Nicaragua → WV: Hear the story behind One Chop Farms
Winter squash is growing in our fields! Pumpkins and squash are reminding us that fall will be here soon. We are preparing our high tunnels for winter production. We will be growing leafy greens and root veggies over the winter. Last winter we were still trying to build the last few tunnels on the production side of the farm. Now they are all ready for growing! There are still more high tunnels to reclaim on the other side of the farm, but we have made great progress!
At the moment we are swimming in tomatoes and peppers, so if you are interested in seeing what we have available, give us a message and stop on by!
Our last Educational Potluck of the season was about Healthy Beverages. We learned how to make drinks incorporating spices and herbs. Everyone left with a handout on how to make smoothies, flavored water, ginger turmeric lemonade, switchels (a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water, with flavoring), and kombucha (fermented tea)! There are so many healthy options out there that you will never need to drink soda again. Sugar is hidden everywhere you look and there are easy and simple ways to get around it when you make your own drinks. We still have extra handouts if you would like to have one!
We had two movie showings in the barn this past month. We showed Chicken Run and Shaun the Sheep. These are great movies for kids and families that incorporate farming and agriculture. While our attendance was low we still had a great time and we hope to try it again next summer.
Here are a few words from our incubators Amanda and Greg from One Chop Farms.
Hi there! We’re Amanda and Greg.
We live and farm here in Summers County and love sharing food with the local community. We focus on growing flavorful, colorful and nutrient dense vegetables from healthy soil. We believe that individual health begins with the food we consume, and that every person deserves access to food that serves as medicine.
Greg learned how to grow vegetables and cultivate the land alongside his momma when growing up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The soil there is not too different from the land here in Talcott — sandy, clay aggregates needing some love. Greg is educated and trained as a Registered Nurse and took a break from a busy life in Washington, DC to work closer to the earth a couple years back. Together, he and Amanda traveled to Nicaragua in January 2016 where they worked and managed a 26-acre food forest on a volcanic island. Life doesn’t get much better than it was on Isla de Ometepe.
Amanda’s interest in farming stems from a love of sharing meals with friends and strangers alike. Her background is in agroforestry and permaculture with a focus on perennial food forests and intentional landscape design. While in Nicaragua, Amanda honed her skills in experiential education — whereby students step outside the walls of a normal classroom and into the field to broaden their skills, discuss global and regional policies and their impacts, and collaborate and design land-based projects.
Why “One Chop Farms” you ask? Let us tell you a quick story. In Nicaragua there is a rainy and dry season. The lush food forest turns into an arid desert like environment beginning in May, and the physically demanding task of ‘bucket watering’ becomes your reality for the next three months. Established fruit trees require water even in the dry season and one of the major sources of water is the banana plant. Actually the world’s largest herb, bananas are 80% water, fruit only once and serve as a means of watering the other plants on site. It became a game for Greg, Amanda, the Nicaraguan field team and student interns to see if we could cut down banana plants in.. one chop! Once chopped down, we cut two-foot-long sections of the plant in half and lay them as mulch around other young trees.
We believe that farming can be a way of life and moved to West Virginia to actualize our dreams. If you’ve tasted our food, we’d love to hear from you. And if you haven’t, swing on through Chestnut Revival in Hinton, where we deliver fresh produce every Tuesday morning. Finally, if you’re an ambitious business owner and you want to production plan with us, we would love the opportunity to grow crops specific to your business needs. Thanks to the Farm Incubator Program with Sprouting Farms, we have access to growing space year-round.
