And so it begins! We have officially started our organic farm! The season is underway. Our business plan is in our heads and hearts, if not yet fully on paper. We picked up our soil ingredients on a really windy day, constructed a shady looking grow room in the front bedroom of the farmhouse, mixed up some soil, seeded some veggies, and we're off! Onionsscallionsasparagusleekscabbagebroccolifennelsagelavenderrosemarychamomilelemon balmmintspruce... they all are alive and well and teensy. Whoa whoa whoa - this is the type of project that speeds up, so I better reflect now - before it's fall, before the corn is gold, and before my unbelievable tan.
So it's hard to say when we got started. I think it was around a campfire one night. If you go further back, it might be more appropriate to say Marley got started in her father's garden and Charlton got started when he began hearing birds speak. They also got started when they ran the largest student-run organic farm in the nation (Cook Student Organic Farm at Rutgers University). I got started when I bought a carabiner in high school and swore I would be rugged. No... that's a lie. I got started when I said to myself, "what on earth are we going to do with our family farm?" The more I learned about organics, the more it became less about the higher price point, and more about encouraging sustainability, and providing healthy and safe food for a community that one lives in. Enough about that.
We will start a CSA program (community supported agriculture) in 2010. This year, we hope to work and enrich the soil, see what the land is capable of producing, establish a customer base, and get the word out about the best tasting tomatoes you've ever had. We will run a farm stand on site. The farm has been in my family since the early 1800's. Somewhere along the line, the department of transportation bought some of our land and built a highway through the property. This has always sucked. The stupid road noise, the dumb trucks - it's always made the farm less idyllic. Well, now kiddies, we's gonna use that to our advantage, cause what does every farm stand need? - - TRAFFIC ! We hope to gain some loyal customers and let them know about our CSA plans. Every customer is a potential shareholder. We hope to stress local organic food. We hope to be able to run our CSA directly from the farm. We want our folks to be as connected to the land as we'll be. "Hey Mr. Shareholder, you want to show your kid where the carrot he just ate came from?" "Right this way, sir."
So, back to the plants. We've got baby plants. Lots of baby plants. We water them and give them light. We hoped to rent a greenhouse, so our veggies could have the best conditions in the earliest stages of their lives. We failed. If there is one thing I'm sure of in this world, it's that no one rents greenhouses in central Pennsylvania. No one. If you prove me wrong, I will give you our farm. Yes, give it to you. Anyway, having no greenhouse to start in, Charlton and Marley, amazingness personified times a million, figured out that we can do it without one, and start our seedlings in a sunny room in the house. So, we built some tables, and set up a nursery in the front bedroom. And you know what? It works! Our plants are thriving and happy and adorable (see pictures below). However, we are quickly running out of room! Where is our lettuce going to go? And the chard? Oh, crap. So we built a greenhouse this past weekend. It's unheated and amazing. Charlton and Marley found an article online about how to build an inexpensive hoop-style greenhouse. They rented a Penske truck, picked up the materials and 4oo bucks/13 hours of labor later, we've got ourselves a greenhouse. It's unheated and beautiful. C and M have extensive knowledge of growing food in hoophouses, and actually successfully had a Winter share (with 30 or so shareholders) at the Cook Student Organic Farm in the Winter of 2007-2008.
So we have seedlings, a greenhouse, and much more to come. It's the type of thing that I keep saying to myself, "Wow, it's really happening."