About Our Farm
Our tiny half acre farm began January 2006. A farmer from church asked what seeds I had ordered for my home garden. When I replied "oh, a bunch of stuff I don't have room to grow", he offered to give me a corner of his field, as a joke. Well two weeks later I called him and asked what he wanted for rent. The very deep long time desire to grow lucious vegetables and beautiful flowers, for which I had no room in my urban yard, was about to be fulfilled in a way I could not have imagined.
And so it was, the beginning of our journey. The parcel of land we ended up growing on had been fallow for twenty years. This enabled us to become certified the first season through PCO, Pennsylvania Certified Organic. The soil was typical good Chester county clay loam. It sits level, for excellent drainage. The one caveat is no water at all. We haul water in FDA approved 30 gallon tanks. There is also no electric.
That first year was a doozy. Can you say "learning curve"? Going from a 10'x15' backyard to a quarter acre was way harder than I thought. Despite attending workshops, devouring farm books, visiting farmers and long hours on the internet it was a difficult transition. Cover crops were put in place to add organic matter to the sod. The beds were hand raked and marked with twine. We had no way to keep up with the weeds other than hoeing and hand pulling. By August you had to wonder what our cash crop was........weeds or vegetables!! I thought for sure the farmer we rented from would not allow us to come back.
Year two proved we were gluttons for punishment, and ignorance. A decision was made to purchase a rototiller and flail mower. This enabled us to manage weeds, prepare fluffy seed beds, and get six foot cover crops chopped. Learning to use machinery and power tools provided plenty of frustration along with comic relief. Good thing the video camera did not capture some of those "precious" moments. A high tunnel kit was ordered to extend the growing season. This 20'x48' beast made a mockery of any building skills I thought I possessed. To make a very long story short, it did get erected with some help. We no sooner got it finished, complete with a solar panel, when three major winter storms destroyed everything!
March 2008, the beginning of our third season, found us watching Happy Construction rebuild our tunnel. This time, reinforced polycarbonate end walls and bracing were added. This delayed our seed starting. Finally we began seeding the tunnel in April with greens, followed by eggplant, peppers, cukes and toms. The field crops produced abundantly. It was a good year. So good, I asked to expand our growing parcel to a half-acre. And...........the landowner said YES!!! Half the new section was tilled and cover cropped with rye and vetch. Garlic was planted in a portion of the other section.
2009 will be remembered as "that year". Our farm blog was started, and it is there you can read all about 2009! Pictures are worth a thousand words, so we included plenty.
www.willinghandsorganicfarm.blogspot.com
We have been blessed with hands to work, eyes to see, able to serve God and others, while we labor to earn an honest wage. I sincerely thank each one who has supported us at our stand, and especially the CSA members who took that leap of faith.