The gardens and pastures of Green Gate Farm yield
vegetables, pork, broiler chickens and eggs.
Every day we set our farm table with food grown truly locally, no more
than a five minute walk. From the very
beginning of Green Gate Farm feeding ourselves well has been a priority. So, we began with a garden.
Rather, we began with a pretty ramshackle old farmstead
which would need major renovations before we could move in. So while crews hammered away on shoring up
the buildings, we started digging. We
chose an area close to the house which had apparently never been cultivated. The weedy tussocks were daunting, but the
soil beneath was perfect. That soil’s
full complement of nutrients had been kept locked up and safe and was now
available for our anticipated root veggies and leafy greens.
We’d read that a
garden on newly opened up earth could be amazingly productive. That first summer’s garden at Green Gate Farm
was proof. Everything flourished,
flamboyantly! The showstopper was a van sized mound of
green, spread out over an ever expanding trelliswork of scrap lumber and old
garden furniture. Amazing what twelve heirloom tomato plants will do with
plenty of sun, moisture, and the perfect soil.
Though we’d hit the jackpot with the vegetable garden soil,
the rest of the land on the old farm was a different story. Much had been
leased out for conventional cultivation, using herbicides and pesticides, no
till planting, and gigantic heavy tractors. It would take more than a season or
two of rest to bring vitality back to the soil in those fields. It would take patience and some serious animal intervention. It was time to get started with livestock.
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