Hallie + Erik

Our Story

Hallie and Erik met in February of 2020, one week before covid shut down the country. Dating in the age of covid is a litmus test for domestic compatibility. It’s courtship distilled. So, they dove head over heels into a perfect little covid bubble for two.

That spring Erik left South Shore Conservatory where he had been coaching rock bands and teaching guitar for the last seven years. Meanwhile, Hallie had to sit back and watch the busiest wedding photography season of her career get painstakingly postponed by the pandemic. So, what do you do with an abundance of time, a limited budget, and some serious cabin fever kicking in? Go see houses in Vermont as a “date,” of course! Erik had ties to Chelsea, so they began touring homes in Orange County. Two trips to Vermont later and they stepped foot into their forever home, nestled on 9 acres in West Newbury, VT. The feeling was immediate and familiar - they had felt the same '“love at first sight” feeling only four months ago when they met.

Closing on their home took months due to covid delays, and ultimately they had to flip Erik’s current home in just two weeks to make the financing contingency work. Banks and covid don’t mix, it turns out. Nevertheless, on October 17th, 2020 we moved into our home on Tucker Mountain. That day, Erik did one very dumb thing and one very smart thing. Dumb: He got a 26 foot U-Haul stuck in the front lawn, blocking the entire driveway. Smart: He proposed to Hallie.

In 2021 Hallie and Erik hustled like crazy. Hallie shot 40+ weddings and 70+ portrait, maternity, and family sessions. Erik spent his mornings working at 4 Corners Farm, his afternoons applying permaculture design to the homestead, and his nights teaching guitar remotely. On the contrary, integrating themselves into the wonderful community of Newbury turned out to be quite easy. If you’ve been to Boston, just imagine the opposite.

In the midst of all this, they started planning their wedding for August 20th, 2022. It was going to take place in their front yard - a big DIY celebration with food from 4 Corners Farm, hard cider from their own apple trees, and performances featuring some of Erik’s former students. That plan changed one day when Erik and Hallie delivered a cord of wood to their upper neighbor, Susan.

That day, Susan let Hallie and Erik know that she had plans to sell her home. Hallie and Erik told Susan that they might be interested, but really just felt like they were doing their due diligence. For them, it was important to know that owning this magical place wasn’t possible. That way, when someone bought it up, they wouldn’t have any regrets. But, after months of budgeting, researching, market analysis, and other winter activities, they reached a deal with Susan. Erik and Hallie began their stewardship of Wild Sugar Homestead on May 15th, 2022. In August, they will be the first couple to say I do, forever tying themselves to each other and the land under their feet.

Vows

We vow to constantly improve our systems and services in a way that benefits the land and all of the beings that call the land home. Using permaculture design principles, we will grow an abundance of food and medicine without the use of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, or plastics. We will share that abundance with the community whenever possible. We will establish and maintain perennial food systems that serve the wild beings just as much as the human beings. We will minimize our reliance on gasoline /diesel. We will design systems that produce more energy over their lifetime than was required to create and operate them. We will build our soils using deep mulch, chickens on compost, biochar production, and hugelkultur raised beds. We will make Wild Sugar Homestead a community gathering place where stories, skills, and ideas, can be shared freely. We will improve the health of our community and the folks that become community members for the day, week, or month. But mostly, we vow to have an absolute blast the whole time.