Sarah Robertson Essay

Sarah Robertson is a co-owner of Loose Leaf Farm with her husband, Mark, whose oral history is also included in this collection. Loose Leaf Farm is primarily a vegetable farm on the northern side of Albuquerque, NM. Sarah and Mark have been farming for ten years, and they currently cultivate a little less than an acre. They lease the property where they live and farm, but they expect the landowner to sell the property and end their lease next year. They have many geese, ducks, chickens, goats, pigs, and dogs that animate the farm. One particularly charismatic goose named Moo noisily greeted us when we arrived. From the road, the farm is almost completely hidden. Once we drove past the gate, we saw the farm tucked away behind the house with large murals painted, by a relative of the landowner, on the side of the many of the farm structures.

Getting the farm started

Sarah and her husband Mike started their first small garden over 10 years ago. It was a “small patch of beets” in their back yard. Sarah mentioned that at the time they were “both making good money and had decent careers.” The small garden brought them joy. When they noticed their priorities shifting to accommodate the needs of the garden they made the life changing decision to dedicate more their time and resources to a small scale farm.

They found a quarter acre of land and started growing radishes, lettuce, beets, and carrots but all in small quantities. The soil had not been built up yet so that harvest did not yield much produce. They didn’t live on the property that they were farming on until 2021 and practiced commuter farming. “I don’t recommend commuter farming. It’s very hard, and you almost always forget a tool somewhere else. Not to mention if you have to go to the bathroom during your workday, god forbid, so, we struggled” says Sarah.

Sarah and Mark became involved as vendors at local farmers markets as soon as they could. Becoming established on a farm is just as important as becoming an established community member for farmers who want to make a profit. It takes time to build up your soil to ensure that it has the proper amount of nutrients to successfully grow high quality and bountiful produce, sometimes even years. It takes about the same amount of time to earn the trust of community members shopping at the local food markets in order to make decent sales.

Section Headings Create Visual Breaks

Each section heading (marked with ## in Markdown) creates a clear visual break in your essay. This helps readers navigate long-form content and gives you natural places to shift topics or introduce new ideas.

Why this matters for students: Breaking essays into clear sections makes writing more manageable. Write one section at a time, preview it, then move to the next. No need to tackle the entire essay at once.

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Pull Quotes Add Emphasis

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The pull quote you just saw is created with a simple include command in Markdown. It’s one of many reusable components in Xanthan. You can put important quotes, key statistics, or memorable phrases in these boxes to create visual interest and emphasize crucial points.

Duis eros odio, fringilla et pulvinar vitae, eleifend quis elit. Sed eleifend lectus in bibendum elementum. Vivamus ut velit dignissim, cursus libero nec, commodo orci. Morbi lacus metus, posuere ut pretium ac, malesuada id ligula. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed consequat, lacus id blandit ornare, mi nisi rutrum ante, vitae dignissim mauris nisl mattis nisl.

Subsection Headings (Optional)

If you need more structure within a section, use subsection headings (marked with ###). These are slightly smaller than main section headings and help organize complex topics without breaking up the flow too much.

Most student essays won’t need subsections—stick with main sections (##) unless you’re writing something particularly detailed. Simpler is usually better.

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Images Can Be Different Widths

The image to the right is wider than the previous one (60% instead of 48%). You control this with the width parameter in the image code. Want a small image? Use 30%. Want something that dominates? Try 70%.

Images can also be left-aligned (use class="left") or centered full-width (we’ll show that in more advanced essays). For Seedling level, right-aligned images at 48-60% width work well for most purposes.

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The Rhythm of a ScrollStory

By now you’ve scrolled through several sections and noticed the rhythm of a ScrollStory: heading, text, image, text, pull quote, text. This creates a visual cadence that keeps readers engaged without overwhelming them.

For your own essay: Think about pacing. Where do readers need a visual break? Where should an image reinforce your argument? When does a pull quote emphasize a key point? These decisions make the difference between a wall of text and an engaging narrative.

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Nunc congue ultrices lacus, a efficitur massa pulvinar at. Sed luctus orci sed sem commodo, in rhoncus orci sagittis. Duis in sagittis arcu. Donec dictum aliquam congue. Nulla varius ipsum vitae nibh dapibus, et tincidunt turpis gravida.

Block Quotes for Extended Quotations

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This is a block quote, created by putting a > symbol before your text. Use these for extended quotations from primary sources, scholarly works, or historical documents. They’re visually distinct from pull quotes—block quotes span the full text width, while pull quotes float to the side.

Block quotes work well when you want to quote an entire paragraph or passage, while pull quotes are better for short, punchy excerpts you want to highlight visually.

What You’ve Learned So Far

If you can create this Seedling essay, you can:

• Structure content with section headings
• Add images with captions and source links
• Include footnotes for citations
• Use pull quotes for emphasis
• Format block quotes for extended quotations
• Control image sizes and placement

That’s enough to create compelling digital scholarship. The Sapling and Forest essays add more sophisticated features, but this foundation works for most student projects and many professional ones too.

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Ready to Create Your Own?

New to Xanthan? Start with the Getting Started guide to create your own site first. Once you have a working site, come back here to build your ScrollStory.

Already have a site based on a Xanthan template? To make your own Seedling essay:

1. Duplicate this folder (scrollstories/seedling/) and rename it for your topic
2. Replace the text with your own content, keeping the same structure
3. Add your own images to the images/ folder
4. Update the header at the top (title, author, date, etc.)
5. Preview and adjust spacing, image sizes, and flow

Start simple. Get comfortable with the basics. You can always add complexity later by copying and pasting elements from the other essays.