A Rooted Solutions Story: Andromeda Turre
On a scorching July day in Katonah, the Bedford 2030 team convened for an interview with Andromeda Turre at her family's eco-oasis, cozy hilltop home. The jazz vocalist and composer is busy rewilding the land around her music studio.
Andromeda Turre: “When we first moved here about five years ago, I really wanted to be a steward of the land. And I really wanted to create an environment where I was living with the earth, not just on the Earth. So for the last few years, I didn’t do anything, I didn’t mow the lawn, I didn’t rake the leaves, I just let the Earth sort of do what she wanted to do. So I could start to see what the natural environment looks like, untouched. And it was so beautiful. But I could tell that I needed some direction and that there were some things that probably weren’t supposed to be there that weren’t great. So that’s how I reached out to Rooted Solutions to help me figure out what the invasive species are and how I could continue to create this really healthy ecosystem at our house.”
Harmony Dixon, Bedford 2030: “That’s amazing. So did you go into the consultation with a vision of what you would like it to look like out here?”
Andromeda Turre: “No, I just wanted it to look wild and beautiful…I didn’t want it to look manicured. And I find that nature on its own is very beautiful. And so the direction that I received was really helpful because I was able to identify invasive species that needed to go. And I got some really great ideas as well as to how I could boost what was already happening here.”
Harmony Dixon: “I would love to hear about your ideas, everything that you want to do, and what you hope it will look and feel like in a year or two.”
“It's really important right now, like climate change. It's not like a distant monster. It's here right now. And everybody has to get on board. And it can be very overwhelming because sometimes it seems like nothing I do will make a dent. But even the little things that we do, if everybody's doing something and does make an impact.”
Harmony Dixon: “Are there any specific recommendations that you’re super excited about?
Andromeda Turre: “There were some that were emailed to me that will bring butterflies, and I love butterflies. And so I’m really excited because that’s one of the things that I don’t see here a lot of butterflies, and I would love to see more butterflies. We have snakes. There’s a marmot who lives underneath my studio. We have tons of birds, we have bats and lots of chipmunks and squirrels that run around, and there’s a family of turkeys that live in the area. And they like to migrate through, sometimes I see them in the morning. I have a bowl of water that I keep down there for the animals. And I’ll see the turkeys come by with their little turkey babies, and they’ll have a sip of water and just keep going off into the woods…”
Harmony Dixon: “It’s so sweet. You have your own little forest wonderland here.”
Andromeda Turre: “I feel like Cinderella. I have all of the animals. I’m just waiting for them to come clean my house and like make me some clothes. That would be great.”
Harmony Dixon: “I don’t know if that will happen, but if you have some nice moss outside the door, you can wipe your feet on it.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah! There you go.”
Harmony Dixon: “How did you hear about Rooted Solutions?”
Andromeda Turre: “So one of the most exciting things that I had not even thought about that was brought up during my Rooted Solutions consultation was the idea to put a natural labyrinth around my music studio. And that was just such a great idea because I had all of these logs and branches that had fallen and large stones. And so I started creating a pathway that goes around that sort of like a meditative experience right here in my own garden. The other thing that happened when I just let the area be wild was all of this beautiful moss popped up. And it’s so pretty. And so just creating an environment where the moss can continue to grow. Because one of the other things that’s really amazing about the moss being here is [that] it produces a lot of water. We have a colony of ground bees that also lives here. And I see them in the morning getting water from the moss.”
Harmony Dixon: “That’s so cool.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah. And so now, since I’m like, well, I have bees, I want to put flowers. And so that was one of the things that we talked about, and getting recommendations for what kind of flowers would be native to this environment that we could put in that the ground bees would enjoy.”
Andromeda Turre: “This is actually amazing. So I knew about Bedford 2030 for a long time and invited them to come when I did the world premiere of a piece of music that I wrote called From the Earth, which is a jazz suite about environmental activism. And they came and tabled at the concert. And one of the things that they were offering was Rooted Solutions. And I was like, oh, my gosh—I didn’t even know that this was a thing. And it’s perfect timing because I’m trying to, you know, reshape our property. And so that’s how it ended up happening.”
Harmony Dixon: “That’s so great. I can imagine it will inspire more music in the future.”
Andromeda Turre: “Totally. And also, with this project, that’s a big part of the project, as I’m going on tour with it, every city that I go to, I’m looking up local organizations that are similar to Bedford 2030 in every community and inviting them to come and table and speak at my concert so that audiences can hear about environmentally friendly solutions right in their own backyards.”
Harmony Dixon: “That is amazing. I have goosebumps, that is so cool and so cool of you to do to help other people learn about this.”
Andromeda Turre: “It’s really important right now, like climate change. It’s not like a distant monster. It’s here right now. And everybody has to get on board. And it can be very overwhelming because sometimes it seems like nothing I do will make a dent. But even the little things that we do, if everybody’s doing something, it does make an impact.”
Harmony Dixon: “Yeah, there’s definitely a ripple effect.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah.”
Harmony Dixon: “What would you tell your neighbors about Rooted Solutions? Or do you have like a quick tip that they could implement today that would really help make a little ripple, if they’re not quite ready to rewild their whole yard?”
