Up a broad “ holler ” in eastern Ohio , tucked into the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains , an quondam farm returns a life sentence of active farming . Established perennial crops such as grapevines and yield trees send up newfangled growth .
Mangalitsa and Red Wattle / Hampshire - cross hogs antecedent under oak and blackened walnut tree trees . Jersey and Kerry cows draw a pattern of grazed paddock over long - neglected pastures . Katahdin sheep and Nubian goats graze incursive shrubs . Hens pasture for worm and spread manure wads .
The Pié family Dave and Anna and their three little minor — incline the beast and cultivate an orchard , vineyard and garden . They even school at home .
And they ’ve been here less than two age .
Literal Dreams
How do two , unseasoned , successful , upwardly - mobile professional person with a firm inPhiladelphia , Pennsylvania , and a small - but - growing family all of a sudden find themselves on 73 acres in Appalachia with nine cows , about 15 pigs , agrowing flock of sheep and goats , and goodness - knows - how - many chicken , ducks and joker ?
A dream . Not a daydream , but a actual , see - it - in - your - nap aspiration .
“ My father died in March of 2019 , ” Dave say . A dedicated work - before - swordplay , savings - in - the - banking concern financial adviser from St. Clairesville , Ohio , Dave ’s Church Father rarely permit himself time off , looking forward always to a comfortable retirement . Lung malignant neoplastic disease got him first . At long time 63 , he was pass .
Shawn & Beth Dougherty
“ I acknowledge at his funeral that something needed to change , ” Dave says . “ I thought , ‘ We ’re out of here . ’ ”
But back in Philadelphia , their successful calling kept them busy . Things conk out on much as common . Until one Nox , there add up the dreaming . In the thick of a bass sleep , Dave get a line his father say to him , “ expend less time push the plough and more time blooming . ” Build happiness into your daily life now , the dream seemed to be saying . Do n’t put it off for a futurity that might never come .
The unseasoned family began make design to repay to Ohio .
Shawn & Beth Dougherty
Headed Home
As we seat together on the terrace behind their one C - old farmhouse , Dave and Anna ’s three daughter — Gemma , 4 ; Loretta , 2 ; and Eva , not yet 1 — toy in the grass next to a paddock of pastured chicken .
Sheep and moo-cow graze nearby . Loretta brings her father a minor anuran .
Dave ’s life history as head distiller for New Liberty Distillery in Pennsylvania might seem a long way from cows and chicken . But it was believably the gateway drug that begin turning this biochemist into a farmer .
Shawn & Beth Dougherty
After all , do hooch is just a form of “ agricultural processing , ” Dave aver . And his job of source grains from local humble farm put agriculture on his microwave radar . He began to see the smaller , artisanal farms he worked with as a unexampled fashion to relate to the innate human beings .
Interest offend , he bulge out reading books and watching documentaries on solid food , farming life and farm legislation . Dave learned more about just what we rust , where it really comes from and who pay . He read Joel Salatin’sEverything I Want to Do is Illegal . He watchedFood , Inc.
Hunting deer and butchering his own plot when he was in eminent schooltime had render him liberty and comfort with the approximation of natural food sources . Now his investigations made him wonder about the base hit and security system of his mob ’s commercial-grade food dieting . All of these experiences broach a railroad train of cerebration that came to realisation in that moment at his father ’s wake when Dave realized : “ We ’re out of here . ”
Anna was quick and willing . Unlike Dave , she had grow up in the country . “ Not on a literal farm , ” she suppose , but a rural household with livestock — goats , chickens , horses . She loved the animals and her surround , but had a shrewish sense even then that something was not correct .
“ It was a lot of work , ” she says . hale hay and grain , cleanse stalls , affect animals : “ It seemed ineffective . ” But she thought of the setting with love life and want her children to grow up surrounded with living things and the exemption to wander . what is more , she was growing bored with life in the city .
“ Everything costs money , ” she says,“concerts , games , plays . ” Dave ’s suggestion was music to her ears .
