The Journey Begins

In 2016, my now late hubby Calvin Gantt and I were living in Long Beach California, but we had already decided that for our future, we wanted to reverse migrate back to the South, and we wanted to live in a place where we could afford to buy land and grow our own food. Reverse migrate? As African Americans, we had ancestors from different parts of the South: Virginia, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and we were both descendants of folks that that moved “up North” as part of the Great Migration. My grandparents moved from Virginia to Chicago in the 1920s, and now were were moving back just a few hours from where they came from to a small rural town in North Carolina. 

Calvin had been studying organic farming and had grown some beautiful gardens that won over most of our landlords and HOA restrictions through much of his charming effort over the years, but it was time for a place to call our own. Many of our friends were like — “You’re moving where? What are you doing? There’s no music there!” What was important to us was that we lived somewhere where it was sustainable — that meant that we could grow food, mostly depending on rainfall rather than irrigation, and that we could afford to buy the land and realistically pay it off rather than having a lifetime mortgage. Living on land had been a dream I’d had since a small child wandering the woods near our home in upstate New York. Most of my adulthood, I had no idea how it could become a reality, because I just didn’t make enough money. It was a surprise to find out that acres of land could be bought for much less than most houses near or in major cities. Especially in areas that weren’t considered popular. 

In 2018, we found a humble house in the woods of North Carolina, wonderfully convenient to nearby stores for basic needs. Not fancy, but perfect for our dreams.