Stephen and Casey-Mae McGinley
We have been farming Good Soil since 2017, when we planted our first crop of garlic on this land. Our first CSA season was in 2018 and we are looking forward to our EIGHTH season! We enjoy the work of planning, seeding, transplanting, irrigating, harvesting, and yes, even weeding the vegetables! Raising the chickens, sheep, and turkeys in accord with their God-given nature is also a delight, but best of all we love raising our family on this land and in this community. We make it our aim to give back to this wonderful community by providing the healthiest, highest quality vegetables, chicken, eggs, turkeys, and bread as possible! We see this community as consisting not only of the people who live here, but also of our Sister, Mother Earth, and our Brother and Sister Plants, Animals, and Microorgranisms. So we seek to restore a rightly-ordered community in the way that we farm, treating the soil, water, vegetation, fungi, bacteria, and animals in accord with their natures. And we seek to always remember the God who holds in being this community and the creatures that dwell in it.
As a part of raising our children on the farm, we encourage them to find their own niche in the family business. So far, our oldest son raises and sells cultivated WineCap mushrooms and our oldest daughter raises and sells farm fresh flowers.
Meet the Team Blog Posts
Casey-Mae McGinley
Stephen McGinley
Beth Turner
Roxanne Wood
Amanda Mills
Joseph Lanzilotti
Why We Do What We Do
Good Soil Farm practices regenerative agriculture to glorify God by cultivating fruitful soil, happy souls, and healthy communities.
Want to learn more? Check out the Podcasts and Articles Below!
Life After Philosophy: New Podcast Episode
Listen to Stephen’s podcast as a guest with the Mount St. Mary’s “Catholic Town” series
Click on this link, then scroll down to the “Catholic Town” series, where you will find the podcast–“Stephen McGinley, C’10: The Philosopher and The Farmer”
Check out this article we wrote together in 2022: “On the Table” published in Humanum
Canticle of Brother Sun and Sister Moon
St. Francis of Assisi
Most High, all-powerful, all-good Lord,
All praise is Yours, all glory, all honor and all blessings.
To you alone, Most High, do they belong,
and no mortal lips are worthy to pronounce Your Name.
Praised be You my Lord with all Your creatures,
especially Sir Brother Sun,
Who is the day through whom You give us light.
And he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour,
Of You Most High, he bears the likeness.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Moon and the stars,
In the heavens you have made them bright, precious and fair.
Praised be You, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air,
And fair and stormy, all weather’s moods,
by which You cherish all that You have made.
Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water,
So useful, humble, precious and pure.
Praised be You my Lord through Brother Fire,
through whom You light the night
and he is beautiful and playful and robust and strong.
Praised be You my Lord through our Sister,
Mother Earth
who sustains and governs us,
producing varied fruits with colored flowers and herbs.
Praise be You my Lord through those who grant pardon
for love of You and bear sickness and trial.
Blessed are those who endure in peace,
By You Most High, they will be crowned.
Praised be You, my Lord through Sister Death,
from whom no-one living can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Blessed are they She finds doing Your Will.
No second death can do them harm.
Praise and bless my Lord and give Him thanks,
And serve Him with great humility.
“Praised be You My Lord with all your creatures”
St. Francis of Assisi
The Blessings of the Farmer
“Oh that farmers understood their blessings!
Their boundless joys! A land far off from war
Pours forth her fruit abundantly for them.
Although no stately home with handsome portals
Disgorges on its step a wave of callers
Every morning, gaping at his doors
Inlaid with tortoise shell, astonished by
His gold-trimmed clothes and his Corinthian bronzes,
Although his white wool is not stained with dye,
His oil not spoiled with perfumes from the East,
His rest is sound, his life devoid of guile.
His gains are manifold, his holdings broad:
Caves and living lakes, refreshing vales,
The cattle lowing, slumber in the shade.
Familiar with the haunts of animals,
The farmer lives in peace, his children all
Learn how to work, respect frugality,
Venerate their fathers and the gods:
Surely, Justice, as she left the earth,
In parting left her final traces here.”
from Virgil’s Georgics, lines 459-474