By November of the same year , they ’d settle in Ohio , offend ground for a different form of farm . Shawn & Beth Dougherty
Something Different
Much reading and many documentaries had begun to form a new picture in their minds . Mixed farming ( farm animal and crop , especially perennial harvest that lend themselves to fermentation , things such as apples and grapes ) with animals and plants managed as an integrated whole , are a significant part of the Piés ’ visual sensation for their life . They plan to work up a farm that fits into its surroundings . “ We want to employ what is here , ” Dave says . “ Good stewards do n’t fight down the demesne . ”
Anna tally securely : “ There should be no waste . ”
Her experiences as a child come to her assistance now . While she bang her out-of-door puerility , she also remembered some thing that seemed less than ideal .
“ I remember that the chicken wasted a lot of feed , ” she says . trammel her own birds ’ entree to commercial-grade provender — by continue them on rotate paddocks and providing a limited day-to-day alimentation — has resulted in less waste and more efficient foraging . Large animals undergo a standardized rethinking .
“ My family unit used to spend a lot of time drag hay , ” she say . “ It seemed like a lot of unneeded oeuvre . ” Now the Piés ’ rotationally graze animals spread their own manure , and waste hay and eatage terminate up on the grazing land , not in the b .
The good sense a land life should not be drudgery stayed with her , too . Often when not work , she and Dave and the nipper wander the farm just enjoying their land . What do they find to do ?
“ We trip up hemipteran , bet in the brook , fish the pool ( and ) look at flowers . Last spring , we go to the back grass and flew kite . ” Not even the opinion goes to waste !
study more : These 5 nutrient are essential to a chicken flock .
Farm Is Where the Home Is
The Piés spend the first wintertime prepping the land for elaboration of the existing plantation and small vinery . They did what the time of year allowed them to do . In March , the pandemic , and resulting shortages , encouraged them to bring the farm even further into focusing . They begin tot animals .
Mixed land was always part of their life sight . Not just Anna ’s love of farm animal was in shimmer here , but a conviction about natural force . Ecosystems depend on their animal populations for many service of process such as :
The Piés project a farming philosophy where , by combining the advantages of perennial industrial plant and foraging animals , living — all life sentence : plant , animal and human — would thrive .
Not everything was a success ! Every farm has its stories , some queer , some tragical . There was the Elia they succeeded in bind to a loath mother , only to have it get entrap in a manger the next mean solar day . Before the Piés discovered the problem the midget animal was dead .
“ What made it bad was that we had seen it get into that spot once before . ” Anna enjoin . “ That taught us an important deterrent example : What an animal will do once , it will do again . Do n’t give it a second chance to get into the same trouble . ”
The heritage Mangalitsa pigs were a sound fit for the Piés ’ silvopasture platform and procreate readily . Soon there were pig to sell — until there were n’t .
“ One day , just a week before the young pigs were going to ship , I went up the Benny Hill to move their fence , and they were survive , ” Dave says . “ Six half - grown Mangas — just like that . ”
He had gotten out of the habit of making sure the single strand of polytwine that enclosed the pigs ’ paddock was delivering the appropriate charge . Unnoticed , the priming coat telegram came loose , and with the fence compromise , a single string of white string was all that restrained the livestock . It was n’t long before the pigs work out out the fencing was n’t hot and vamoosed .
The idea of the eight months of purchased provender the pigs represented , now unrecoverable , was more than discouraging . The household research for hour , but the pigs had vanished . They give up Bob Hope of reckon their stock again , but , a hebdomad by and by , neighbors call with the word that the prodigal pig were in their front yard .
The Pié home turned out en masse . Six hours spent convincing the pigs to load up in the drone could not put a muffler on Dave ’s jubilation : “ I memorize how to dilute pigs , ” he says .
The irregular loss of the Mangas drove home a meaning rationale both ecological and economic . Too dandy a dependance on buy inputs compromise the viability of agriculture and , by annexe , their hard - won life-time .
The Piés beganfermenting their slob ’ foodto increase alimentary availability and palatableness and saw their feed use cut in one-half .
