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2025 Farm Reflections

December 22, 2025By Blog, Services

In January of 2024, my role at GreenHouse17 changed from Residential Program Director to Nature-Based Healing Lead. This change in roles was inspired in part by a book called The Nature Fix by Florence Williams. The big idea in the book is that the natural world is a natural healer, and that spending time…

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Farm Reflections

December 10, 2024By Blog, Services

As a person who has done some gardening and spent some hot days in a field, I have come to love and deeply appreciate dormancy. Trees shed their leaves, the last of the harvesting ends, and nature agrees that it is time for a break. Dormancy and the shortening daylengths…

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aerial view of farmBlog

Summer on the Farm

July 15, 2024By Blog
"The farm awakens a part of me that makes me feel strong and peaceful." The summer months are busy on our 40-acre property. From healthy cooking workshops using vegetables from the farm to trauma-informed yoga under the pavilion, residents reflect and find healing in lots of ways. Although many adult…
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Nature’s Nourishment

July 10, 2023By Blog, Services
Farm-to-table - Access to nutritious food matters. With summer in full swing on the farm, plentiful vegetables fill the fields and the shelter’s kitchen. Hattie and Finley, advocates on our staff, work together to provide nutritious farm-to-table meals for survivors. Sweet potato enchiladas, tomato soup, and big salads are among…
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strawberry harvest from farmBlog

Autumn Farm Reflections

November 30, 2022By Blog
This is a special blog contribution written by Hattie Nunley, farm advocate. As the days grow shorter and an autumn chill hangs in the air, now is the perfect time to reflect on this past season of beautiful blooms and fresh produce grown on our farm. Advocate and survivor hands…
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ryan admiring treesBlog

A Healing Canopy of Trees

August 8, 2022By Blog
“I have really sweet kid memories of laying down under a tree and looking up at the sky,” says Ryan Koch, residential program manager. Many trees on the shelter property were planted about ten years ago with the support of a Plant the Planet grant from Kentucky Utilities. "I like…
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Rachel at Center for Research on Violence Against WomenBlog

Empowered by Plants

August 1, 2022By Blog, Stories
The University of Kentucky Center for Research on Violence Against Women recently completed a multi-year study of the farm’s effectiveness. “Our mission is research,” shares Diane Follingstad, Ph.D. “If you have been a victim of violence as a woman, we would like to know the best ways to help you…
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four farmers harvestingBlog

Summer’s Harvest

July 25, 2022By Blog
“Our strawberries taste a whole lot better than the ones that came from the store,” said a survivor living in shelter. “They’re sweeter and juicier.” There’s nothing better than a home-cooked meal made with food grown with your own hands. Many meals prepared in the shelter this time of year…
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Lyndsay with three horsesBlog

Moments of Magic

July 18, 2022By Blog
Lyndsay Deaver knows the healing love that only a horse can give. In 2008, while a student of Midway University’s equine therapy program, she completed her practicum internship at the emergency shelter. Lyndsay suggested that boarding her horse, JB, on the property, could be meaningful for survivors. “People really identify…
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snowy farmBlog

Winter on the Farm

January 24, 2022By Blog
Many of the pictures you see of our farm are filled with blooming flowers in the spring and summer months, but have you wondered what goes on when the temperatures start dropping? Winter on the farm is beautiful and busy!  Production on the farm stopped at the end of October…
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