AVALON FARMS

Part 1
Several years back we ran a series of articles written by our growers about the history of their farms. It was most helpful and very informative, and before Avalon Farms rejoined the Market after being away a few years. Recently Wendy shared the history of their farm in the Grower Notes section of our newsletter. We had already scheduled a visit coinciding with my monthly visit to Coffee County Jail. As luck would have it I got out of there a bit early which gave us more time to visit.

There was NO DOUBT I had arrived at a real sustainable farm when the gps told me I had arrived. After driving past miles and miles of traditionally farmed land seeing neatly sectioned beds in various stages of preparation (complete with a movable chicken fence and chickens) was a welcome sight.

I have to admit being a bit jealous of the the relatively flat land where they are located. Different parts of the farm operation pretty much circled the home making the 100 ft. beds an easy walk in any direction, but possible to get something motorized close enough to assist if needed. Being out in the open with no close forest also meant their main predators came from the sky instead of the woods (like those of us who deal with possums, fox, coyotes, bobcats, etc). Different outbuildings on the backside of the house serve different functions including housing the aquaponics, a walk-in cooler and chicken station.

Lloyd and Wendy wasted no time showing me around and telling me about the various garden beds and what was going on there. The asparagus bed was happily overwintering under a layer of mulch so there wasn’t much to see there. The blackberries looked like . . well, blackberry plants in winter! The egg chickens had recently finished digging up grass and weeds in one area, fertilizing it well in the process, and had started on another. I saw the disked area Wendy wrote about in last week’s newsletter and agree that the space will give them a lot of breathing room in their soil preparation and crop rotations.

This bed featured in our Dec. 8 newsletter“wowed” me. The straight lines and perfect spacing appealed the my little bit of OCD because I’ve never managed to plant even a small bed that neat, let alone 100 ft! The other thing was the nice thick layer of peanut hulls mulching the area. Talk about utilizing sustainable local materials! Once the crop has been harvested the hulls will be tilled into the soil (making it that much richer) then the spot will be planted with a cover crop, then tilled again for additional benefit before hosting a different vegetables crop.

Wendy had shared her planting grid back then with us. It is one of several with varying size grids for even spacing. This like many things on the farm are build from available and recycled materials.

Hate to stop now that I’ve got you good and interested, but don’t despair – more good info to come in Part 2 next week.

FOOTNOTES

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