Putting Their Eggs in Many Different Baskets

To stay on the land they love, these farmers know that they must be creative.

By Walter Nicholls • Photos by Molly McDonald Peterson

For many of today’s boutique farmers in the Capital foodshed, variety is the key to survival. Making a go of it—making the day pay—requires diverse revenue streams and the figurative ability to gently collect an egg with one hand and crack a walnut with the other. In addition to producing agricultural products, some farmers teach and demonstrate their varied talents with an open gate to visitors. Many are obliged to be unique and unusual, with some throwing a seasonal corn maze or petting zoo into the mix. We found two special farms, where day and night blend into one, where chores never seem to end. And that’s just the way these farmers like it.

SYCAMORE SPRING FARM Frederick, MD

Sycamore Springs' Carol Rollman with freshly picked radishes. (Photo © Molly McDonald Peterson)

Seven years ago, ultrasound technician Carol Rollman made a decision that not only changed her life but, she believes, saved it. The North Carolina native, who 27 years ago moved her four children into a 280-year-old log homestead on seven and a half acres in Frederick, Maryland, was diagnosed with the low bonemineral density condition osteopenia. Today her highly diverse Sycamore Spring Farm provides both a steady income and a means to teach others how to stay well.

“When I got the diagnosis, I didn’t want to take chemical drugs the rest of my life. Instead, I bought a goat for the milk and to make cheese, and my bone density went up and up,” says Rollman as she gives a tour of the barnyard, where heritage breed tom turkeys strut past a flock of guinea fowl, bringing raucous squawks. Chickens poke out of the woods. “I was 48, closing in on 50, and I said to myself, ‘If I don’t do this farm operation now, I’ll never do it.’ Then I went gangbusters.”

With full speed and energy, she researched the best heirloom breeds of a variety of farm animals, attended agriculture and beekeeping classes, gained certification as a tester for poultry diseases, and learned the how-to of butchering and soapmaking. Soon she was working her land 16 hours a day, seven days a week. “The idea,” says Rollman, “was to be as selfsufficient as possible and have my lifestyle pay for itself.” Her 22-year-old son, Christopher Chung, and her 17-year-old daughter, Olivia Chung, help with chores on weekends.

The family acreage is dense with both funky and historic outbuildings, barns, sheds, and coops for heritage breeds of rabbit, geese, and her beloved goats. Customers come to the farm by appointment for fresh meat, which is butchered on the spot. She leases a nearby 54-acre farm for her herd of 20 Scottish Highland cattle. (There is a 10-year waiting list for beef, which she sells at premium prices.) More than 50 dozen eggs go out the gate each week.

Riding a wave to total sustainability, Rollman has added classes in canning, butchering, cheesemaking, and fermentation of foods over the last several years. Additional income comes from her goat boarding program and dairy maid services, giving those who want it legal access to raw goat milk.

At Sycamore, neat fenced plots are in place for a wide variety of heirloom vegetables. Rollman started a 22-week community supported agriculture (CSA) program three years ago, with not only vegetables, but also niceties such as sunflowers, walnuts, and pears. This season there were 25 members. Plans for the coming year include doubling the size of the CSA and providing delivery service within an hour’s drive of the farm. Talks are underway with several nearby farmers who will produce other crops, such as corn, which she has no room for.

Rollman says her greatest challenge is finding farm workers to help with the endless chores. Few have lasted for long. “For this to work and grow, I have to find someone who cares about more than an hourly wage,” she says. “For this job, you need passion.”

Sycamore Spring Farm

Frederick, MD

(301) 788-6980

www.sycamorespringfarm.org

BELLE MEADE Sperryville, VA

In 1993, Alexandria resident and newspaper distributor Mike Biniek and D.C. resident and school teacher Susan Hoffman were returning from a weekend date in Madison, Virginia, when they took a bend on scenic F.T. Valley Road in Rappahannock County and spotted an enormous Victorian house with an enticing “For Sale” sign. “Let’s buy a farm,” Hoffman recalls calling out.

And that’s when these two future farmers, then in their early 40s, began a discussion of what they would do with 138- acres of fertile, rolling land with a terrific view of Shenandoah National Park’s Old Rag Mountain. In short order, they married and moved into the cream-colored, 5,500-square-foot clapboard house, filled with well-preserved architectural detail.

