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Explore the farm online
Our thanks to Cat Szalkowski for her deep
interest in our farm & lives, for the time and effort she put into
this project, and for allowing us to share it. |
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About Eric & Joanna Reuter
We are often asked, “So, did you grow up on a farm?” The answer is no, though our rural families did have large gardens, and there are several farms in Eric's family. We are part of the new generation of farmers armed with advanced degrees in fields that are marginally relevant to our new chosen profession (landscape geology in our case). We have the desire and ability to learn what we need to know by reading books, attending conferences, using Google, networking with other farmers, and making the most of direct observations, common sense, and critical thinking. In the end, learning to grow and market high quality food is relatively straightforward compared to attempting to understand the morass of regulations and tax laws that we must abide by as direct-market farmers. We greatly value being able to work together as a couple on a day-to-day basis. The skills we use as farmers are diverse, and we each have strengths and specialties that we bring to the business. Eric tends to be the public face of the business (writing the blog, designing the website, selling at market, responding to email, and handling media contacts). He also is in charge of most infrastructure and animal management. Joanna does more behind-the-scenes work, taking primary responsibility for the plants (selecting varieties, developing and implementing the planting plan, monitoring and identifying problems, and saving seed). She also takes charge on the recordkeeping (organic & otherwise), scheduling, and accounting fronts. We share the load when it comes to repetitive tasks and grunt work, as well as janitorial and maintenance tasks. When we're not working, we share most hobbies including hiking, canoeing, birding, cooking, & skating, and interests in local history and railfanning. |
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Landscape & setting Chert Hollow Farm is set in a narrow, rocky, Ozark-type valley with bottomland fields along a winding stream and upland slopes covered in a mix of grassland and forest. Our landscape and ecology are quite diverse, and we are working to integrate our farming operations into the natural world already present. The land was actively farmed into the 1940s, but much of it has since been reclaimed by cedars, brush, and forest. The farm is underlain by diverse bedrock, including limestone, shale, abundant chert, and multiple coal seams. Our soil is officially a silty loam, though the clay content is quite noticeable. The narrow valley location produces its own microclimate; our fields get frosts a month earlier or later than ridgeline locations, but winds are also weaker and less damaging. Perhaps most importantly for organic farming, the valley setting helps isolate us from outside contamination by wind-blown pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other activities from conventional agricultural operations. |
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Vegetable production
We have three main production areas: an intensively managed market garden (left), a larger vegetable field (right), and an orchard area being developed for both fruits and produce. Most areas are managed without tillage, though we are testing a tillage field in 2010. In addition to our market & restaurant sales, we grow and preserve a significant amount of our household's year-round food supply. Organic, sustainable management is core to everything we do on-farm. |
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Livestock & poultry In 2008 we began keeping goats, chickens, and geese for our own use and for the benefit of the farm. The manure and bedding generated from these animals helps fertilize our produce, their grazing helps manage our pastures, and the experience we gain working with them now will benefit us down the road as we increase their population. All animals are kept on range and fed as natural a diet as possible. The chickens provide quality eggs and meat year-round. The geese are excellent grazers and should raise young geese for future meat sales. The dairy goats currently provide us with milk (for cheese and yogurt), and kids for meat. We cannot legally or economically sell any of these products at this time, as government regulations forbid the sale of cheese or meat produced in an unlicensed facility (it would cost us around $50,000 to erect a minimally legal dairy facility), but at least we can supply our own kitchen. We also see these as research and learning projects, allowing us the potential to expand and invest in commercial meat or dairy production someday. |
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Orchard & fruit
While we have some wild fruit on-farm, we are working to establish domestic fruit production. We are currently clearing cedars from an overgrown pasture to make way for berries, brambles, and an orchard. The first plantings took place in 2009, with additions through many years to come. The photo at right shows the site of first berry plantings. |
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Logging & future land
use This land was last truly farmed before World War II. Since that time, thick stands of cedars and brush have encroached upon many of the old fields and pastures. We are slowly working to reclaim these areas, both for agricultural use and for restoration of native prairie. We work hard to conduct our logging and clearing activities in a sustainable manner. We chip most cedar branches for mulch, use small-medium logs for fence posts, and have the larger logs milled for posts and lumber; burning only some unchippable scrap. In general, we only haul logs when the ground is frozen or dry. These efforts take more effort than the usual bulldoze-and-burn method of clearing land, but they minimize waste and soil disturbance while saving us significant money over purchasing mulch, posts, and lumber. In addition, targeted burnings of the remaining brush help us kill unwanted stump sprouts without the need for poison treatments. This is a good example of the interconnected nature of our farm management methods. |
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Food & cooking
We strive to produce and preserve as much of our own food as possible, from basics like produce and meat to products like cheese and sauerkraut. Ingredients we can't produce we attempt to source locally, such as wheat flour from a grower known to us. Starting in 2008, our dairy goats have allowed us to regularly make yogurt and a variety of cheeses, including ricotta, mozzarella, cheddar, and feta. We have begun growing our own drying beans, as well as dent corn for cornbread and polenta. We do our own butchering on-farm, from animals we raise or hunt, preparing and freezing it in ways that suit our tastes and needs. Sourcing the majority of our food on-farm is another aspect of the integrated sustainable model we are working to enact. We use very few processed foods, and none which contain corn syrup or long ingredient lists. Our primary food purchases year-round are simple staples like juice, butter, rice, oil, spices, and so on. Good cooking using fresh, farm-based ingredients yields an amazingly diverse, tasty, and healthy diet. |
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Long-term changes Natural landscapes are always changing, though the process is not always clear at any given time. We have initiated a long-term project using digital photography to document the condition of our land from the beginning. From a set of standard points, we take a series of photos at known compass points that can be replicated over time to document changes over seasons and years. The full collection of these images is too large for this web site, but we will feature a few of the more interesting locations here. Currently available: |
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