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THE LAST 44 FARM
Return to the Land
The Last 44
A Farm Origin Story
When we bought our farm in 2015, one of the last agricultural zone parcels left in Blair County, tucked back into the foothills of the Northern ridge of the Alleghnies. The cascading landscape of the 44 acres laid fallow for 30-plus years.
So what does "the land laid fallow" mean? It means the soil has been resting with no outside inputs added to it, no chemicals, no fertilizers, no herbicides, nothing just nature regenerating the fertility of the land.
And that is where we began
Brush-hogging and foraging our goats, chickens, pigs, and cattle on the fields we plowed the land two times to break up the ground to prep it for cultivation. Since then we have operated a NO-TILL method of not disturbing the soil microorganisms active and intact.
We have NEVER used any synthetic chemicals (fertilizers insecticides herbicides) in fact the only inputs we have added are compost (made at the farm and from the local recycling center) biochar (made at the farm) lime, organic fertilizer from Espoma and the occasional rotational grazing of our animals to mimic nature.
Our weed control is done by the tried and true method of hand weeding, solarization and flame weeding. Our pest management (integrated pest management,IPM) we use lady bugs crop rotation and green lace bugs. Our seeds (we grow all of our own seedlings from seed) are certified non-gmo and organic.
Why are we telling you this? We were and are practicing regenerative agriculture before we even knew it was a thing. We are self-taught land stewards. We want to provide wholesome food to our family, friends, and community. We believe in working with the natural cycles, a reciprocal relationship with the land.
We are a small back-to-the-basics farm. We believe someday these ideas will catch on and people will appreciate the work we are doing because the crazy thing is you can get our produce at a price point less than the grocery store. And we promise it tastes a whole lot better!
Thank you for supporting the Last 44 Farm
The Gioiosa's
