Hartlein Family Farm - Archer, FL - Oct. 1993
| Back Roads to Meliora |
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Inspecting farms for the organic food industry led me out, way beyond where the pavement ends.
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Hartlein Family Farm - Archer, FL - Oct. 1993
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Shannandoa Valley, Robert Ferguson Farm - Brownsburg, VA - spr. 1994
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Early on as a farm inspector, not knowing a whole lot about farming,
I relied heavily on Ben Williamson of Oaklyn Plantation. |
Oaklyn Plantation - family swimmin' hole along Black River - spr.1991
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I often traveled to his
farm to spend the day seeing practical applications of basic farming principles in cultivation, planting, harvesting & seed saving. Ben had a tremendous impact on me as an inspector & how I went about my work over the next 12 years. |
Ben & I enjoying our picnic
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On this trip down, Dad tagged along with me, bringing a picnic lunch. Ben took us down to the family's
swimmin' hole on the Black River to eat. Dad asked him, "You've farmed all your life. What is the most valuble thing you've learned?" Without hesitation Ben smiled a thin grin, "What worked last year - won't work this year." |
Black River, Oaklyn Plantation - Darlington, SC - spr.1991
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So, from an 'ol farmer I learned something about meliora - the act of getting better.
Meliora is not any one act. It must be an activity.
It was here, along the Black River, as I looked down this quiet corridor of poplars, oaks,
cypress & spainish moss, that I heard Ben answer my father.
Another
Back
Road
to
Meliora