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© Oakhill Organics
2006-2009
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Oakhill Organics: Starting a farm | ||||||
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What does it take to move to a new state in late March, lease fallowed land, and be selling vegetables at market on June 1? Here are a few photos of the work we did our first year to establish Oakhill Organics—both on our leased land and as we moved to our own new land at the end of 2006. (For more stories about starting our farm, visit our farm blog archives.) | ||||||
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| The land we rented in 2006, Seven Spoke Farm, as we found it in late March. | |||||||
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Casey with one of our first humble farm projects: a washing table! (March) | ||||||
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Casey and our good friend Jonny building various pallet tables at the very beginning of everything—before we'd even broken sod in 2006! | ||||||
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Our hot house with newly sown flats of various greens, tomatoes, etc. (Early April) | ||||||
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Casey taking a break after we spread lime (by hand) on our one acre field. | ||||||
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Plants growing in and outside our hot house in April—soon to be planted in the fields! | ||||||
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Katie mowing the field with our newly purchased (used) compact Yanmar tractor. (Early May) | ||||||
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Casey tilling beds to prepare for transplanting. | ||||||
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Yes, we did take some coffee breaks that spring! | ||||||
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Building our field house for our tomatoes and peppers. (May) | ||||||
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Casey cultivating (weeding) with our 1946 Allis Chalmers model G (recently restored with a new diesel Kubota engine). (May) | ||||||
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Our fields in early spring, growing ready for our first harvest. (May) | ||||||
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Our first farmers' market! (June 1) | ||||||
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The first CSA pick-up! (June 13) | ||||||
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And the fields kept growing ... | ||||||
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CSA members helping us glean kale for the soup kitchen in early summer, 2006. | ||||||
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... and the work continued ... Casey trellising cucumbers. (August) | ||||||
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Transplanting carrots (an experiment that worked!). (August) | ||||||
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Two of our youngest CSA members, Hannah and Meira, chowing down on yummy vegetables at our pick-up site! | ||||||
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Our storage onion harvest drying in the hot house. (August) | ||||||
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The tomatoes at their peak! (August) | ||||||
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And then we bought our own land—17 acres on Grand Island! (September) | ||||||
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To prepare for working a bigger piece of land, we traded in the old Yanmar for an almost new 55 hp Landini! Look at it till on our new land! (October) | ||||||
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Katie and our friend Molly planting our first garlic crop at our new land in the fall. Over 6,000 cloves! | ||||||
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Building a shed—the only dry space—on our new land. The infrastructure building process begins again. (November) | ||||||
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A cover crop of fava beans and oats growing on the new land. In a few months, we'll be planting here! (November) | ||||||
| More photo galleries: Sample CSA shares, on the new land, 2008 photos & just plain pretty. | |||||||