Since the late '90's, I have dabbled at organic farming and animal husbandry, though I never felt confident about attempting to become a full-time farmer until meeting Laura in 2019. We both had always dreamed of living in a way more like our grandparents did, growing our own food, being generally resourceful as a lifestyle. Both of us had been looking for someone to share that vision with. Our strengths complimented each other, and we had the land available here in this sandy, fertile river valley, so we naturally started taking advantage of the opportunity.
In some ways, the COVID pandemic offered us an ideal chance to undertake our first season raising pigs, chickens, and growing vegetables on about ten acres. The farmers' markets were shut down, so we concentrated on our farm stand, an old Ashland gas station that was in desperate need of repair. In 2022 we finally finished work on a commercial kitchen there, which allowed us to market value-added products like lacto-fermented sauerkraut, pickles, and salsa. We also set up a butcher shop, so we can make our own hickory-smoked bacon, ham, and country sausage for retail.
In 2023 we became certified organic, and started hosting WWOOFers. The first two years, our housing accommodations were limited to camping on the farm, or utilizing one of our guest bedrooms. Over the winter of '24-25, we built a cabin on the north side of our propagation greenhouse, so our guests can retreat to their own private, air-conditioned space without fending off the bugs and storms.
After six seasons growing together, we can almost say that many of the activities are a tradition by now. The season starts in November, when we plant garlic that will be harvested the following July. On December 26 we plant tomatoes under grow lights beside the wood stove in our basement. About the first week of February we move the tomatoes to a heated table in our propagation greenhouse. Around that same time, we start tapping the maple trees around the farm and boiling the sap down into syrup. By the middle of February, we are pruning fruit trees, starting onion seeds in the greenhouse, also hatching excess eggs in our incubator, which holds 270 at a time. In March we transplant the tomatoes into a high tunnel. We usually work in the greenhouse or high tunnel on the colder or rainy days.
The busy time of year starts in April, when we're planting just about everything either in the greenhouse or out in the fields, depending on the crops and the weather. Our sandy soil allows us to grow a wide range of crops, so it's hard to say what we specialize in. We try to follow four-year rotations in order to ward off the persistent pests, so we end up planting about half an acre each of potatoes, onions, watermelons, cantaloupe/cukes/zukes, broccoli/cabbage/cauliflower, winter squash, carrots, beets/lettuce/turnips/radishes, sweet potatoes, with the rest going into our popular sweet corn. In 2025 we started partnering with a neighboring farmer who owns a green bean harvester that is powered by a tractor, so now we do several large successions of bush green beans. No more hand-picking green beans on our farm!
The chicks that we don't sell in the spring wind up in a mobile trailer that we usually park in our early sweetcorn when it's about knee high. With an electric fence around the field to ward off the raccoons, the chicks run around under the corn stalks and devour most of the weeds that sprout. When the corn is picked, we can move the pigs out to join the chickens, and together they clean the field, helping prepare for the late July transplanting of brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.
We do our best to reduce single-use of plastics, which is a challenge in this current economic environment. Rather than using the plastic mulch that has become the standard practice for vegetable growers, we try to fine-tune our weed control techniques through effective cultivation and of course some well-timed hoeing. Over the years our methods have improved, and the weed seed pressure has for the most part been reduced in all of our fields, so we are spending less of our time doing the humiliating work of chopping weeds that grew too big to fast. Our old high tunnel plastic, when it's worn out and frayed from the battering of storms, we still employ for jobs like warming our early spring potato plantings.
A typical day during the April to October growing season starts with everyone either making breakfast or doing yoga, or whatever until about 8 to 9 a.m., when we typically all join in an activity together. Several years ago we purchased a mechanical transplanter, with two seats, so throughout much of April into June we have two people riding the rig, with everyone else working as support to keep the flats of plants moving from the greenhouse to the field. We try to pick activities that can be completed by our team in the morning, so there is a sense of job satisfaction when it's time to head either to our farm stand or house for lunch, between 12 and 1 usually. Sometimes we get out later in the morning, and also I have to point out that we are on the very western fringe of the eastern time zone--hard to believe it is the same time here as New York City! Our true solar noon occurs at 1:47 p.m.
Sometimes people want to do a few more things after lunch, depending on the weather and the job, but most of the time, WWOOF guests are free until dinnertime, if they want to participate. There are hundreds of square miles of state and national forest, some within bicycling distance from our farm. Also the White and Muscattatuk rivers converge a few miles from our house, with a boat ramp. We have two kayaks that are available for a scenic trip down the river. The cabin is nice after a morning of battling the bugs, as quite a few of our guests so far have been content reading books in the afternoons.
Most of our WWOOF guests have enjoyed joining us at the Bloomington Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings. The camaraderie with other growers, vendors, and regular customers is a welcome change from the days out in the field. We also make weekday trips hauling truckloads of watermelons, carrots, potatoes, winter squash, etc. to the Bloomington Co-op groceries, as well as Jungle Jim's International Market in Cincinnati, the latter of which is a renowned destination for foodies, which some of our guests have identified as.
Laura plays upright bass, and I plunk the banjo sometimes--if a WWOOF guest wants to jam, we are always thrilled for the chance to play. Music in the evenings is a welcome change from the struggles of organic farming.
Following the recommendation of WWOOF guests we have added wifi connection at our house.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Poultry farming
Pig farming
Wild foraging
Seed saving or production
Meat processing
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Bakery
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Aquaponics
Biological pest control
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Production farm
Certified organic
1.4
Hectares
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3.5
Acres
