Two Feet in the Dirt

Along with plugging away at the work outside, we’ve also been focusing on another essential part of the farm- business formation. Of course, when I dreamed about starting my own farm, I was thinking about growing food, not about tax forms, licensing, and permits, but as any small business owner knows, these are crucial steps to running your own operation. And at last, we’re getting there! This week marked a number of milestones in this area. We have been registered as a limited liability company with the state of West Virginia and are now officially known as Red Hawk Rise Organics, LLC. We have a completed operating agreement (a key...

Even as the weather gets chillier, the work hasn’t slowed down. And each job finished seems to create a new job after it, whether we were expecting it or not. The most intense so far has been all about the rocks. Unless you’re farming in the great plains (and for all I know, even there), your soil is likely to have some stones. However, this is less likely in land that has been farmed for years and years as some other poor sucker has probably already pulled them out by one means or another. After talking to our neighbors who have lived here their entire lives, it seems like our...

After growing beautifully all winter and into the spring, producing amazing scapes, and seemingly doing everything as expected, the garlic finally succumbed to the effects of a cool, wet spring and started rotting in the ground before producing decent cloves. The cloves in the picture look deceptively nice, but are actually incredibly under-sized, each only about the size of a quarter. I am totally bummed out. This would be an unfortunate loss any year, as garlic is a staple item in our kitchen, but this garlic was even more important- it was supposed to be the foundation of our seed garlic to grow on our farm next year. After growing...