Mae Jefferson and Kyle Brown’s story starts in Alabama but then it diverges to opposite coasts, before coming back home — well, Kyle’s childhood home — in Vinemont where they are growing organic, sustainable crops on the land that Kyle once worked with his “Pappaw,” Henry Earl McClain, known to some as H.E. McClain and as “Buster” to others.

But to Kyle, he was Pappaw, and it was on Pappaw’s farm where Kyle spent a lot of time helping out with farm chores. Mae, on the other hand, grew up in the outskirts of Birmingham but always loved the outdoors. It wasn’t over a shared love of nature, though, that they first met. They met briefly as students at Montevallo in 2007, where they were studying art and photography. 

In 2008, Mae moved to California to pursue a career in art, including jewelry making and doing photography, graphic design and staging for a fashion company. Kyle took a similar path but on the opposite coast: he moved to New York city and pursued a career in art and film making. He also worked for a bakery, delivering bread. Through his deliveries to farmers markets, he became acquainted with local farmers. It sparked his interest in growing, and he moved to upstate New York to work on rural, organic farms.

“The Hudson Valley has all these incredible farms where they’re doing all these shares and sustainable farming,” said Mae. “There’s a lot of mindfulness around how we treat the earth and how we grow food that we’re putting into our bodies.”

Meanwhile in California, Mae was also discovering a love for organic farming. One of her roommates was a horticulture student and they turned their backyard into an edible garden. Through another roommate, she discovered the benefits of fermented produce, a product their farm, Providence Farms, sells today.

After several years in California, Mae moved back East, working at an organic farm in North Carolina. There, as she shares on the farm’s website, providencefarmalabama.com, “Her heart began to lead her down a path of health and natural healing with a basis in ‘food as medicine’. She became a certified yoga teacher, completed intensive workshops on healing herbs and flowers, and continued to pursue education in fermented foods.”

Ten years after they met in college, Kyle reached out to Mae to talk about their shared love of organic farming. Mae ended up moving to New York and eventually the duo — now officially a couple — moved back to the land from Kyle’s childhood to start their own farming enterprise.

McClain had died in 2013 and his house, surrounded by 30 acres of land, was vacant. Mae and Kyle moved in and have made it their home. Kyle’s family lives on adjacent properties cut from McClain’s original 120-acres. 

Mae said they won’t use all the land at their disposal for farming, though. “It’s this intensive intercropping system,” she said. “That’s the beauty of hand-scale farming. With commercial farming you have to have a lot of room because you’ve got to have tractors and they’ve got to get up in between things. We use tractors but we use them to clear land and move things, but we don’t use them to spray or fertilize or harvest.”

Their sell their produce to local restaurants and also through “market shares.” They specialize in eggs, culinary and medicinal herbs, flowers and herbal remedies. Future plans include getting some broiler hens, having an orchard, teaching yoga classes at the farm and having an event venue. They also have a friend’s cattle grazing on the land and will eventually get some of their own. 

“We’re not necessarily going into it for the meat,” said Mae. “It’s really more about the fertility of the land. Cows are so good for the land, as are chickens.”

It’s very different from how Kyle’s Pappaw farmed. “He did cattle and hogs and he grew acres and acres of vegetables,” said Mae. “He was a conventional farmer.”

With organic farming, said Mae, they work to establish a sustainable ecosystem. “We try and set up systems around the farm that support each other,” she said. “Conventional farming you put what you want where you want it and then you come in and spray or dump fertilizer. You bring things from off the farm to make it grow. What I love about organic farming is the sustainability of it. It’s its own little ecosystem.”

Mae said the draw to farming for her is the connection it brings to life. “You get so close and intimate with these plants but they display the entire cycle of life and death. It’s rhythmic and it’s cyclical,” she said. “A lot of people say they dislike the winter or they dislike it when it rains. And I realized it’s because they go to their jobs — the same jobs, every day. They get up and go to work, and it’s inconvenient when it’s raining and it’s uncomfortable when it’s cold. But when you’re working with plants and you’re farming, the ground and the earth need that rest, and it’s a good time for you to take a rest, too.

“You hibernate indoors in the winter, and you plan and you get ready for the next season. And when it’s raining, it’s rejuvenating for the plants and it’s quenching for your soul too because you have to find some other work, or something else to do or just be forced to rest, and then you go out there and everything is so alive and vibrant.”

The cycle of life and death extends to its inhabitants. Mae and Kyle are expecting their first child, a boy, in a few months. They are naming him Henry, after Pappaw. 

“It was like Pappaw was a magical person,” said Mae. “I never met him but everybody who I meet who knew him has the best stories.” Like how he would bring food to neighbors after the family’s weekly Sunday dinners. 

“I think Kyle wanted to sort of carry on that tradition as well,” she said.

They also hope to see more farmers like them in Cullman County. “Ultimately we would like to see more of an interest, a movement, in Cullman for local, sustainable, nutrition,” said Mae. “We’d like to see more of that. It’s coming and it would be nice to join forces. There are some other farms around that are doing the same things and that’s cool.”