Piedmont Organics

So Lindsay and I have wanted a farm for several years now. But the impetus behind our sudden drive for one was this article. It's about a program matching young aspiring hicks like us with older people who are looking to retire. It's got some shocking statistics about how the average age of farmers is 57 and 30 percent of them are over 65 and on and on.

Now, we could pretend that this alarmed us and we need to stem the tied of dying, small-scale farmers, but the fact is we just saw our dream life floating in the concept of "farm matchmaking."

It took some doing (you know, googling) to find out what these programs are actually called. FarmLink. Most states seem to have an individual program and they each have their own requirements (and fees). Some only want state residents, some only want experienced farmers.

One of the most accessible programs we found was the Virginia FarmLink. It's all online and we didn't have to pay an enrollment fee. The process is, we hunt down listings we like and contact the owners with our profile. So far it's actually yeilding responses. One woman, who sounds like one of the greatest, craziest firecrackers in the world, really wants us to come out. However, she hasn't worked much of her land yet and doesn't have anyone else and spends most of her time fending off locals who want to use her land for hunting and poisoning her dogs. It's a sad but hopeful tale, and though we would love to join her, we just don't think we have the experience yet. We'll probably talk more about her later because she is an awesome prospect.

Another one we got was an invitation to Piedmont Organics. This place looks absolutely perfect. The land is ready for mixed-use ... use. It's got most of its commercial viability already set up (delivery trucks, website, near D.C., etc.). It's raring to go (seriously, raring).

The problem is that it's for rent. They want $850/mo. for the house. For that, you would get access to all the land, the equipment, and there would be some people around to help train you.

But Lindsay and I have norhing to start with. So we're scheming. Maybe we could host the place like a timeshare, where people pay to have a place for a month or so. Or maybe we could go public just to support ourselves in the beginning and then buyout the shares once we've established our business. Or maybe we just move there and glue ourselves to the furniture and see if no one notices.

We're looking into it.

We could run the artists retreat. We could run it as a community farm or a teaching farm or a resort farm or maybe just grow sorghum (by which I mean hookers; Simpsons reference, look it up).

If anyone has any ideas, please share. Thanks!