We (David and Pattie) moved to Oaklyn Plantation in 1993 to farm "sustainably".   The land we rent had been farmed organically for several years by our landlord.  Traditionally, a cornerstone of organic farms is to have a mix of livestock and grains.  The livestock would eat and add value to the grains raised on the farm and contribute to the fertility by depositing their "poop" around the farm.  (This is exactly what modern commercial agriculture doesn't do and it is the source of considerable economic and environmental problems)  Hogs and poultry are the main grain eating livestock that fit into an integrated organic farm.  Freerange chicken was becoming popular at the time and we decided to pursue this as the cornerstone of the farm enterprise. 

We have learned a lot in our 13 years here.  We are getting pretty good at raising the chickens and hope to make as much progress with the row crops. We first modeled the chicken operation on Joel Salatin's moveable pens, then tried day range pens and have now come up with a  hybrid sytem that works pretty well at giving the chickens a good healthy life in the field and simplifies chores for us.

With the crops we are trying to adapt ridge till, popular in the midwest, to the southeast.  Ridge till is a minimum till method of crop production that promises to improve the soil more than tradition tillage and is possible without the use of  herbicides and therefore useful in organic farming. 

We have also learned that there are a lot of people interested in our product for more than just good eating.  Our customers like the way our livestock are raised and handled and more are buying our products for health reasons.  There are other growers around the country raising pastured animals on varying scales.  We have made some good connections with customers throughout the years and I look forward to meeting more of you.