With little farming experience, their first thought for making a living on the property was to start a kids’ summer camp and a bed-and-breakfast, which were both in place in two years’ time. Still, they projected that not enough money would come in on a yearly basis. “It became pretty obvious that the camp and bedand- breakfast wouldn’t provide enough income to be here,” says Biniek. “There were pieces that needed to come together, and I didn’t have strong ideas of how to make farming pay.”

Inspiration came in 1995 when the couple attended a Virginia Biological Farming Conference, which included a tour of acclaimed innovator Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farms in Augusta County. “That was our introduction to a small-scale, diversified farm,” says Biniek. They took away expertise on where to spend money first (on farm animals) and what can wait until later (fencing). The possibility of sustainability hit home after they saw for themselves how Salatin rotated his animals from one pasture to the next, naturally fertilizing as they went.

At Belle Meade, there are now 60 head of cattle, five pigs, 250 laying hens, and a seasonal flock of 150 turkeys. A one-anda- half-acre organic vegetable garden produces a wide variety of vegetables as well as strawberries and raspberries. Much of the meat and produce is purchased by the Airlie Conference Center in nearby Warrenton. “They are serious about buying local,” says Hoffman. Local stores sell the eggs.

After purchasing, moving, and renovating a 1914 schoolhouse on an adjoining property, Biniek and Hoffman opened Belle Meade School in 2007, offering both academics and a hands-on farm education. It now has 25 students, in grades six to ten. Six horses are on hand for the school’s riding program. The charming school building also hosts regular classes in yoga and ballet and is rented for weddings, workshops, and meetings. Guests who stay in the five-room bed-and-breakfast, with its distinctive red trim and sky-blue tin roof, have the option to lounge and swim in an enormous pool or in a one-and-a-halfacre pond stocked with bass, bluegill, and catfish.

The couple says their greatest challenge is raising the agricultural revenue from the beef and increasing the size of the herd. “The dance is first—how to produce it—and then, how to sell it,” says Biniek. “I enjoy raising animals. But what I can produce and provide isn’t in a steady enough stream.” From the start, financing the expansion has been paved with hard-to-get loans and mounting debt.

Fortunately, the camp and school provide plenty of hands to help with the chores as well as families who are encouraged to purchase the production of the fields.

Belle Meade School, Farm, and Bed & Breakfast

353 F.T. Valley Road, Sperryville, VA

(540) 987-9748

www.bellemeade.net

Walter Nicholls is a former staff reporter for the Washington Post. A native Washingtonian, he has written about farms, food markets, and restaurants for 21 years. He resides in both the Georgetown section of Washington and on an historic homestead in Rappahannock County, Virginia. In addition to contributing to Flavor, Nicholls writes for Chesapeake Life and DC and for the web site BizBash.

MANY VARIATIONS ON THE SAME THEME

MARYLAND Several farms, such as Maryland Sunrise Farm in Gambrills (www.mdsunrisefarm.com) and Bowles Farms in Clements (www.bowlesfarms.com), have seasonal corn mazes and host birthday parties and meetings. The newest attraction at the 540-acre Clark’s Elioak Farm in Ellicott City (www.clarklandfarm.com) is the “Enchanted Forest Pine Tree Maze.” Characters and buildings from an old amusement park are spread throughout the property. The far smaller 33-acre Summer Creek Farm in Thurmont (www.summercreekfarm.com), which specializes in organic vegetables and grains, has recently added a line of gardening supplies, such as farm tools and organic potting soil. Calvert County’s Serenity Farm (www.serenityfarminc.com) is developing a farm museum and renovating a barn as a venue for events.

VIRGINIA A self-guided farm tour and kids’ educational scavenger hunt started this year at Chicama Run farm in Purcellville (www.chicamarun.com). In nearby Berryville, Smith Meadows Meats (www.smithmeadows.com) has value-added chicken pot pies and beef chili. On April 1, 2010, the Remington dairy operation Cool Lawn Farms (www.cowsatcoollawnfarm.com) will open a retail store, selling ice cream made with their grass-fed milk. Goodwin Creek Farm & Bakery (www.aftonvirginia.com) grows produce, raises laying hens, and produces handmade breads and granola. The owners diversified by adding bakery products after crops were devastated by deer. At Eco-Ridge Farm (www.echoridgefarm.org) in Middletown, pick up a CSA share, hold an event on the grounds or in the 19th-century barn, or shop at the nursery. An orchard will be ready soon.