Philip Cody and Zuzu Taytslin live in the house Philip grew up in. His parents relocated to Boston when he was in high school but kept their home in Weare as a summer and weekend retreat.    

​

“It became harder to get back to Weare on weekends with sports and other high school commitments and in college even more so,” Philip recalls, “but in the end I ended up back where I’ve always considered home.” 

​

“My parents had no interest in farming, but I always wanted to be a farmer. I remember growing watermelons here one summer and bringing dozens of them into my middle school to give away when school started.”

​

Philip and Zuzu met while working in Boston in 2018 and moved back to the house in Weare four years ago. They wanted to farm, but starting seemed very intimidating.

​

“I was really inspired by some books I read,” Philip says. “It was a combination of Michael Pollan books and Folks, This Ain’t Normal by Joel Salatin that got me hooked. I read classics like Mollison’s permaculture book, The Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, and Masanobu Fukuoka’s One-Straw Revolution. And Wendell Berry of course.”

​

“Our heaviest influences are J. Russell Smith and Mark Shepard. Reading Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture and Restoration Agriculture provided us with our founding principles and philosophy. I could go on and on about what I love about these books but to sum it up as briefly as I can: A 700-year-old chestnut grove. That’s sustainable agriculture.”

​

“The first couple of years were mainly clearing pine trees, rocks and poison ivy from the land. I’m still dealing with a clan of woodchucks living under the deck, but that’s farming in NH. Most of the things we’ve planted like fruit trees, blueberries, hazelnuts, and kiwi berries are years away from maturity. Last summer, we started getting lots of honey and shiitake and became real farmers.”

​

Renting out their home provides Philip and Zuzu with cash flow while the perennial crops mature.  Their grand vision is to rent their house and a series of eco-oriented cabins in the woods with lots of trails and agriculture. They have 20+ acres of forest where they harvest oak for growing shitake plus two acres of open space for everything else.

​

“What we love about farming isn’t just growing food,” Philip continues, “It’s the whole experience - the aesthetics, the stewardship of the land on which we live and work and are deeply connected. Sharing that experience by allowing others to stay here for a long weekend or a couple of weeks is a win-win in terms of values and monetary sustainability. “

​

“We named the farm Zulip (Zuzu + Philip) because it’s a marriage of our labors, our passions and the fulfillment of our dreams,” Zuzu explains. “There’s no way I would have ever attempted this without a strong and able partner to take it on with.”

​

Philip and Zuzu currently produce mushrooms, raspberries and honey. They plan to have their first blueberries next year, hazelnuts in a few more years, and apples sometime after. 

​

“We planted all standard root stock so the trees would outlive us, but it can take 10 years before you really get apples from standard root stock,” Philip states. “We put in a kiwi berry vineyard this spring, which we’re very excited about. After visiting Iago Hale’s kiwi berry vineyard at UNH, we were absolutely sold.“

​

“We exclusively raise shitake mushrooms right now because of the plentiful red oak in our woods. The flavor of mushrooms traditionally grown on oak logs rather than a substrate in a grow-room is unparalleled. You really have to try them to believe it.”

​

“We cut oak trees in late winter to inoculate with shiitake spawn in March.  When we’re all done, we load the 40” logs, known as bolts, onto sleds and pull them through the snow out of the woods. The whole process of felling trees in the winter and sledding them out with Zuzu is my favorite activity.”

​

“Our most labor intensive and least profitable crop is raspberries.  They start producing quite quickly, but it didn’t go well last summer due to spotted wing drosophila and the constant rain and moisture.”

“Honey is Zuzu’s department. She absolutely adores working with her bees. Last year’s honey was   hands-down the best I’ve ever tasted in spite of the fact it was her first year of actual production. She ended up with around 80 pounds, so we didn’t even have enough for our neighbors who kept coming back for seconds and thirds. We’re definitely going to expand that part of our business.”

Customers will find Zulip Farms produce at New Harvester Market in Henniker, Devriendt Farms in Goffstown, Contoocook Cider and Granite State Naturals in Concord. Philip and Zuzu will be at the Henniker Farmer’s market on Thursdays this season with shitake mushrooms.

​

“Environmental stewardship is the most important aspect of farming for us,” Zuzu says unequivocally. “Feeding people just happens to be part of farming. Watching our farm get greener and lusher year after year, seeing the increase in predatory insect activity and the arrival of new bird species, and knowing our berms are capturing water and reducing flooding in strong rain events is extremely rewarding. It’s the result of our love for the land, the environment and our home.”

​

“If you were to visit our farm now,” Philip says, “you’d see a relatively neat landscape with a more or less defined line between forest and field.  Just a few years ago, it was 30 years of unchecked growth of pines and brambles. It took a lot of effort just to get a clean slate to work with. We could have probably saved a couple years of work by moving somewhere that had more fertile and less hilly farmland, but that would have meant letting go of the land and home we’re attached to.”

​

Philip and Zuzu are strong proponents of organic farming. They believe that organic farming is the best tool we have to protect our environment. 

​

“We need to erase the distinction between land set aside for nature and land for us -- wilderness versus human environment,” Philip posits.  “Every activity we participate in must have harmony with earth at its core.  Putting aside wilderness conservation areas is great, but areas set aside for man are ripe for development. Disregard for nature is problematic. Organic farming solves this problem quite nicely.”

​

“The character and scale of New Hampshire’s farms is small and diversified. That’s a wonderful thing, but the challenges facing our planet require scale. Replacing most of the nonsense in supermarkets with nutritious and responsibly produced local food will require a major paradigm shift in how food is produced in the entire country.”

​

“The future for small organic farms must involve more cooperative enterprise to achieve scale, both for profitability and to make a meaningful impact. I would love to see a regional farmer owned and operated hazelnut-processing facility. I’d love to see the same for hops.  But it’s a chicken and egg problem.  Nobody is going to invest in and build a hazelnut processing facility until there’s regional demand for such a thing.  And that can’t happen until... you get the idea.”

​

“NOFA-NH helps build a sense of community in our state. Day to day it’s just us here on our small piece of land, but it’s wonderful be part of NOFA and know how many of us have the same goals and are doing the same thing.”