Little Farm In The Big Woods

Mary Jean with her goats in the woods

When I was six, my Mum read my Brother and I the classic children's tale Little House in the Big Woods. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder (February 7, 1867 – February 10, 1957) was an American author who wrote the series of books documenting her pioneer childhood. In the 1860's her father cleared woodland and farmed both crops and livestock near Pepin in Wisconsin. When Laura was six the family moved west to better farm land and opportunities. Their tale is a lesson in how hard farming can be and how resourceful the pioneers were.
In the Pocono Mountains in Northern Pennsylvania similar wood clearance occured and productive farming produced food for the urban populations of the East coast. Nowadays the area is woodland again, regenerated in the last 65 years as farming become uneconomic and the areas mainly residential.
On a scorching hot morning I hitched a lift to visit a 100 acre farm near Henryville. This was farmed by young couple Jeff and Mary Jean who inherited the farm from Jeff's grandfather. Here, where there was little soil, abundance of rocks and many trees, they were trying to recreate the fields that would have been cleared in the 1860's. Through the trees there are vast heaps of stones that form the field boundaries, these are the rocks cleared each year as the extreme frosts bought more to the surface each winter.
For the last 4 years they have been selling free range eggs and vegetables locally, but were yet to make a living. To make the farm viable they had invested Jeff's 'trust fund' in a building that included a goat milking parlour, cheese preparation room and a cheese cave. It really was a lovely building clad with wood from the farm and with a wood furnace to heat the water. They are just milking 12 goats to start the enterprise and were waiting to receive the final inspections to allow them to sell raw milk. Then they will increase the numbers to 48 females.
The milk sold in the US is pretty poor and there is a great interest in raw milk for health reasons. Mary Jean was determined that she was going to get her license, both from the economic reasons but also she believed it to be healthier.

I would love to have shown some of the grass obsessed Nuffield Scholars the tiny fields surrounded by tall trees and littered with large stones and I was impressed with young farmers taking an idea, that many would regard as mad and working hard to make it work.

Their wish list included an understanding vet ( they had a certain amount of resistance to being organic) and low cell counts.Veg Field & grass

During my travels in the US a theme seemed to appear of young farmers that were taking risks on marginal land and supplying direct to a customer produce that was unique.
However modern this farming was I still couldn't help feeling that at last, I was living the little House dream that many six year old girls love. How I covert a wooden house with a porch and rocking chair, but i'm not sure Nevil would be happy with black bears wandering around the farm.

Stunning new Goat milking barn and cheese dairy