Friday, February 28, 2014

Watershed Moments - Farming

The journey back to the farm was a watershed moment. In an act of serendipity when Andrea was 3 years old we had some extra spring garden produce.

We put a small wooden table in the back of our van and several dozen heads of lettuce and bunches of radishes and went down to the farmers market. Andrea sold all of her produce in about an hour and she was hooked.

I was working 50-60 hours off the farm and not spending as much time with my children as I should. I decided the farmers market would be a good way to spend more time with my children and work with them to build life skills. We continued to build our farmers market business over the next few years.

When the children were a little older and we had outgrown our back yard we started to look for a farm. We had an excellent and very patient realtor, who helped us look for a farm over the course of three years.  We wanted something close in to Rochester, with good soil and a decent house. We bought our farm in 2001.

It is pretty cool as far as farms go. It has several different micro biomes, soil types and micro climates. You can go a lot of different directions with these different environments. We have plenty of deep rich soils for the normal crops. We have riverfront riparian area, oak savanna, and deciduous forest, among others. Lots of untapped potential here.

We have grown our farmers market business significantly over the years. We will be starting our 18th season in May. My children have grown in their life skills and learned a few things about farming as a bonus.


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