state of the farm

the farm we rented this week has been a highly successful vegetable operation for the last fifteen years--well known by the name backyard harvest.  boo, the landowner, and farmer in mention, was the first grower in town to plant the seeds towards developing what is today a bustling farmer’s market scene in athens. 

for family reasons, backyard harvest was abandoned just after the climax of this past summer.  all the crops, on the entire farm, were left in place, grown to maturity, and died where they stood.  nothing was cleared.  no plants were pulled.  no cover crops were sown to protect the earth from the winter’s cold breath.

weeds grew to maturity, spewing their seeds across our canvas, and choking the top layer of our soil into a dense weedy web.  today began the healing process.  today was a new beginning for what was once backyard harvest.

paying homage to the farms storied past, but adding our own full moon farms flavor to the project, we decided to rename the farm.  today, with the first pulling of plants, the first sweat, the first sore knees and sore back—crawling on bug’s eye level for seven hours straight, pulling blade after blade of grass and weed and herb and root out of the soil—today was born “the backyard moon”.

day one:  clearing the hoop houses.  with the april first opening day at the athen's farmer's market appraoching sooner than we will ever imagine, a shit-ton of work lays ahead of us.  the added warmth provided by the covered hoop houses means that this will be the first soil to get planted--and therefore the first place we will start.  check out the before after of one of the five hoops we cleared today.  this one's almost finished:

who want's to come help? 

i'm serious...contact imhighoncooking@gmail.com for the most fun you've ever had working for free