| MaryJanesFarm

After almost 25 years of military schooling and service I was hungry to return to what I have always considered home (Idaho) and to immerse myself in what has become an intense love affair with nature. Living in a small town, spending more time with family and working at what I love seem to make each day count a little more. These feelings and some of life's inexplicable coincidences and circumstances all came together to lead me to decide that I wanted to be an organic farmer.

Soon after moving to Moscow, my wife and I met MaryJane Butters and Nick Ogle, the owners of Paradise Farm. Wonderfully friendly and highly skilled agriculturists, they invited me to participate in the farm's apprenticeship program and to become a stockholder. I had stumbled into a perfect opportunity to translate my desire to farm into action.

I was learning within five minutes of meeting Lahde Fesler, then supervisor/director of the farm's "Pay Dirt" apprenticeship program. I have applied knowledge of soil types, soil organisms, sources of fertility, seasonal cycles of plant growth and reproduction, nutrition, watershed impacts, wildlife habitat, using the right tool in the right way, and equipment maintenance and repair. I call my time in Paradise Farm's apprenticeship program "getting a masters in Applied Organic Agriculture." Between working two days a week on the farm, applying it in a large backyard garden and greenhouse at home, reading and studying, the comparison to a post-graduate program facilitating a next career is apt.

I began working last winter, helping to harvest the biggest, sweetest carrots I had ever tasted. I have spent the last nine months tilling, hauling mulch, planting crops and an orchard, hoeing, irrigating and harvesting. It has been long hard physical labor done in whatever weather rolls over Paradise Ridge. "Dog tired" comes to mind as an expression I frequently use of late. One of the snapshots that is permanently in my memory is digging through a foot of snow in a blizzard, hauling up carrots in a wheelbarrow, cutting off greens and washing carrots with ice forming on our faces from the water spraying in the freezing wind.

I have learned that growing good food is a craft. It is one that involves skill, science, art, dedication and passion. This craft is not only life-sustaining, providing healthy quality food for people, but in its highest form contributes to the benefit of the overall community by sustaining the soil, watershed, air and wildlife habitat. Perhaps the most fundamental lesson I have learned so far is to develop a keen sense of observation toward the soil and crops. I am learning more about the complex interactive relationships between soil, crops, pests, beneficial insects and weather. I am learning to work with natural processes rather than fight them.

There will never come a time when I know everything or lack a challenge. Working with living mediums like soil and plants means that every season brings new crops, new challenges and opportunities for improvement. I am not afraid to try new things. I have learned to trust my experience and observations, but accept and expect that sometimes learning will occur from mistakes. Organic farming methods are very labor intensive and two or three acres can supply an immense amount of produce. This is about the most one person can handle. A small area farmed well is better than a large area that gets out of hand.

Finally, there's a lesson I didn't expect. Perhaps more important than the goal of establishing a profitable business in a beautiful setting, a family farm can be a lifestyle that is most satisfying in and of itself. Growing all the food we can eat, working together, living and working in a beautiful natural setting at nature's pace, instead of office hours, is actually as idyllic as it sounds. It is not about ease. It is as hard and as constant an amount of work as I have known (and I have previous experience at work and responsibility in harsh conditions--slogging through swamps at night, tumbling from an aircraft at the lead of paratroopers, baking and freezing on armored vehicles in a trackless desert). I have found the work is refreshing and invigorating, not stressful or spirit-breaking (though thistle and bind weed can come close). The simple pleasures inherent in that life--delicious, fresh food at every meal, sharing amazement at nature's seasonal miracles, catching frogs in a pond with my kids, walking the farm and seeing deer and pheasant--more than replace commercial things we have thought we needed for fun. A key thing for me to remember is not to overextend in acreage or financial debt early on, to take things at a small scale and grow into what we can handle.

I have yet to harvest a single snap pea or strawberry on a farm I own, but I have developed confidence that I can make a living as a farmer, participate in a loving family and be faithful to the responsibility to be a steward of the land: to leave the soil, watershed and habitat in better condition than I find it. I am witnessing a wonderful example of successful farming at Paradise Farm and am more excited each day by the prospects of working our own small farm on the Palouse.

