The motto for our farm comes from what we truly believe…to enjoy the garden and everything in it.
Just two short years ago on a crisp fall weekend, we began work on what we now call “The Farm”. A little 3 acre plot of land in the middle of Ohio, “The Farm” was little more than an overgrown thicket of small trees, thick brush, and a whole lot of poison ivy. After a long weekend of clearing the land with a small rented walk behind brush cutter, and a few painful weeks of dealing with poison ivy for Mary…we had carved out a little space to start our dream.
Us
With four kids in their teens heavily involved in extra-curricular activities, and with each of us juggling our own professional career, we wanted to build a place to be able to start to simplify our life – and enjoy our love of the outdoors and all it has to offer.
Let’s set a few things straight right from the beginning on what we are not.
We’re far from “hippies”…. and in spite of our children and friends constant ribbing, we don’t wish to make our clothes from hemp. We’re pretty regular people, we still go out to dinner now and then – we love to travel, and the last time I checked – we still shop in stores for some of our food and obviously those non-hemp clothes.
What we are – are two individuals committed to a more simple approach to life, who want to be responsible for a majority of the food we eat, and conserve the resources we consume. We both came from great families who gardened, and both have fond childhood memories of working alongside our parents in the garden and kitchen. We remember homegrown meals, and great winter dishes made from the food we grew and canned in the summer. We both loved it, and strive to once again create a household that embraces those values responsibly. Simply put – to do things the best way possible for us and the land.
We have tried to incorporate simplicity and responsibility into every facet of “The Farm” as we slowly work on our dream. We grow most of our own vegetables now in a 20 x 40 plot that yielded us over 2000lbs of vegetables last year. Our 9 happy chickens have grown up to supply our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers with fresh eggs every day – not to mention they give us great compost for the garden. This past summer we canned over 200 jars of our own tomato juice, pizza and pasta sauce, salsa, peppers and more. For us, we hope it’s just the beginning.
Our goal is to re-use existing structures and products and utilize new only when necessary – and to do so in a way that adds lasting beauty to the property. Too often the image of reuse and recycle conjures up thoughts of cardboard shanties and soda pop structures in what can only be called a junk yard. That’s a stereotype we hope to break with Old World Garden Farm. Showing that you can recycle and reuse with an eye toward creating something lasting and beautiful.
Our chicken coop was built almost entirely of used shipping crates we obtained for free. Same goes for our composting bins. Our “new” barn, was built over the course of a summer by reclaiming 2 turn of the century barns (one of which was my dad’s), and turning them into our Old World Garden Barn. Both barns came only for the price of simply tearing them down.
Our farm is and will always be a work in progress – and always with an eye towards good stewardship of the land and its resources. This past year we planted a small scale apple orchard and grape vineyard on the hillside – and installed our rain collection system from the barn roof for watering the garden throughout the growing season. Next year we hope to add our recycled window greenhouse and a cabin – and longer term goals include the use of solar technologies to help power our barn, coop and hopefully someday, some of our house.
Thanks for stopping by, and here’s to a more simple life!
Mary, Jim and the Chickens
The Farm – October 2012
Awesome Mary! Loved reading your story. It inspires me to spend a little more time in my own garden this year.
Well, this is great, your ideas are down to earth and doable, nothing like dreaming a dream that you CAN and WILL achieve.. I love your new old barn, we have an old old barn that is being remade using other old old barn timbers, but very slowly. I don’t mind slow.. c
I feel like I’ve struck gold here, with your blog. I am looking forward to exploring your site and being inspired by your many wonderful projects! I dream of one day moving back to the country and of being as self-sufficient as I possibly can. It’s nice to have someone to look to who is already several steps ahead of me, and I’m hoping I can learn a lot from you!
Wow ! Thank you for that! We really do love working on the farm and creating what we call our “little slice of heaven”. Look forward to reading your new posts as well!
Jim and Mary
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We nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award!! We love your blog! http://collingwoodfarm.wordpress.com/awards/
-Rich and Linde
What kind of chickens do you have?
We have 3 Leghorns and 6 Golden Comets – they are all just over a year old – and we get about 8 eggs a day from them.
That so cool!
We have 13 chickens, at least 6 different kinds of breeds. They are going to turn 3 years old May 18th.
Do u use any chemicals on you plants?