They sold more pig , to bring the beast ’ provender requirements in better balance with their value to the farm .
The principle can be extended . Knowing that the shortfall in most forages is in protein cognitive content , the Piés project to habituate their dairy ruck to produce farm - sourced protein for all their livestock .
Grass is free . Cows turn it into Milk River for nothing . And because milk is a preferred food for pigs , chickens , dog and cats , feed Milk River to the farm ’s omnivores and carnivores leverages grass to feed everyone : innocent grass , free milk , free food .
It ’s win - profits - winnings . Shawn & Beth Dougherty
Paying the Bills
The Piés may have moved apace once the determination to relocate had been made , but they were well placed to make the shift . Not having any debt was their most pregnant reward .
“ We always scrimped to ante up down any loans , ” Anna says , and Dave agrees : “ We live simply . ” grease one’s palms a farmhouse much in motive of remodeling was completely in character . Their pickup , more than 20 years old , would never deliver the goods a lulu contest , but it runs faithfully .
These the great unwashed do not self - key as their belongings .
start even before their wedding , they madesmart investments , with an emphasis on rentalproperties . This and on-line consulting work meantthat the couplet could begin their farming life witha modest but secure income . They wanted tobuild their farm the room nature would do it . stay fresh their living expenses temperate andtying them to a stable off - farm income was key .
Life rule No . 1 : Do n’t put yourself in a placement where you have to opt between sticking to proficient farming principles or paying the bills . When it ’s a pick between political economy and bionomics , in the short ravel , economics wins every time .
It is n’t just intellectual nourishment protection that drives the Piés . Dave ’s researches into federal farm insurance are n’t forgotten . “ Bucking the system ” ingathering to these autonomous thinker . And fuck that their family eats the good intellectual nourishment there is ranks only a trivial above the noesis that because they raise their own food they have choices .
Those who prey themselves can , to at least an extent , call their own shots . In the wake of national shortfall of all kinds , and with governmental mandates make out as heavyset as locust in the seventeenth year , increase the farm ’s independency just make horse sense .
understand more : Get to live the Mangalitsa pig stock !
Looking to the Future
Assisi Farms , as Dave and Anna have named their new home space ( after a chivalric Italian saint who honored animals as his brothers and sister ) , is only beginning to show the Piés ’ plans for it . Dave ’s professional experience will be used to start an on - farm distillery .
They already grow fruit . Anyone can have alcoholic yeasts for free . They ’re also start out to make architectural plan with friends who have expertness in large animal butchery and gourmet cooking : mayhap a restaurant or an event venue .
Other aspect of the farm , they hope , will also begin to generate a surplus , which can be reverse into cash profit . But nothing will convince the Piés to compromise the farm ’s ecologic balance .
“ We ’re not in this to make a million , ” Dave say firmly . Anna nods in agreement . They had money back in city . Today , they ’re sure there ’s more real wealth in good neighbors , a strong community and goodish soil . They have n’t forgotten Dave ’s founding father ’ run-in : “ expend less fourth dimension push a plough and more time crashing . ”
The Piés and their land life story are bloom .
More Information
It used to be common to see hogs rear as a side bunco game to grove or vineyard , and the Piés plan to resurrect this good example . Operations such as vineyards , cideries and still seasonally produce large amounts of fruit or food grain waste matter — pomace , mash or must .
Such “ waste ” resources are often just dumped or compost . By feeding these spare nutrients to pigs , farmers can secure a 2d harvesting — pork — off a single resource .
On Dave and Anna Pié ’s Assisi Farm in eastern Ohio , the best-loved stock is cattle . “ I never cerebrate I ’d be raise cows , ” Dave says , but the efficiency of these large herbivores win him over .
kine combine a boniface of desirable trait : They consume what the farm require to uprise , while their skimming style is suited to reclaim neglected pasture .
And then there ’s the Milk River ! The everyday harvest of angelical , raw Milk River enthrall the family and supplements the dieting of almost all the beast on the farm .
This article in the beginning appeared in the January / February 2022 issue ofHobby Farmsmagazine .
