The farm is a forty acre piece, a mile off the main road. There is a beautiful creek winding through the woods on northern border. It is quiet out here. In the fields are turkey and deer roaming through the fields on most evenings. Owl and Hawk are common. The land is full of large oaks.
The farm sits between the two rural towns of High Springs and Alachua, and it just a few miles from the interstate giving quick and easy access to Gainesville, the home of the University of Florida. We are 20 minutes from Michael Singer’s Temple of The Universe. Wwoofers who have found Michael Singers YouTube videos often attend while they are here. The farm is a short drive from the rivers and springs that are abundant in the area.
We have been stewards of this land since 1992. The farm has seen many changes and has undergone many phases of development. We grew row crops here for many years in the 1990s, and we had Full Moon Music Festivals here for four years in the early 2000s. Currently the farm is focused on Organic Turmeric, Peaches and Persimmon trees in the organic orchard, and we have just begun a large Market Garden. The turmeric harvest begins in December and continues thru March. Persimmons are ripening in September and harvested in October.
ACCOMMODATIONS:
There is a four bed bunk house that is usually occupied by the ladies. Air conditioned and heated. There is an RV that sleeps two, and a converted camper that sleeps one or two. Also there are two spaces for RV’s that have electric and water. All spaces have WI-FI. The kitchen is a large converted green house with a very large table and chairs, prep counter space, and all kinds of kitchen equipment. The shower is an outdoor shower with plenty of hot water. There is detached flush toilet rest room. There are pictures in the photos section showing the kitchen, shower, restroom, and sleeping accommodations.
We shop once a week and buy based on the shopping lists of the volunteers. We provide a decent kitchen and Wwoofers prepare their own meals or cook together as they choose. The kitchen is for the Wwoofers. If you cook you will find all that you need in the kitchen.
From DECEMBER into MARCH:
Turmeric Harvest begins December 16th, and continues into March. This is the time we take on as many Wwoofers as we can accommodate. Eight to ten hopefully. What to expect on a harvest day. Some mornings can be cold. Days usually warm up to beautiful weather, but mornings can be cold. This is north Florida. We only had 2 freezes (over night) last season.
A big part of the harvest is the cleaning of the rhizomes. The work is not hard, but long and tedious. You would be at a wash station with a 60 psi hose jet cleaning rhizome pieces one at a time. There are five stations and they need to be kept going continually from when we begin in the morning to the end of the day. We will rotate during lunch so that some of the wash stations keep going always. We work five days a week, six hours a day, and have an hour lunch break.
In the field the turmeric is removed from the ground by hand with a potato fork. The rootball is field washed to remove the field soil and loaded into a field trailer and brought into the processing area. The mothers are removed from the root ball and set aside for replanting, and the rhizome and rhizome clusters are trimmed and go to the wash stations for a final cleaning. The field work is pretty physical. Some like it and some would rather work in the wash stations only.
Everyone shares in and keeping the kitchen, shower, laundry area, and rest room clean.
LATE MARCH/APRIL through SUMMER: When the Turmeric harvesting season ends the pace on the farm settles down. Attention goes to replanting turmeric, feeding the orchard, pruning the orchard, and thinning the peaches which become ripe in late April.
WEEDING. Weeding of the turmeric begins in April/May and continues into September around Persimmon harvest time. Often the weed pressure is minimal. Throughout the summer there is plenty to do to keep up with mowing and bush hogging, feeding the turmeric, working the market garden. Some work can be done in the cool hours of morning. Four and a half hours a day max, and often less during the summer months, five days a week.
THE RIVERS AND SPRINGS:
Close by are the rivers and springs that this area is famous for. The Santa Fe River, the Itchetucknee, a crystal clear spring fed river, and the Suwannee River are all within reach. The refreshing Rum Island Spring is 25 minutes away. There are also several canoe and kayak rental places that will take you to the Santa Fe River and pick you up downstream. For days off the Atlantic Ocean beaches of Saint Augustine, Crescent Beach, and Vilano Beach are under two hours away. Also the camp ground of Anastasia.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Seed saving or production
Mechanics / tools / technology
Host type
Production farm
Certified organic
16.2
Hectares
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40
Acres
Accommodation