That’s great – love the fact that you have so many diff’t breeds. We are going to add a few more to the flock next year – but probably keep it right around 12 to 15 birds total. We use large amounts of compost in our planting holes and use manure / manure tea as our fertilizer.
Nice blogs,
We just bought 4 acre’s with a standing decent shape mid size barn complete with a 3-4 stall milk palor. fenced in 2.5 acre pastor, House well and septic the property is in bad shape and needs tons of work it hasn’t been mowed in 2 years. Our goal is to simplify and become much more self sufficent. I have enjoyed your stories and you have sprouted some ideas for our farm.
Just found your blog through Frugally Sustainable. It sounds like you live a lot like my family does. I’ll enjoy reading more about you.
Welcome Heidi! So glad you enjoy reading it – I am going to check out your blog as well! We really enjoy the farm and hope someday to retire to it!
Jim and Mary
LOVE LOVE LOVE your site! It’s soooo inspiring and SO ME! WISH my hubby liked to do this sort of thing to, but he doesn’t. Just dearly LOVE your barn! Would dearly love to tear down old places like that and rebuild with the materials. I have ALWAYS dreamed of having an old Victorian home to fix up or would just love helping someone else do one. lol I do get to fix up old furniture and I enjoy that. I have a couple pieces I have redone and working on one of those now. Anyway just had to tell you how much I enjoy reading and seeing your pix. WOW
Thank you so much for the compliments Rose! We really enjoy tearing down and re-using items that might otherwise end up in the trash. It’s a lot of work but so rewarding.
Love your story! My husband and I just bought 6.5 acres of wooded land this summer and plan to build our family a small house, garden and chicken coop
to become self sustainable. I cant wait til our “Manitou Acres” is a reality!
Thanks so much Christina for stopping by – and glad you like our little blog
It sounds like you have lots of excitement coming up – you will have to keep us updated on the progress!!! Good luck!!!! Jim and Mary
Hi, just letting you know I’ve nominated you for the “Mrs Sparkly’s Ten Commandments” blogging award. Great blog – congrats and well deserved!
http://harvestbeyondmyfrontdoor.wordpress.com/2012/10/20/creative-beautiful-and-sparkly/
Love the barn. It is close to the one I have drawn in my head for our little piece of heaven. I might steal your idea of using the old metal roof as the lower siding. The patina on the old metal that I will be using is so beautiful and I was struggling with how to use it and enjoy it. I am impressed how much produce you are able to get from your garden in such a short amount of time since beginning this journey. Just want to clarify something. Are you actually living on the land currently or live off site and plan to build a cabin to live in one day.
Thanks so much for the compliments Kathleen. We were really happy with how the roofing material worked out -and hope yours does as well! We live off site – with the plan for a house and a cabin there at some point. We hope to have the cabin up soon – within the next year or two at the most.
You guys are such an inspiration to those who dream of a simpler life. Beautiful!
Wow – thank you so much for the kind words Crystal!!!! We are glad you like the site!!! Jim
Thank you for taking the time to write about your experiences and share in such detail, all of your discoveries from Tomato stake/cages to growing from seeds. It’s a gift of your time to do that, and I’m really thankful! We are going to get our stake/cages ready for spring, and am looking forward to learning more as the season progresses! Sandy
Thank you so much Sandy – That was so nice of you to say!!! We really enjoy writing about the farm, and it makes it all the better when we get comments as nice as yours! Stay in touch and good luck with the garden this year! Jim and Mary
I was nominated for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award today! In appreciation, it now becomes my turn to make choices! I hope you don’t mind, but… I’ve enjoyed your blog so much that I’ve nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award. Thank you so much for ALL the great help and tips you’ve shared that will help my husband and I with our goals! ~ Teresa
http://threecedarsfarm.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/a-surprise-in-my-email/
Thank you so much Teresa, and congrats on your nomination as well!!! Jim and Mary
I am from Toronto Canada, reading you blog is very interesting. I love nature, hopefully live on one. I was wondering if you’ll take on volunteering holiday visitors to help on the farm. We would love to visit.
Enid,
Enid – We would always welcome visitors to the farm – especially volunteering ones
:) Let us know when you are thinking and we will see what we can do!
Thank you, I will deff. take you up on that offer. What is the best time during the year.
Thank you.