Pat Vaughan and Cece Connors purchased their own Palouse Farm in the summer of 2000. At the Moscow Farmers' Market, Pat now sells raspberries, pears, and potatoes.


pat vaughan
		After almost 25 years of military schooling and service I was hungry to return to what I have always considered home (Idaho) and to immerse myself in what has become an intense love affair with nature. Living in a small town, spending more time with family and working at what I love seem to make each day count a little more. These feelings and some of life's inexplicable coincidences and circumstances all came together to lead me to decide that I wanted to be an organic farmer. Soon after moving to Moscow, my wife and I met MaryJane Butters and Nick Ogle, the owners of Paradise Farm. Wonderfully friendly and highly skilled agriculturists, they invited me to participate in the farm's apprenticeship program and to become a stockholder. I had stumbled into a perfect opportunity to translate my desire to farm into action. I was learning within five minutes of meeting Lahde Fesler, then supervisor/director of the farm's "Pay Dirt" apprenticeship program. I have applied knowledge of soil types, soil organisms, sources of fertility, seasonal cycles of plant growth and reproduction, nutrition, watershed impacts, wildlife habitat, using the right tool in the right way, and equipment maintenance and repair. I call my time in Paradise Farm's apprenticeship program "getting a masters in Applied Organic Agriculture." Between working two days a week on the farm, applying it in a large backyard garden and greenhouse at home, reading and studying, the comparison to a post-graduate program facilitating a next career is apt. I began working last winter, helping to harvest the biggest, sweetest carrots I had ever tasted. I have spent the last nine months tilling, hauling mulch, planting crops and an orchard, hoeing, irrigating and harvesting. It has been long hard physical labor done in whatever weather rolls over Paradise Ridge. "Dog tired" comes to mind as an expression I frequently use of late. One of the snapshots that is permanently in my memory is digging through a foot of snow in a blizzard, hauling up carrots in a wheelbarrow, cutting off greens and washing carrots with ice forming on our faces from the water spraying in the freezing wind. I have learned that growing good food is a craft. It is one that involves skill, science, art, dedication and passion. This craft is not only life-sustaining, providing healthy quality food for people, but in its highest form contributes to the benefit of the overall community by sustaining the soil, watershed, air and wildlife habitat. Perhaps the most fundamental lesson I have learned so far is to develop a keen sense of observation toward the soil and crops. I am learning more about the complex interactive relationships between soil, crops, pests, beneficial insects and weather. I am learning to work with natural processes rather than fight them. There will never come a time when I know everything or lack a challenge. Working with living mediums like soil and plants means that every season brings new crops, new challenges and opportunities for improvement. I am not afraid to try new things. I have learned to trust my experience and observations, but accept and expect that sometimes learning will occur from mistakes. Organic farming methods are very labor intensive and two or three acres can supply an immense amount of produce. This is about the most one person can handle. A small area farmed well is better than a large area that gets out of hand. Finally, there's a lesson I didn't expect. Perhaps more important than the goal of establishing a profitable business in a beautiful setting, a family farm can be a lifestyle that is most satisfying in and of itself. Growing all the food we can eat, working together, living and working in a beautiful natural setting at nature's pace, instead of office hours, is actually as idyllic as it sounds. It is not about ease. It is as hard and as constant an amount of work as I have known (and I have previous experience at work and responsibility in harsh conditions--slogging through swamps at night, tumbling from an aircraft at the lead of paratroopers, baking and freezing on armored vehicles in a trackless desert). I have found the work is refreshing and invigorating, not stressful or spirit-breaking (though thistle and bind weed can come close). The simple pleasures inherent in that life--delicious, fresh food at every meal, sharing amazement at nature's seasonal miracles, catching frogs in a pond with my kids, walking the farm and seeing deer and pheasant--more than replace commercial things we have thought we needed for fun. A key thing for me to remember is not to overextend in acreage or financial debt early on, to take things at a small scale and grow into what we can handle. I have yet to harvest a single snap pea or strawberry on a farm I own, but I have developed confidence that I can make a living as a farmer, participate in a loving family and be faithful to the responsibility to be a steward of the land: to leave the soil, watershed and habitat in better condition than I find it. I am witnessing a wonderful example of successful farming at Paradise Farm and am more excited each day by the prospects of working our own small farm on the Palouse. Pat Vaughan and Cece Connors purchased their own Palouse Farm in the summer of 2000. At the Moscow Farmers' Market, Pat now sells raspberries, pears, and potatoes.