For those of you who don’t know it, here’s the brief version of the story of how we came to be farmers in Accident, MD.
We met while both living in Baltimore, and we were married in 2015. Allison had spent her 20’s working for various non-profit organizations and government agencies doing work focused around food and agriculture, which was all inspired by an apprenticeship on an organic farm in Massachusetts (her home state) in 2009. When Allison met Eric they started a garden in their backyard in Baltimore, and Eric became increasingly interested in gardening. Allison always said that her goal was to be a farmer when she grew up, so in the winter of 2017 we decided that it was officially time to trade in our traffic-ridden, fast paced city lives for a sweet, simple life in the country. Eric grew up in Allegany County and always had an itch to move back, so we started looking in the area, and voilà!, in no time we found our perfect slice of earth.
We made the move in late April, with trays of seedlings that we had planted in Baltimore in tow. It’s actually pretty amazing that the plants survived! There was a small garden plot set aside by the previous owners. We expanded it a bit and planted our first seeds and seedlings on the property. The garden was only about 30’x40′. At the time, Allison was commuting to her job in Baltimore and was gone for the majority of the week, every week. Eric was working full time in Frostburg. We tended to the garden really only on nights and weekends, but miraculously, things grew beautifully!
Allison’s job ended suddenly right around the 4th of July. Time is the most valuable asset when trying to start a farm, and suddenly, we had some time! She reached out to some young farmer friends in the area who were incredibly kind and generous with their time, knowledge and resources and they helped us get started. From July- November we were able to sell at a few farmers markets, and to some restaurants and grocers. We eventually expanded our growing space and added another 50’x50′ plot. So, all things considered, although we got a late start, were brand new to the area, and had almost nothing planned ahead of time, we were really pleased with the amount that we were able to grow and sell in our first “half season.”
Looking forward to the 2018 growing season, we’ve spent the winter pouring over seed catalogs, planning out our bed layout, ordering equipment and supplies and preparing for a fruitful season ahead! The farm will be in “full swing” this spring and we couldn’t be any more excited to officially get growing.