An introduction to the life of
Rosemary Hieser
as manifested through conversations with Degra Nofsinger
"My name is Rosemary Hieser. I don't know where it came from. Hieser is German. My ancestors are German. Rosemary...I know it was a name my mother liked, and it's also the name my sister picked out for me."
Rosemary lives, works on, and owns part of Seven Springs Farm, located in Check, Virginia. Seven Springs is an organic farm. Rosemary runs the Community Supported Agriculture aspect of the farm. The farm's website is excellent and has terrific explanations about the mission and goals of the farm. I suggest that you click on the link above to learn more.
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I first met Rosemary by becoming a member of the CSA in 2003. My son, Quinn, and I went up to the farm several times to work last summer. In October, my Introduction to Anthropology class took a field trip to the farm. Every time I drive for 35 minutes up Bent Mountain and spend a couple of hours on th farm, I feel immensely peaceful, relaxed, and thankful. I love these breaks from the City of Roanoke. When our Life Narratives class selected to interview small scale farmers in southwestern Virginia, Rosemary was my first choice, and luckily she agreed to meeting with me. I have loved traveling to Check, spending time with Rosemary, and constructing this life narrative.
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(Rosemary and Degra) |
Because I already knew Rosemary, I had a certain amount of prior knowledge about her before going into the interviews. I knew that Rosemary and Ron jointly own and operate the farm, and that he runs the catalog business. I knew that Rosemary is taking weekly drumming lessons from members of the Kusun Ensemble, a touring group from Ghana. I knew that Rosemary is planning to travel to Ghana for a month in October to study drumming.
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I had two interviews with Rosemary. The first was on March 15, 2004.
The second was on April 11, 2004. Both were conducted at her wooden
kitchen table at the house that she designed on Seven Springs Farm in Check.
In the first interview, I asked her many questions about her life and about
her past. In the second interview, I asked her to elaborate on some of
the points that we talked about in the first interview. We also talked
about several personal topics, therefore, much of the second interview
is not included in this website. On May 1, 2004, Quinn and I went to
the farm take pictures. All pictures on this website were taken that
day. I have divided the interviews into six different categories.
Click on a category to the right to find the excerpts. A horizontal
bar in the page separates excerpts. A **** indicates that a few lines
of conversation have been omitted.
I have also included a page on my views on the Life Narrative Process. |
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