Seeing Isabella Rossellini, looking well-coiffed and elegantly dressed in a white blouse and chic, printed evening jacket, in her CNN American Style interview, earlier this week, few viewers would suspect that the fashion icon ever gets her well-manicured hands dirty.

But these days, when the model, actress, and writer isn’t pursuing one of these creative passions, she’s running a small organic farm on Long Island, N.Y., where she — among other duties — breeds and feeds 100 chickens, cares for half-a-dozen sheep, raises bees, and grows vegetables to sell along with eggs, honey, and wool. The penthouse and the plough aren’t mutually exclusive where she comes from.