a few years until I decided that city life wasn’t for me. I moved to the Bitterroot Valley in 2015 and purchased our farm’s 10 acres in Fall, 2016.