Andromeda Turre: “Pick a section, pick a small area, a corner of your garden, and decide that that’s going to be for the earth. And that’s going to be natural and wild. And I mean, Rooted Solutions was really great at helping me as I’m getting started with this. But I think just finding that natural environment, for myself, personally, it’s been really healing. Because as we’ve gotten rid of these, like perfectly manicured grass lawns, and seeing these beautiful flowers come up and these beautiful mosses and then you see the returning of all the animals, you feel this really powerful connection with the environment that you live in that you don’t get from like grass.”
Harmony Dixon: “Yeah.”
Andromeda Turre: “And so I would encourage them to be prepared for so much more than just like doing something that’s good for the earth. It’s good for you also.”
Harmony Dixon: “I can imagine the surprises. We saw all kinds of baby trees growing out—that you didn’t plant.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah! I didn’t plant any of those trees.”
Harmony Dixon: “They wilded themselves.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah, they wanted to be here. Welcome!”
Harmony Dixon: “I love that.”
Harmony Dixon: “From your perspective, why do you think the work that Bedford 2030 is doing is so important?”
Andromeda Turre: “I think it’s really important now because we need leadership in communities, especially when people are interested, like they are here in Bedford, to do things for the environment, and many people have the resources available to do that—to have somebody who’s offering leadership who’s offering guidance, it helps make it a lot easier. People nowadays have very busy lives. A lot of people are like working, and they have kids and clubs and committees, and having somebody in our community who is dedicated to this work [who’s] able to provide guidance is so crucial. And if every community in America had an organization like this, I think it would create such a ripple effect of change.”
Harmony Dixon: Yeah, and it’s accessible because it is free to anyone who wants to sign up and get on the list for a Rooted Solutions consultation.”
Andromeda Turre: “Free 99.”
Harmony Dixon: “Which is amazing—”
Andromeda Turre: “It is amazing.”
Harmony Dixon: “If you want perspective and personalized advice to make your [yard] dreams come true.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah. And there’s a really great movie…with Kate Winslet, and she is a landscape architect. And her whole thing is like wild gardens…and I loved that movie so much. And I saw it right before we bought this house as well. And that also helped to give me the idea, and I was like, well, there’s grass or…”
Harmony Dixon: “But that was really inspiring.”
Andromeda Turre: It was so inspiring, and I think people can go online and watch this movie and see how she transformed these incredibly beautiful—it’s like beauty and chaos. It’s called A Little Chaos. There’s some really great examples of what wild gardens can look like in that movie as well. And also just on Pinterest and you can start to, even if you’re not ready to, you know, pick a corner, a great place to start is just like building a Pinterest board or a dream board that is what you would imagine your beautiful wild garden to look like.”
Harmony Dixon: “Yes, that is such a good idea. And something that we’re talking about offering on our website so that we can get some inspiration.
Andromeda Turre: “Perfect.”
Harmony Dixon: That’s so amazing how you got inspired, watched the movie, did the research, and really had this vision. And now you’re able to make it come true.”
Andromeda Turre: “It’s starting to all come together. So now that the land has sort of healed itself and shown me the direction that it wants to go, I’m able to help steward that.”
Harmony Dixon: “I’m really excited about your upcoming concert in Katonah.
Andromeda Turre: “Thank you. Are you guys coming?”
Harmony Dixon: “I would love to.”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah, that’d be great.”
Harmony Dixon: “Do you want to tell us a little bit about it?”
Andromeda Turre: “Yeah, so my album From the Earth comes out on July 26 [2024]. And it is a four-part suite about environmental justice. And it takes the audience on a journey through earth, sky, sea, and ice visiting four communities that are sort of standing at the intersection between climate change and the remnants of things like redlining and colonization, and how those things are damaging these communities. And so we’re going to do a concert of the music. And it’s really, I feel it’s so important when you’re dealing with subject matter, like environmental justice, to offer people hope and to not have like all of the music does not sound depressing. There’s a lot of bright happy songs also about community and about this beautiful connection that we have with the Earth that we live in. And so I think also having Bedford 2030 be there and so that people have resources that they can connect with locally is really important.
Harmony Dixon: “Well, that sounds brilliant. I’m so excited about the show. I think the theme is so cool, and I think it will be really inspiring and bring a lot of people together. And hopefully, encourage people to take some action.”
Andromeda Turre: “I’m hoping to get some people to sign up for composting.”
Harmony Dixon: “Yes.”
Andromeda Turre: “So that’s, that’s my main goal for like, this particular concert here because I know the town has been doing a great job with the emails trying to get the composting going. And so, if I could get people to sign up for composting or buy the buckets, whatever, at the concert, I would really love that.”
Harmony Dixon: “That’s so great. And composting with a bucket is so easy.
Andromeda Turre: “It’s so easy!”
Harmony Dixon: “So easy. I love it, it was one of the easiest things I ever did for the Earth. Put your scraps in the bucket.”
Andromeda Turre: “Simple.”
Harmony Dixon: “Yeah. Well, thank you so much.”
Andromeda Turre: “You’re welcome.”
Andromeda is a trailblazing inspiration and climate activist—from her music to her completely electric home and her dreams of starting a solar farm. We were thrilled to hear her story, see her rewilding-in-progress yard and look forward to hearing her new album, From the Earth. Thank you, Andromeda.