Hello! This is a page that is suppose to be âaboutâ us, but we canât help but wonder who is reading this. If you are so inclined, weâd love to hear about you! You can direct message us here on Substack or email us at Taylor@acommonlife.co or Morgan@acommonlife.co . Truly, weâd love to hear from you.
Meet Morgan and Taylor
Taylor and I met at Auburn University in 2010. I was coming off of a semester spent at LEGACY School of Discipleship and returned to Auburn with a desire to learn how to grow food. So, I changed my major to Horticulture with a focus in Fruit and Vegetable production. Lo and behold, Taylor was in my first class. We studied together and quickly found out that our hearts were aligned in a desire for ministry, feeding people physically and spiritually. We both graduated in 2012.
After getting married, we continued our education as farm interns at Scott River Lodge in Northern California. When we found out I was pregnant with our first, we decided to return to North Alabama to be closer to family. We started RiverFly Farms in the Paint Rock Valley where we lived and farmed for 5 years. We moved off the farm for a few years but have found ourselves back here, and envision never leaving.
When people find out about our farming background the most common response is, âI really want to garden but have no idea where to start.â We started A Common Life to help our friends and family answer that question. Since starting, our focus has shifted from exclusively gardening how-tos and more towards writing about our desire to live a slow, intentional life. Gardening will always be a part of this lifestyle
Meet Morgan
Morgan hasnât written her âaboutâ yet, but in the meantime, I, Taylor, her husband, will write a little about her here:
Morgan is amazing. I know, Iâm her husband, I have to say that. But donât take my word for it - Ask anybody that knows her. Or anyone that has met her and spent more than a minute with her. She has a way of making you feel loved and seen. She has a way of helping you settle into yourself and be comfortable there. You leave her presence wanting more of her company.
Her writing is also amazing. Not because it is technical or even gramatically correct. It is amazing because she has a simple way of writing about profound topics. She paints with her words, crafting and constructing the words, making a home for the feelings she is trying to convey.
I look forward to her writing here a s she can between the dishes, the laundry, the meals, the tears, the love, the baths.
Meet Taylor
I grew up in a small rural town in south Alabama. I remember going to church on Wednesday nights for RAs. (If you know, you know) There, out behind the old fellowship hall was a farmerâs field. The best time of the year was after a good plowinâ. Thatâs when dirt clogs were abundant and dirt clog wars could be had. I lived on a dead end street that emptied into another farmerâs field. This was the field where Iâd pick green peanuts out of the ground to munch on and where I let my pet snake go after I decided I liked his food, a cute rat with red eyes, better than I did him. So I kept Ruby instead.
Behind our home in this little town was a pasture that had cows in it. Apparently, I was three years old when I climbed over the wire fence seperating our yard from the pasture, under the electric fence seperating the cows from the wire fence, and through the field to the farmers house a quarter mile away. Mr. Pete, the farmer brought me back to my hysterical mom. I was fine. I remember the smell of manure at our little home. Not from the cows out back, but from my dad. He, like a crazy person, brought home a couple truck loads of manure for our garden beds. I remember the neighbors taking notice. I can still see the milk jugs full of blue water that my grandmother always had around. It was some magical concoction that she used to feed her plants. She always had the most beautiful flowers in her yard.
I remember the first time I learned about the boy who cried wolf. It was in a pecan orchard. I was there with my aunt picking pecans. We used these long tools with wire baskets on the end. We collected âem, shelled âem, and then made pecan pies with âem. I remember sitting around listening to all of the adults talk about nonsensical things while the peanuts boiled. I remember eating so many I got sick. I was never into slocomb tomatoes until one day I had a tomato sandwich. Whitebread, mayo, couple slices of a Slocomb tomato, salt, and a dash of pepper. Itâs a delicacy where Iâm from. White Acre peas, a couple slices of a slocomb tomato, fresh Vidalia onion, and my mamaâs cornbread. Thatâs a meal where Iâm from.
Why subscribe?
The Common is where Morgan and Taylor offer month-by-month gardening advice to help your garden thrive. We also share our personal journey in seasonal living, aiming to foster a deeper connection with others, nature, and our Creator. Â
Our hope is to encourage and equip others who are on a similar journey and to provide a space for community around these ideals.
Less thinking, More gardening!
Do you relate with any of the following?
You want to keep a garden but donât know where to startâŚ
You want confidence that you can grow and keep a beautiful gardenâŚ
You get overwhelmed with the amount of information online about gardeningâŚ
You lack confidence in your gardening abilities and are afraid of failingâŚ
You lack the time to keep a gardenâŚ
You lack the knowledge required to keep and grow a gardenâŚ
You think you have a âblack thumbââŚ
If you answered âyesâ to any of those questions, our newsletter is curated to help people just like you!
Join The Common and see that you arenât alone
Be part of a community of people who want a more simple, connected life and who believe keeping a garden and living more seasonally is a part of that journey.
You can find us on Instagram @_acommonlife !
You can reach out and connect with us via email - taylor@acommonlife.co
