Behind the Lens
Hi, I'm Ally
I'm one half of the team that keeps our little homestead running. My husband Kevin (I call him Kevy) and I live in northern Alberta (Zone 3) with our kids, a couple of cats, a big dog, and a pile of chickens. If I had my way, and more hours in the day, we'd already have a few pigs and maybe a cow too!
Kevy and I aren't afraid to get our hands dirty in the pursuit of self-sustainability. We're both blessed with a "We can totally do that!" attitude and thanks to our strong work ethic and determination we have consistently achieved our homestead goals.
We really do make a great team and the scale of the work we do around here is a testament to that! Whether that's Kevy's amazing backyard toboggan hill, or my desire to turn our entire property into one big food forest.
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What Is The Boreal Bloom Homestead?
We have lived on our acreage for a number of years and have been working incredibly hard to turn our land into something special.
We started with a fully wooded 10-acre parcel in northeastern Alberta, complete with short summers and long, cold winters. We have slowly cleared the native boreal forest around us to carve out a beautiful property that we are incredibly proud of.
Over the last few years, our focus has shifted from ornamentals to edibles, as we started to dive deep into permaculture teachings, and focus on providing for our family from our own land. We started planning for and planting food forests, designing an entire raised garden, and adding infrastructure to increase our self-sufficiency and self-sustainability.
Why Boreal Bloom?
We wanted to name our property, and in the end, we settled on Boreal Bloom Homestead because it spoke to us in a way that the other names didn't.
We are beyond blessed to live smack in the middle of the boreal forest - we are surrounded by towering evergreens, trembling aspens, cunning bears, majestic moose, and industrious beavers - to name a few. We wanted our name to represent that.
Boreal, to us, is where we are grounded, our climate, and our home.
We also wanted to acknowledge the importance of blooms. Blooms on fruit trees and in the garden lead to abundant harvests, as well as attract important pollinators to our ecosystem. Without blooms we would not exist.
What We Do
Between full-time jobs, Kevy's oilfield construction career, and my food blog cravethegood.com, we dedicate time to building the life we want.
This includes growing and raising our own foods with the goal of reducing our reliance on outside sources. With our short growing season, and a meager 90 frost-free days, the harvesting and preserving of those foods is essential.
We hope that sharing our journey inspires others to follow in our footsteps and empowers the next generation of homesteaders!