Your Pet Sitter Begs: Local Farm Family Needs Our Help

As a rule, I almost never ask people to donate money. I’m making an exception, with good reason.

Since last year I have been buying non-GMO fed meat from Nathan and Eliza Winters of Hill Hollow Farm in Petersburgh, NY. Just last week I wrote a blog post to sing their praises to all of you. The day I wrote that blog post I learned that Nathan passed away from an ATV injury on his farm.

Nathan was only 34 years old. He left behind his one year old daughter, Mathilda and his wife, Eliza who is expecting child number two in September.

Now let me just say in the two times that I met Nathan face to face and toured their farm he changed me. He was one of those rare individuals who just exuded joy and happiness. He was living his dream. He loved what he was doing. Nathan was a very special man. He accomplished more in his 34 short years than most of us can hope to accomplish in a lifetime. He had visited every state in the United States except Alaska, he backpacked acrossed Ireland, Asia and Thailand. He rode his bicycle across America to learn about rural farming and promote sustainable agriculture. You can read the article in Grit Magazine here.

When I heard of his passing I was stunned. Seeing the outpouring of love on his Facebook page from all the people he touched warmed my heart. I realized it wasn’t just me who had been changed by meeting Nathan. He literally touched thousands of lives.

Nathan’s brother in law paintstakingly made his casket by hand from beams from an old barn that was brought to their property many years ago to be converted to a house and the top was a single sheet of white pine that was cut for the mantle that Nathan and Eliza stood in front of in the house they were married in. If that isn’t a statement of love I don’t know what is.

So my dear readers I am asking for your help. If you can spare a few dollars, would you please consider donating to the Nathan Winters Memorial Fund? Your donations will help his wife Eliza finish their home and help to keep the farm running for now. Eliza has committed to fulfilling their meat and vegetable CSA orders at least for this year. I cannot imagine what she is going through and the support from people like us will hopefully ease her pain.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Please share!