Organic Vegetable Gardening by the Acres

It's hard for me to explain the feeling we had when we first grew vegetables from the seed. Planning out our design for the garden and picking weeds in the arid heat of summer gave us a gratitude we'd never quite known before. Carrying reddish-orange tomatoes and zucchini much bigger than we had ever imagined, we saw that growing organically didn't have to be a battle at all to get wonderful large vegetables.

Being self-sufficient was one of our goals on the farm, so it was much more satisfying to know that we could grow our own food successfully. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight; we had to learn through trial and error. When we first started out, we put our seeds in egg cartons with fresh planting soil and misted them several times a day. Despite us caring for them as best we could, along with placing them near a window for sunlight, they refused to grow. So we began planting the many varieties of vegetable seeds as direct sow in the ground. The seeds grew much better outside and we discovered a lot about gardening through our adversities. Soon enough, our vegetables were ready to harvest. As my sisters and I began collecting the food, we were amazed to see how massive our zucchini and squash were. Our abundant, abnormally large zucchini grown in healthy, non-pesticide soil made us ponder the reason why commercial farmers even use chemicals to protect their food from pests when there are so many other natural ways to protect vegetables. As we brought baskets of heirloom tomatoes, lettuces, garlic, potatoes, strawberries, zucchini and pumpkins, we realized that this incredible experience not only taught us to become more self-sufficient, but it also made a great impact on the foods we ate, including improved nutritional value.

We made our own tomato sauce, enjoyed a breakfast of pumpkin muffins too good to eat and made our own zucchini pasta which tasted way better than the regular type and was much more healthy. We hardly ever went to the grocery, since everything we had was on our farm. We could have hired helpers and planned out the design better, but there’s no better feeling than doing it yourself. The feeling of accomplishment as my sisters and I pick fresh herbs was indescribable and seasonally rewarding. We hope to grow longer through seasons as we add greenhouses and cold frames to our orchard and creamery.

This farm is one of the best experiences I’ve had - from learning the growth of vegetables to endless amounts of science. For our farm, we plan to extend the amount of fruits and vegetables to about 10 to 15 acres of our 30 acre farm. People can enjoy fresh off the vine berries and tons of vegetable that will be grown organically in the years to come. We invite people from all over the world to enjoy fresh, organic grown food on our working farm. Here at Golden Harvest Orchard and Creamery, we hope that people will cherish our food as the years go by. We’ll continue nourishing our beautiful ecosystem, we call home.