The Healing Land is an Ohio-based non-profit dedicated to providing ongoing education and mentorship in regenerative farm practices and homesteading skills.

Vision

“For some of us it is the fast pace of modern life the peripatetic dash from place to place; for others, it is the invasiveness of the ever-present digital age, the perpetual noise and demand of incoming information. Some feel a concern for our planet, its soils, oceans, forests, climate – for the future of this Earth that we hold in stewardship. We long for simplicity, beauty, community, harmony. And of course there is the desire for clean, affordable food – unmodified, unprocessed, and unmedicated – and the security of local food sourcing, for ourselves and our children. It sparks in us an urgent desire.”

~ Shawn and Beth Dougherty, The Independent Farmstead

“For the true measure of agriculture is not the sophistication of its equipment the size of its income or even the statistics of its productivity but the good health of the land.”

~ Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture

“The Home is the Social Defence of Liberty and the Homestead is the Economic Defence of the Home.”

~ Vincent McNabb, O.P.

Who We Are 

Brian and Johanna Burke have been married for 15 years and are the parents to six children ranging in age from 1-14. After living a transient lifestyle with the military while Brian served in the Navy as a family physician, they eagerly began to put

Brian and Johanna Burke have been married for 15 years and are the parents to six children ranging in age from 1-14. After living a transient lifestyle with the military while Brian served in the Navy as a family physician, they eagerly began to put down roots on their five acre homestead in eastern Ohio in 2019. Their small holding consists of a large garden, a dairy cow, meat chickens, laying hens and intermittent pigs. Brian works locally as a family physician, specializing in restorative reproductive medicine and Johanna homeschools their children. Together they have been teaching and speaking about fertility awareness and the role of nutrition for almost twelve years.

Shawn and Beth Dougherty have been farming together since the 1980s, for the last twenty years in eastern Ohio, where they manage 27 acres designated by the state as ‘not suitable for agriculture’, as well as a monastery farm of 100 acres. Using int

Shawn and Beth Dougherty have been farming together since the 1980s, for the last twenty years in eastern Ohio, where they manage 27 acres designated by the state as ‘not suitable for agriculture’, as well as a monastery farm of 100 acres. Using intensive grazing as the primary source of food energy, they raise dairy and beef cows, sheep, farm-fed hogs, and a variety of poultry, producing most of the food, and feed, on the farm. They write and speak on farming, dairying, farm-raised animal foods, and off-grid captured water systems. Shawn & Beth are the authors of The Independent Farmstead.

Terry McKeegan is an attorney who now resides in Steubenville, Ohio after an early career in international law and public policy. He loves to create and organize new initiatives and events, including dozens of concerts, academic courses in several co

Terry McKeegan is an attorney who now resides in Steubenville, Ohio after an early career in international law and public policy. He loves to create and organize new initiatives and events, including dozens of concerts, academic courses in several countries, a sacred art exhibition on three continents, a cultural series in Northern Virginia, and various conferences around the world. He was co-founder and initial festival director of the major roots-based Appaloosa Music Festival . An aspiring farmsteader, his urban homestead consists of laying hens and a large garden at the 1880 Italianate house he is restoring in his spare time.

Luke Dougherty is a sheep shearer, carpenter, and farrier, he has worked as a butcher, potato farmer, and fence builder, and spent two summers running a dude ranch in Wyoming. Now Luke, his wife Jessica and their five children live in eastern Ohio on

Luke Dougherty is a sheep shearer, carpenter, and farrier, he has worked as a butcher, potato farmer, and fence builder, and spent two summers running a dude ranch in Wyoming. Now Luke, his wife Jessica and their five children live in eastern Ohio on a few acres with sheep, pigs and ponies for the kids.

Justin Rhodes spends a day with Shawn & Beth Dougherty on their farm and captures the routine of farming, the connection to the earth, to God, and to the Mass.

 

Shawn & Beth Dougherty on the New Polity Podcast

Part I: Politics is from the land. Farmers and authors Shawn and Beth Dougherty stop by the New Polity office to discuss why Catholics need to get serious about restoring the family farm. (New Polity Episode Description)

Part II: Small farming is a living critique of industrial capitalism, a rebellion against tyrannies established through widespread fear of and the presumption of scarcity . . . and a tasty way to live. Shawn and Beth Dougherty discuss—and romanticize!—their garden of Eden against the ideologies of modernity. (New Polity Episode Description)