Friday, May 19, 2017

We Bought a Farm......Playing Catch up!































In August 2015 we made a crazy decision to leave our home in Southern California. We literally opened a map and started researching the entire US trying to find a safer place to raise our family, a place we could follow our dreams of farming organic vegetables, open space, affordable housing that would actually fit our large family and adventure. In the end, we settled on Oregon. It had nearly all the attributes we wanted, we especially loved that we would have 4 seasons with very little snow. Housing was affordable, crime was low, owning land was within our grasp after selling our homes in Southern California. It was a really crazy, exciting journey. Nathan accepted a law enforcement job here and the rest was history. We came home to pack everything up and caravan our entire lives and all our animals to Oregon. It took 3 days, horse hotels, dog and cat accepting hotels for us and a lot of driving to get here, but we made it in one piece and began our lives crammed into a tiny town house. We boarded our horses and waited for our property in SoCal to sell. 3 months later, it was sold and docs were signed, shortly after, we found our dream home on 17.5 acres with big prospects for us to farm it. We had to clear 7+ acres of timber and we poured our lives into getting the farm going for the first 18 months. We put up greenhouses, dear fencing, wash and packing areas, a walk in cooler for our produce and so much more. We had a dream and we ran on pure adrenaline. Last summer, we started our very first farmer's markets and ran a successful CSA. We have continued on this year, gaining organic certification and increasing our operation size. We have had an exceptionally rainy spring which has made it tough, but we are pressing forward using every technique we have learned from other farms, books, youtube videos, and farm conferences. It is a challenge, but it is so worth it. Our lives have bigger meaning bringing fresh, organic vegetables to our local families each week. Its truly a labor or love.

3 comments:

jay said...

Fabulous! What an adventure :)

Anonymous said...

So happy to see you!
Can you tell me if your homeschooling?
And your pregnant! Well done. I'm exited!

Farmer Mama said...

Yes we are homeschooling, excited to use timberdoodle this year!