A Tale of Two Homesteads
(Page 5 of 6)
August/September 2007
By David Cavagnaro
Almost all the weeds and pests were new to us, but by carefully observing life cycles and behaviors, we were soon able to determine the best times for successful organic or mechanical interventions. We soon felt we had a reasonable handle on growing and storing food in a climate that was tropical in summer and arctic in winter. The full measure of this new knowledge could not mature, however, until we settled on a permanent homestead.
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A HEAVENLY HOMESTEAD IN IOWA
After we’d been in Iowa four years, we found a beautiful farm available from a dairyman who was retiring and moving to town. It had 220 acres of rolling hills, forest and farm fields, with the region’s second largest river running through it. The property also contained a perfect, five-acre valley that was protected from the violent westerly thunderstorms that ravaged our first, more exposed, farm. We looked at the land at 9 p.m. one summer night and had the papers signed by 9 a.m. the next morning. The original farmhouse was right on the county road and didn’t quite serve our needs, but we had our sights on that protected little valley. The following year we built a house there and began establishing an orchard, vineyard and garden, as well as a large root cellar.
We began to realize that we were not the same people who lived a subsistence life at Pippindale. My life as a photographer was now much fuller, and I was still managing a huge garden project and crew at Seed Savers Exchange. Joanie had a busy massage practice, Pippin was in high school, and Carina was growing fast. There simply was not time to do everything for ourselves as we did in California. There was also a choice to make about animals.
At Pippindale, we’d gone back and forth about raising animals. Raising our own meat and dairy products taught us that eating high on the food chain is costly in terms of our footprint on the land, and sometimes we thought that our diet contained too much meat and dairy. Here in Iowa, we had already chosen to rent out the original farmhouse, along with its attendant dairy barn and outbuildings, so if we wanted animal pens and shelters, we would have to build new ones. We also quickly discovered that we were surrounded by neighbors eager to sell organic and free-range meat and poultry. We decided to eat less meat, and buy what we did eat from friends and neighbors.
With a large garden and root cellar, we now enjoy nearly as much fresh year-round produce as we had in California, in addition to what we dry, freeze and can. The orchard and vineyard are less varied here in my Zone 3 valley because far fewer kinds of fruit and grapes survive winter. However, we still enjoy a wide variety of both, as well as an ample selection of berries. All this produce shows the benefits of healthy soil and organic practices, and having a diversity of ingredients on hand year-round makes for easy and creative cooking. Because I do so much horticultural photography, I’ve devoted much of my newly developed garden space to ornamentals. Over the years, both flower and vegetable gardens have provided ever-changing palates for the photographs and accumulating experience for the articles that provide my livelihood.
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