Merry Ellen.

Every month we interview the most inspiring women who pave the way in gardening & design. Here’s our latest, with the beautiful Merry Ellen of Mema Ceramics.

When did you begin farming and what inspired you to start?

When I was 16 my first love was a farmer, he and his family ran a backyard CSA program for their neighborhood. I spent hours and hours in the garden watching the way he worked with the earth, tending his plants and caring for the garden as if it were a dear friend. In return of all the care their family poured into the land, the land blessed them with bountiful abundance. The kitchen counters were always stacked with tomatoes, peppers, fresh greens, carrots and so much more. Witnessing this changed me forever, it opened my eyes to a very real state of inherent abundance that all humans are born into here on earth and from those moments I was hooked. Since then my relationship with the earth and my garden has deepened, widened and has expanded me beyond my own limitations, for I truly feel the earth speaks to us when we open to receive and in that she is our ultimate teacher. 

It’s so inspiring to see women farming! How has this journey been for you?

Wow, working with the earth and growing food has been an incredible journey of reciprocation. For gardening is really tending to a relationship we have with the place we nourish. I’ve always felt that home is where the garden is because the garden can be a direct reflection of our devotion to growing ourselves. In the seeding, weeding, pruning and growing I find metaphors of these processes in my own life and because of this, gardening is a process of self transformation. As our gardens, we too are always growing and changing with the seasons of life and grounding into the practice of tending the soils of the food I then consume has shown me how to become the best me I came here to be. 

What would your advice be to women who are interested in farming?

Get out there and get your hands dirty! Plant some seeds, do some research, ask questions, mess up, fail, forget to water, make all the mistakes and keep gardening! Because gardening is a constant study, you will never know it all and we will always make mistakes but it’s the little harvests of joy and love that make it all worth it. Gardening is a lifestyle, not an end product so enjoy the bliss of it all!

What are your rituals when giving gratitude to the earth?

This is an amazing question and I like to imagine the entirety of my life to be such. In the abundance of all the earthly gifts we are blessed with every day, it is important for me in my life to recognize them as often as possible. it’s a constant reminder to myself in how I tend my relationships, how I harvest from my garden, how I walk with bare feet on the earth and so on. My favorite rituals are the moments where I remember to transform the mundane into magic especially when the earth calls me forth.

What is your favorite fruit and why?

Oh don’t even get me started!!!! If you know anything about me you would know I’m REALLLLY into fruit. I have traveled around the world to the farthest nooks and crannies to find some of the most incredible fruits of this world and to choose one would be very unfair to all the other ones I love! However I can tell you that some of my favorites are wild DURIAN from the jungles of Borneo, golden berries from the desert of Paraguay, dry farmed crimson sweet watermelons and white peaches, Malaysian orange champadeck and anything in season, ripe and juicy in my hand!

What is the most exotic place you have traveled looking for fruit?

Pretty much anywhere can be considered exotic I’m my eyes, as soon as we step outside our comfort zone a little we are open to a world of wonder and excitement! There is fruit across almost all the lands on this earth, that being said… my trip to the island of Borneo was unforgettable and I’m excited to make another trip to the heart of the Amazon forest for more incredible fruitful discoveries.

How has pottery been a channel of creation for you?

As an extension of my relationship to the earth, creating in the ceramic medium has also revealed so much about my relationship to myself. Over the last 6 years, I have been exploring the shapes of women as vessels and sculpting women’s bodies with my hands is a practice of reverence for all that women are, do and become. In all the incredible shapes and sizes women are, there is exquisite beauty within each and every form. For it is what we fill our vessel with that is most important.

What do you hope to express with this medium?

In the creation of my ceramics, I intend that what I share will inspire humans to revear women in the highest fashion. It is my prayer that women of all shapes and sizes celebrate who they are and what they have come here to share with the world. I pray that when women sip from a goddess cup that they remember that we consume from the our great earth mother and with that may we also consume gratitude. 

What are your hopes for the year and what would you like to share with the world?

Some very big dreams are coming into fruition this year including my greatest dream of all, to create the most magical edible botanical garden with specimens from all around the world. I have been working hard with a team of people on this vision to gather and grow the most amazing fruits of the world in one extraordinary garden. It is a long term vision with many preliminary steps and goals but I feel it coming together and it’s extremely exciting to me! Along with this I am elated to be growing food for my family and sculpting more goddesses with clay! 

Which piece of Sparrow Co are you most excited to rock?

I am totally stoked on the pair of overalls I’ve acquired from Sparrow! They are made with great attention to detail, good quality fabric and knowing they came from a friend makes me feel soo good wearing them!