My wife and I retired from our day jobs and started farming full time 6 years ago. We have built 3 farms, one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, one in Plummer, Idaho and our current farm in Duchesne, Utah
Dean is a retired custom furniture builder/woodworker and volunteer firefighter. Dyan was a real estate broker, gardener, rental property owner and bike industry sales rep.
We are looking for farm land to purchase, lease-purchase, or lease/ lease-trade. We would like to have a farm that is at least one acre and upwards of 20, as long as there is ample cleared farmland to grow vegetables and raise chickens and possibly a small amount of livestock.
Farm land that is suitable for growing vegetables. Pasture land/ fields to free range chickens. Electricity, well water is great, irrigation or reliable water source for irrigation of crops. Barn/shop is great. Woodlands are fine if there is adequate cleared land for crops.
We started our 1st farm in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a 10 acre property our friend had just bought. It had a very old neglected orchard of about 60-70 fruit trees that we pruned, harvested and sold the fruit. Also helped our friend with his 2 1/2 acres of a newly planted hops crop. We built and grew in a 30x96 greenhouse as well as about a half acre of vegetables and couple hundred raspberry plants. We raised meat chickens as well. We sold our vegetables at a farmers market, did custom CSA orders and sold to several restaurants. We worked this farm for 3 years and supplied food to about 100 people.
Our next farm was in Plummer, Idaho. This was a 245 acre farm that some absentee families from Pennsylvania had bought. There was a lot of rough infrastructure, over a hundred fruit trees and lots of growing potential. We put in irrigation to the fruit trees, built beds to grow vegetables and revitalized an unused greenhouse. We had about 45 laying hens and raised about 140 meat chickens. We also sold our vegetables, meat chickens and eggs at a farmers market. We were at this farm for 2 seasons.
We are currently working another friend's farm in Duchesne, Utah raising food on about a half acre of their land with fourteen laying hens and 75 meat chickens as well.
We have always grown organically but not organic certified. We grow incredibly tasty, beautiful and healthy food. We have worked hard over the past 6 years to keep improving our farming systems. We are avid readers of anything about farming and have spent many winters visiting other organic farms and greenhouses to keep expanding our knowledge and ideas.
We want to have/build a productive, sustainable farm to grow vegetables, fruit trees, raise chickens and possibly other livestock. We want to have a greenhouse for season extension and/or growing winter crops. We are looking for a long term/permanent location. We will likely continue to sell at farmers markets, CSA orders, restaurants or whatever makes sense. We also have a lot of experience in remodeling and rehab of homes, barns and sheds.
We really like teaching others how to grow food and how set up a farm or garden for themselves.
Same as short term.
We don't need much living space, a one bedroom plus is great. We do have some farming equipment ( shovels, rakes, chicken plucker, etc ) that would fit nicely in a shed or garage/shop or barn. We would like to keep our 14 laying hens so can build or repurpose a coop for them.
We are all a part of the human race living together on this great earth. Diverse just means different and we're all different from each other. That is life.
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