I have never lived on a farm, and I probably never will. I’m okay with that. The house where I grew up was on two acres completely surrounded by dairy farms, and I’ve worked with enough farmers to know that they work harder than I do or want to. I’m delighted to be a member of a CSA and a regular shopper at the Toledo Farmers Market. But this weekend I jumped at the chance to visit the farm that produces the eggs, chickens, and the pork I’ve purchased this season. The drive out to Weber Ranch was about 40 minutes, much of it alongside fields of undoubtedly-GMO corn. I passed several men on riding mowers, diligently maintaining lawns guaranteed to be hostile to all wildlife, including birds and pollinators. I saw a lot of sprawl. But then I arrived at the ranch. We loaded my chickens (15, for the winter) into my coolers, and then I had a tour!
Tony and Michelle Weber are first-generation farmers, and they purchased the farm just a couple of years ago. It’s an old farm which has had only a few owners, and they’ve been able to learn a little bit about its history. Although it’s not the one pictured, the farm did have a windmill, as well as a water tower and a smoke house.
Like all the Weber’s animals, the chickens spend most of their time outside, but this, the farm’s original homestead, is where the chickens brood. Not, of course, in the Shakespearean sense, but where they lay their eggs and raise their chicks.
The pigs were enjoying corn cobs and looking forward to pumpkins but will soon be turned out to forage in the woods where they will get acorns as well. They’re Berkshires, and I can vouch for their deliciousness. Honestly, I can no longer enjoy grocery-store meat, and without the Webers and other local farmers I’d probably be a vegetarian.
Next door is a field of beans, and even after 40+ years in Ohio I was struck by its flatness. I buy beans from Rancho Gordo in California, and, judging from the wide choice of heirloom varieties offered there, I don’t think their growers are mono-culturing like most Northwest Ohio farmers.
The grapes on our vines at home have never survived the deer, but at Weber Ranch the dogs scare off the deer and the chickens take care of the insect grubs, so Michelle’s harvest was enough for her to make grape juice and jam. I made grape jam this year too, from seedless grapes I found at the store, but only 3 jars and I’ve already given away two!
Apparently deer don’t like most herbs, so when I got home I made Chicken Provencal with chicken from Weber Ranch and herbs from my garden. I’m grateful for both.
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac