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Our History and Mission Statement
At the end of 1992, we bought 20 acres that had been over farmed, over grazed and abused with chemicals. We had giant bare patches of cotton rot, and very little knowledge of what we were doing. We had sold a high rise, downtown condo overlooking a golf course in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, to live in the country in Bedias, Texas. Garth was working in Oilfield Service as an Electronics Tech, so building the place was my fun. Three years ago, Garth retired from the Oilfield to become my partner and to watch our dreams grow.
Speaking of dreams, I suppose I should explain where our name comes from. Back in 1992 when we bought the place, we dreamed of having a tree farm. The process of going from burnt out land to a tree farm is a large task, but that didn’t stop us. This land had no trees on it, but with our rose colored glasses, we could see the forest of Black Walnuts we wanted. Thus, the name of the farm came into being. While our dreams have undergone many changes since then, our ability to see the land as we want it to be has been a great source of motivation for us. Our rose colored glasses let us look beyond the construction mess, to see what we hope the place will be someday, so we keep the name.
One thing we knew from the start we wanted, was a healthy life style. We did not move to the country to spray the place down with chemicals. Learning to live naturally with fire ants and all the natural critters here in Texas has been an adventure, but well worth our time. Learning to garden, making use of the soil food web, has been rewarding beyond our expectations. Learning to live in a very sustainable manner has kept us constantly challenged, kept us learning and therefore, kept us young.
Over the years we made many false starts, got into emus, waterfowl, and tried many different gardening styles, but gradually, with the help of the internet and the school of hard knocks, we found a plan that works for us. Most of the animals on our farm are endangered species, our plants are open pollinated and heirlooms. Our fertility comes from worms and rabbit manure. We use a lot of compost tea.
At present we raise Irish Dexter Cattle, with one lone Jersey just because. We have Gulf Coast Sheep, mixed breed rabbits. . We have some fruit and nut trees, more planned in the future. We are learning to grow more and more of the feed for our animals. We have 6 varieties of bamboo for a large variety of purposes.
Our gardens have become the central focus of the farm, growing over the years until now we have 4800 square feet of raised beds. We have been selling at the farmer’s market for three years now, but a change is underway. This year we started a Community Supported Agriculture Subscription. Once it is full, we will not longer go to market, but concentrate on doing our best to serve our community of subscribers.
We are working on water catchment systems, solar panel arrays, solar hot water and more renewable energy projects. Alternative building practices are a way of life here, and our research covers many options. Papercrete and paper adobe are two ways of building that will be used extensively here on the farm, and we hope to start work shops in these methods, next year.
It is a busy, full life that is never boring. Money is not abundant, but we eat well and work hard. It is fun to watch the slow changes and see dreams comes to life.
A major change is taking place, we have just installed DSL, replacing our old dial up internet connection. This will allow us to update this site much easier and to add more pictures.
As a result of this change, you can expect a complete site overhaul in the very near future.
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