Growing food in the mountains on a beyond organic homestead
ReportLocation: Ellijay, USA
We generally begin hosting guests in late February/March, but guests who can handle camping in potentially freezing weather are welcome before then. No indoor sleeping space is currently available.We're a small, 3 acre homestead in a cove of the southern Appalachian mountains. We are also forming an intentional community that will eventually expand to encompass multiple properties. We are establishing subsistence farming systems for vegetable, meat, and fruit production and are currently in our second year of work with the property. Visitors get a chance to help us build and establish new projects and then visit later to see the results of their hard work. As of January 2017, we have eight chickens, eight garden beds in rotation planting, two more gardens and an orchard to clear and establish, a long-term guest helping establish new gardens and greenhouses, and much more.
We're happy to teach you about:
Brewing wine and mead, which usually takes place during the late summer and fall but we can show you the equipment and processes any time
Fishing and crawfish trapping
Baking with whole wheat without a lot of work or additives, making yogurt from scratch, canning, fermenting, and other fun food activities
Blacksmithing from making charcoal from scratch to creating finished tools and blades
Wild plant and tree identification
Herbal medicine like tinctures and teas made from wildcrafted, homegrown, and imported herbs
Rustic instrument making - we like to make percussion and stringed instruments out of recycled materials like cans and gourds
Meditation and other spiritual practices
Our homestead is also focused around developing a strong and personal land-based spirituality, so we'd like visitors who are interested in that as well, or at least willing to put up with it. No previous experience or belief system is necessary if you can keep an open mind.
We're bordered by the National Forest (right outside our living room window) and we're just a few miles up the road from Springer Mountain/the beginning of the Appalachian Trail/the Benton MacKaye trail and about 15 miles from Amicalola Falls. There are rivers all around with countless tubing and kayaking rental companies, so you don't have to pack your own equipment to enjoy the waters. This is also the Apple Capital, so you can tour the commercial orchards in your time off to get a different look at agriculture.
We're establishing gardens and hugelkultur growing areas and other permaculture techniques, so there's plenty of rustic fencing, soil turning/amending, and plant starting to do all season long, unlike at more established farms. We've got plans for a second coop and run for a separate flock, and many general landscaping/beautification projects like expanding our frog pond and clearing out the bog for growing cranberries and wild rice.
Camping is only form of accommodations right now because our cabin is too small and rustic for hosting guests. The indoor bathroom is available at all times (keep in mind you're sharing it with four cats and all that entails) and the kitchen is almost entirely outdoors. We eat three meals a day and we're happy to share, and we provide some basic staples for preparing your own meals at other times. We eat omnivorous meals made from a mix of homegrown, conventional, and organic products. We can't provide a lot of extra snacks or specialty foods because we're on a tight budget and the homestead itself doesn't produce any income.
There's two creeks right next to our cabin and a lake just down our road, so it's a good place for swimming, hiking, fishing, and other fun. You can hike up the mountain we're on for breathtaking views if you can handle the steep grade. We're surrounded by outdoor activity opportunities, yet only 2 hours north of Atlanta so you can see the city too in one trip (or just stay for the weekend without a long drive to get home). We are located 20 miles/45 minutes away from town (Ellijay), so you will need your own transportation to get here. There is no cellphone service and we either wash our clothes by hand and line-dry them or take monthly trips to the laundry mat. We have a Skype phone number you can use to receive and make calls when you're here, and there's cell phone service about 10 miles towards town. Our four cats and chicken flock make this place unsuitable for anyone with allergies to either of them.
We cannot accept more than three people at a time, or anyone traveling with pets or children. We're looking for people to help at least 4 hours a day, four or five days a week, and we'd prefer guests who can keep themselves entertained during their free time. We are LGBTQI friendly and accepting of alternative religions - as long as your meditation or bodywork doesn't get in the way of you helping out around the place.
You can see pictures of our work and what we're up to on our blog at howlmountainfarm.tumblr.com
