Q&A: Kimberly Zabec of Revolutionary Roots Farm
Meet Kimberly Zabec, our newest winner in our #iamamodernfarmer contest.
The couple made the leap to full-fledge farming after seeing a Craigslist ad for land in Kinsale, Virginia. The acreage there was so much cheaper than in Maryland that at first they couldn’t believe it wasn’t some sort of scam. Now the couple, who have known each other since they were six years old, are homesteading on 20 acres, which they call Revolutionary Roots Farm. They’ve cleared the raw land, put in a well and fencing, and today have 40 hogs free ranging on the property. They also raise chickens, ducks, turkeys, rabbits, Guinea fowl, geese, and goats.
Modern Farmer: Why do you consider yourself a modern farmer?
Kimberly Zabec: One thing that we do that I feel is “modern” is our ability to make our own feed. We make non-GMO swine and poultry feed. We get the ingredients, measure, and mix ourselves. We actually see everything that is going into our animals from start to finish.
MF: Why is it important to you to support local agriculture?
KZ: For me personally, I just love the interaction and knowing the person behind the food that you’re consuming. Not to mention the fact that a dollar goes further in the hands of a small-time farmer than it does going into the hands of one of these big corporations.
MF: If you could grow or raise any food or animal, what would it be and why?
KZ: This is an ultimate dream and I don’t know if it will ever happen, but I would love to raise bison. Being part Native American, I imagine it would make me feel closer to my roots. My husband also wants to get into lamb in the future.
MF: What’s your favorite vegetable? Why?
KZ: I’ll admit, I’m still a picky eater. I try not to be, but there are just some things you like and some you don’t! My favorite vegetable would have to be asparagus. But made by my husband. He won’t admit it, but he’s pretty much a chef.
MF: If you could give other modern farmers any advice, what would it be?
KZ: My advice would be to laugh when things get hard. There have been days where everything goes wrong and you feel like giving up. But I promise you it gets better. We knew absolutely nothing about farming when we started. We still don’t know a lot! It’s about taking things as they come and learning from it. Having a good partner to laugh with isn’t bad either.
MF: Do you have a farming/agricultural hero? Why do you admire them?
KZ: I would have to say one of the locals in Kinsale, [Virginia]. His name is Robert Gawen. He runs an excavation company as well as farm[s] thousands of acres. He befriended us and has helped us out tremendously with getting our operation up and running. There’s nothing like southern hospitality.
Here’s the #iamamodernfarmer video Kimberly posted that won this week’s contest:
A video posted by Kimberly & Josh Zabec (@revolutionaryrootsfarm) on
Want a chance at an interview with Modern Farmer and other cool prizes? Just post a picture or a video on Twitter and/or Instagram with the hashtag #iamamodernfarmer and you’ll be entered for a chance to win. Every week, we’ll choose one winner to be profiled onModernFarmer.com. Every month, one of the weekly winners will be picked to win $100 inModern Farmer swag. One of the monthly winners will also win the grand prize: A VIP trip for two to the Farm Aid 2016 concert!
Added bonus: If you purchase an “I am a modern farmer” t-shirt, you’ll stand in solidarity with the hardworking men and women who produce our food. You certainly don’t have to don the shirt to post and have a chance to win, but with sales of these tees, Modern Farmer supports independent farmers with a donation to Farm Aid.
Need inspiration? Check out all the #iamamodernfarmer posts from across the country – and around the world!
See official contest rules here.
Follow us
Republish!
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Want to republish a Modern Farmer story?
We are happy for Modern Farmer stories to be shared, and encourage you to republish our articles for your audience. When doing so, we ask that you follow these guidelines:
Please credit us and our writers
For the author byline, please use “Author Name, Modern Farmer.” At the top of our stories, if on the web, please include this text and link: “This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.”
Please make sure to include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.
At the bottom of the story, please include the following text:
“Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at <link>Modern Farmer</link>.”
Use our widget
We’d like to be able to track our stories, so we ask that if you republish our content, you do so using our widget (located on the left hand side of the article). The HTML code has a built-in tracker that tells us the data and domain where the story was published, as well as view counts.
Check the image requirements
It’s your responsibility to confirm you're licensed to republish images in our articles. Some images, such as those from commercial providers, don't allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. Copyright terms are generally listed in the image caption and attribution. You are welcome to omit our images or substitute with your own. Charts and interactive graphics follow the same rules.
Don’t change too much. Or, ask us first.
Articles must be republished in their entirety. It’s okay to change references to time (“today” to “yesterday”) or location (“Iowa City, IA” to “here”). But please keep everything else the same.
If you feel strongly that a more material edit needs to be made, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’re happy to discuss it with the original author, but we must have prior approval for changes before publication.
Special cases
-
Extracts. You may run the first few lines or paragraphs of the article and then say: “Read the full article at Modern Farmer” with a link back to the original article.
-
Quotes. You may quote authors provided you include a link back to the article URL.
-
Translations. These require writer approval. To inquire about translation of a Modern Farmer article, contact us at [email protected]
-
Signed consent / copyright release forms. These are not required, provided you are following these guidelines.
-
Print. Articles can be republished in print under these same rules, with the exception that you do not need to include the links.
Tag us
When sharing the story on social media, please tag us using the following: - Twitter (@ModFarm) - Facebook (@ModernFarmerMedia) - Instagram (@modfarm)
Use our content respectfully
Modern Farmer is a nonprofit and as such we share our content for free and in good faith in order to reach new audiences. Respectfully,
-
No selling ads against our stories. It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads.
-
Don’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. We understand that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarize or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
Keep in touch
We want to hear from you if you love Modern Farmer content, have a collaboration idea, or anything else to share. As a nonprofit outlet, we work in service of our community and are always open to comments, feedback, and ideas. Contact us at [email protected].Q&A: Kimberly Zabec of Revolutionary Roots Farm
by Andrew Amelinckx, Modern Farmer
November 16, 2015
Modern Farmer Weekly
Solutions Hub
Innovations, ideas and inspiration. Actionable solutions for a resilient food system.
ExploreExplore other topics
Share With Us
We want to hear from Modern Farmer readers who have thoughtful commentary, actionable solutions, or helpful ideas to share.
Submit