“We have these people coming into our community every single year, and they’re a huge part of our economy and they’re a huge part of our community, but they’re not really seen by the Australian public.”
Christina Baehr was a professional harpist, and Peirce Baehr planned to be an academic. But after they fell in love and got married, they decided instead to pursue a different dream: to create a place together where travellers could come from all over the world, be cared for, and have a place to think through the deeper questions in life.
Pilgrim Hill is an off-grid, family-run hostel in the beautiful Huon Valley, Tasmania. The Baehrs – along with their nine (yes, nine!) children – love living close to the land, and they love showing hospitality to the fruit pickers and others who come to their valley. In this conversation, they tell Life & Faith what led them to choose this life, and why they find it so fulfilling.
“People come here and some of them have only ever lived in cities. I remember at one point taking somebody on a walk to the veggie garden, and they clearly couldn’t recognize any of the plants … and I was like, this is a carrot, and they were looking at this green foliage thinking I had lost my mind – and then pulling it out of the ground and just the gasp of astonishment. We get people like that, but we also get people who come here specifically because they want to try out this lifestyle, and so that’s exciting.”
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Find out more about Pilgrim Hill
Photo courtesy of Greta Rettler
